A Ukrainian oligarch who was targeted in a bomb attack in Monaco on Monday may have been blown up over his alleged links to a €100million call centre fraud scheme, according to Ukrainian police.
Vadim Ermolaev, 58, suffered multiple shrapnel wounds after a backpack full of nuts and bolts exploded in the foyer of his apartment block in Monaco, according to local reports.
A woman he was with and her teenage son were also injured, with a French source saying the woman remains in serious condition after undergoing surgery to amputate her limbs.
Initial reports in Ukraine said the injured woman was Vadim’s wife, Anna, but it later emerged it was a woman who has not yet to be identified.
Now, Ukrainian police sources have claimed that the violent attack is directly linked to a network of fraudulent call centres in Dnipro, Ukraine, allegedly used to carry out large-scale financial scams across Europe.
The Ermolaev family is alleged to have played a significant role in the scheme, with the oligarch’s name reportedly at the centre of a sprawling pan-European investigation into clandestine call centres operating out of Ukraine.
According to sources, the so-called ‘boiler room’ operations defrauded thousands of investors in Germany, Estonia and Ukraine of more than €100million (£86million) between 2019 and 2022, through fake cryptocurrency investment schemes.
The network also allegedly sold fraudulent divorce advice to unsuspecting victims.
Ukrainian law enforcement sources say that French investigators believe the murder attempt may have been orchestrated by members of a criminal network in retaliation.
Vadim Ermolaev, 58, suffered multiple shrapnel wounds on Monday after a backpack full of nuts and bolts exploded in the foyer of his apartment
Members of a bomb disposal team investigate after the murder attempt, which involved an explosive device left in the lobby of a residential building
Ukrainian outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported that the attempted assassination stemmed from a failed agreement to divide territory and unpaid debts allegedly owed to organised crime bosses in Dnipro.
While Vadim, who is currently subject to sanctions in Ukraine, handled the financial side of the operation, it was his son, Artur, who reportedly ran the network.
According to local reports, Artur was arrested by Interpol in Cyprus at the end of 2025 following an Estonian arrest warrant.
He was given a suspended prison sentence and millions of euros in criminal assets were confiscated.
Both Ermolaevs deny any wrongdoing, saying all of their business activities are above board.
Vadim, who made his fortune in commerce following the collapse of the Soviet Union, has made a huge number of enemies since fleeing his native Ukraine around a decade ago.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky authorised sanctions against him in December 2023, because his drinks business in the occupied Crimea was still doing business with Russia.
He produces a ‘geographically protected Crimean wine for the Russians’, which is still sold in Europe and the US, said an investigating source.
Vadim is also a co-owner of Versobank, an Estonian bank which had its licence suspended by the European Central Bank in March 2018 for the ‘systematic violation of anti-money laundering legislation’.
In recent years, the family has been living in luxury in Monaco, where they have a very high profile.
Vadim was known for parking his Ukrainian-registered Bentley outside the Monte Carlo Casino.
He also owned a super-yacht flying the Ukrainian flag and owned a high-security villa in nearby Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.
Vadim has stated that the Ukrainian tax system is ‘very unfair’, and this prompted him to take Cypriot nationality in 2019.
The explosion occurred around 9pm on Monday at the entrance of a residence near the French border.
Earlier reports from Ukraine said the injured woman was Vadim’s wife, Anna Ermolaeva, but it later emerged it was a different woman, who authorities have not yet named
Monaco’s emergency services were deployed in the area of the explosion
The three victims were ‘apparently returning home peacefully’ in the early evening, according to surveillance footage, Christophe Mirmand, the minister of state for Monaco said.
‘They were caught in the explosion as they crossed the threshold of their apartment building,’ he said.
‘It appears that the family was specifically targeted,’ he emphasised.
The attack has shocked the elite principality on the Mediterranean Coast. Monaco’s Prince Albert II described it as ‘an odious act’ and said all the country’s services were mobilised to ensure security.
An aide to France’s Interior Minister, Laurent Nuñez, said police were working ‘to find the perpetrator, who has fled’.