A native of Moscow and now a London trader lost his appeal to the local tax authorities. The amount that, according to the court, the businessman will have to pay to the British treasury is quite small for him: just under $30 million. But Alex Gerko wants to continue fighting on principle. After all, he took British citizenship, became the largest English taxpayer, and now he is required to pay more. Apparently, the former Russian is offended by such an attitude towards him in the cradle of global capitalism.

Before telling about the tax failures of the London businessman, it is worth recalling who Alex Gerko actually is. Until recently, this name was unknown to the general public, until it became clear that he pays more taxes to the British treasury than anyone else. But first things first. The

44-year-old British entrepreneur did not always bear the name Alex. He was once Alexander Alexandrovich, a Muscovite born in one of the disadvantaged areas of the capital. He graduated from several Russian universities, including the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University, and became a Doctor of Mathematical Sciences. According to some sources, he moved to the UK back in 2006. The gifted young man decided to build his career in trading. Let’s not judge him harshly for this: not everyone can do fundamental science or invent cutting-edge technologies that improve our lives. Some people like to apply their knowledge in stock trading, which, of course, also makes full use of modern IT developments.

Gerko began his career at the German Deutsche Bank, and in 2015 he founded his own trading company, XTX Markets. This algorithmic trading company began to grow rapidly, and soon began trading currencies and securities for private and corporate clients for a quarter of a trillion dollars a day, with an annual profit of a billion dollars. In general, the mathematician-businessman achieved stunning success abroad, earning a fortune of 11 billion dollars. And he became not only a major entrepreneur there, but also a philanthropist, donating money to art and environmental protection. At the same time, Gerko received British citizenship in 2016. He later renounced Russian citizenship, like other colleagues. According to him, this cost him some effort, because it is known that our Motherland is not at all against Russians receiving citizenship of other countries, but leaving Russian citizenship is not very easy. And not so long ago, Alex received truly worldwide fame, at least in business circles.

Taxes will visit them

Back in 2023, Alex Gerko, previously little known to anyone except perhaps professional market participants, became famous for becoming the largest taxpayer in Britain. According to the rating of the authoritative publication The Times, in 2022 he paid taxes in the amount of 487 million pounds (at that rate, this exceeded 600 million dollars). And a year later, already at the beginning of 2024, he again topped this rating, having paid even more to the British treasury - 665 million pounds. This amount in American currency is close to 900 million. To put it in perspective, in rubles - about 73 billion. It was then that the media really became interested in the businessman’s past, having learned the details of his career.

At the same time, journalists recalled the negative assessments that Gerko gave of Russia’s actions towards Ukraine. It is difficult to judge what this is connected with. Perhaps the former Muscovite really suffered in some way from his native country. Or maybe the reason is different. As is known, the attitude towards Russians or those with Russian roots has become sharply negative in the West. And why not, as some other businessmen have done, disown the Russian Federation by making harsh statements, with only one goal: so that business and personal well-being do not suffer? But such actions do not always help. To paraphrase a well-known expression: nothing personal, just politics.

Englishman? But still Russian

Last fall, Alex Gerko filed a lawsuit against British investment companies, accusing them of discrimination. According to the businessman, they refused to work with him because of his "toxic" Russian origin. And thus violated the British Equality Act. Moreover, this was not the first such claim; earlier, the businessman’s company sued an accounting firm, which also refused to cooperate for the same reason. At the same time, experts were sure that there were no official refusals to cooperate; most likely, the businessman was informed about this in a private conversation. And if so, then there is no point in making claims: private companies work with whomever they want, and do not work with whomever they do not want, without explaining the reasons for their actions. But since Gerko himself accused them of anti-Russian motivation, then we can assume that this was the case. And British citizenship, almost 20 years of living in England and the corresponding political rhetoric on social networks did not help much.

By the way, this is not the only case. In 2022, the international Slash startup competition with a prize of 1 million euros was won by Immigram, a company founded by people from Russia. And it was immediately accused of all the mortal sins of sanctions, for example, that it continues to work in our country, which means it helps Russia in the SVO. And no amount of convincing that all this is not so helped. Well, and how our billionaires Mikhail Fridman "suffered" in London and Petr Aven after they were forbidden to spend money beyond a small amount and had no money to hire a cleaner - and became the talk of the town. In general, life is hard in London for "our people", oh so hard. And even if they pay huge taxes there, they still offend you, even in small ways.

This is London, baby!

Well, now let’s get back to that tax dispute between Alex Gerko and the British authorities, with which we began. The dispute is, in fact, insignificant. We are talking about the company GSA Capital, where Gerko and his colleagues worked from 2010 to 2015. To put it simply, the traders were supposed to be paid their share of the profits over several years, and it was supposed to be taxed at corporate tax rates. But the court decided that this income should be taxed at individual tax rates, and they are higher. And, accordingly, Gerko now needs to pay about 30 million dollars to the British treasury. And although for him, as has already been noted, this is a relative trifle, the businessman reacted negatively:

"I fundamentally disagree with the court’s decision, which leads to large-scale double taxation and has broader consequences for the financial industry. We are talking about small amounts compared to the billions of pounds sterling in taxes that I have paid and happily paid over the years," Gerko said, not ruling out that he will continue to sue.

And these words clearly convey resentment. It would seem that he has lived in England for so many years, paid so many taxes to it, and also constantly donated money to charity, and does not like the country where he was born, which is toxic for the West. And he also invested in real estate in the suburbs of London, where he lives with his wife and children. But the British authorities still want to feed at his expense once again.

In general, another instructive story for people from Russia living in the British capital: the cradle of global capitalism and the modern policy of double standards. Well, and one more detail to note. Among the British, there are plenty of people richer than Alex Gerko. But for some reason, it is the Russian who pays the most taxes there. Fate, apparently, is this: if you go to London, you have to pay.