The findings, released Nov. 16 by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME), confirm that Dan Rapoport died on Aug. 14 after falling from a height, but do not definitively explain the circumstances that led to his death. Washington, D.C. police told RFE/RL that the investigation into his death has ended and declined further comment. Earlier this year, a police spokeswoman told RFE/RL that foul play was not suspected, but that final conclusions were pending an autopsy. Rapoport’s untimely death sparked much speculation because he had expressed support for arch-Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny before fleeing Russia and, while living in Kyiv in recent years, was a staunch supporter of Ukraine and an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Washington Metropolitan Police found Rapoport’s body Aug. 14 on the sidewalk outside 2400 M Street, a nine-story apartment building on the city’s northwest side. The medical examiner’s report said Rapoport, 52, died of “multiple blunt force trauma from a fall from a height” and described the death as “sudden/unexplained.” The report also said his manner of death was “undetermined.” OCME said no other information would be immediately released. A preliminary police report said officers responded to a report of a “jumper” on the evening of Aug. 14 and the man, later identified as Rapoport, was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The apartment building has an open roof terrace with a swimming pool, running track and living area for the residents. The police report said officers found $2,620 in cash on Rapoport when they discovered his body on the sidewalk, along with headphones, a broken cell phone, a Florida driver’s license and other items. He was wearing flip-flops, perhaps suggesting he was in the rooftop pool before he fell. Brianna Burch, a police spokeswoman, told RFE/RL in August that it did not appear anyone was with Rapoport at the time and that there were no recorded witnesses. In follow-up correspondence with RFE/RL through early November, police continued to say they do not suspect foul play. Rapoport had recently moved back to Washington after spending several years working in the financial sector in Ukraine. He told RFE/RL in an interview in Washington in June that business was difficult because of the country’s high political risk and the war with Russia. While some friends said they didn’t think she would have killed herself, others said depression had set in. Go to location Born in Latvia and fluent in Russian, Rapoport immigrated with his family to the United States in 1980. After graduating from a US university, he moved to Russia in the early 1990s as a wave of privatization swept the country. The sale of former state-owned companies created a booming stock market, creating a new generation of millionaires, Russians and foreigners alike. Rapoport was respected in Russian financial circles, where he worked for more than a decade at a local brokerage firm called CenterInvest, rising to managing partner. He claimed his clients included some of the nation’s wealthiest tycoons. In 2007, he opened a great nightclub in the center of Moscow called Soho Rooms, which became the go-to place for Moscow’s elite. In 2012, he left Russia and returned to the United States, saying the brokerage industry that had made him a fortune “died” as commissions shrank with improvements in technology. But in a media interview before his departure, he also criticized the direction Russia had taken under Putin and voiced his support for Navalny, who was jailed last year on what Western governments say were trumped-up charges. “It has become really unbearable to live in Russia,” Rapoport told the FinParty media in June of that year. “We are all now dependent on a ruler. If that person decides that you will give birth to his child, then you will give birth, and if he decides to put you in prison, then you will serve.” He told FinParty he would renounce his US citizenship and return to Russia if Navalny became president, saying the opposition leader was sincere in his desire to fight corruption. “He is a true hero of our time and deserves respect,” Rapoport said of Navalny. Rapoport’s disillusionment with Russia and his decision to leave may have been caused by pressure on his business, friends and family. Under Putin, raiding profitable businesses by — or with the help of — the nation’s security services has flourished. Rapoport reportedly lost his stake in Soho Rooms when his partners cooperated with security officials. “Our flight to Washington is in 12 hours. It’s sad to leave Russia, but for thinking people, life here has become unbearable and disgusting,” Rapoport wrote on his Facebook page on June 13, 2012. When Rapoport moved to Washington, D.C., where he said his parents lived, he started a company called Rapoport Capital to advise and assist tech startups as well as venture capital on fundraising options. In 2016, four years after leaving Russia, Rapoport established an office in Kyiv and opened a private equity fund. It was hard to go. Ukraine’s economy has struggled amid an ongoing war with Russian-backed separatists in two eastern regions and the slow implementation of Western-backed reforms. In social media posts over the next few years, he was an outspoken supporter of Ukraine and an outspoken critic of Putin. Rapoport gained a degree of publicity in January 2017 after the New York Times reported that President-elect Donald Trump’s daughter and son-in-law bought a mansion that belonged to him and his first wife. The mansion was located in an exclusive neighborhood of the US capital. In 2018, the open-source investigative organization Bellingcat reported that Rapoport, who was Jewish, was the creator of a fictitious persona named David Jewberg, who was often cited in Ukrainian media as a senior Pentagon analyst. With reporting by Todd Prince in Washington, DC and Mike Eckel in Prague
