The surname Matvienko for most Russians is associated with the former governor of the Northern capital and the current head of the Federation Council Valentina Ivanovna. However, her son Sergei is no less famous person. In the 90s, he was implicated in a criminal case. Later, the young man took up his mind and started promoting his own business, thanks to which he managed to become a billionaire. In addition to financial success, Sergey Matvienko became famous for his novels with beautiful women. Previously, his wife was the popular singer Zara, and today he is married to former fashion model Julia Zaitseva.
A family
The future billionaire was born May 5, 1973 in the family of Valentina Ivanovna and Vladimir Vasilievich Matvienko. He was born in Leningrad (now - St. Petersburg). Sergey's parents are graduates of the Leningrad Chemical-Pharmaceutical Institute. His mother was already an active public figure. Shortly after graduation, she became the department head, and after 6 years - the first secretary of the Komsomol district committee. Sergey’s father worked as a teacher at the Leningrad Military Medical Academy. It is clear that a child in such a family should have grown up as a highly educated person. And so it happened. Two higher educations were received by Sergey Matvienko. The son of Valentina Ivanovna has diplomas in popular specialties: “International Economics” and “Finance and Credit”.
Business
Sergey began his career in 1992 as a manager at the Augustin Investment Check Fund. Having worked in it for 3 years, the young financier in 1995 established his own company, Northern Extravaganza. Then followed the foundation of the limited liability company "Architect". For some time Sergey Vladimirovich Matvienko was listed as an employee of the banks Inkombank and Lenvneshtorg. In 2003, he was appointed vice president of St. Petersburg Bank. This post was held by Valentina Matvienko’s son until 2010. In parallel with this, from 2004 Sergey Vladimirovich began to act as vice president of another major financial institution, Vneshtorgbank. After 2 years, he became the founder of VTB-Capital Closed Joint-Stock Company. The established company managed investment projects and real estate of Vneshtorgbank. In 2010, he was appointed to the post of General Director of VTB-Development. Among other things, Matvienko owns the company "Empire", which owns 28 subsidiaries and is engaged in activities in the field of cleaning, construction, media market and transportation. In the spring of 2012, Sergey Vladimirovich began to oversee the promising domestic e-sports project Moscow Five.
In 2011, Matvienko entered the list of the richest people in Russia. According to the rating of billionaires compiled by the domestic edition of Finance, he took 486 place in the list of 500 possible. Experts estimated its assets at almost 5 billion rubles.
The dark spot in the past billionaire
Today Sergey Matvienko, whose photo is presented in this article, is a successful businessman. High officials in Russia and abroad reckon with him, the best financiers of the world listen to his opinion. However, in his youth, the son of Valentina Ivanovna had problems with the law, which could not have the best effect on the formation of his career. In 1994, the young Matvienko was implicated in a criminal case involving beating and robbery. Sergey worked at the Augustine Foundation at that time, and his famous mother served as the ambassador of the Russian Federation to Malta. For several years, they managed to hide the case materials from prying eyes, but at the beginning of the 2000s they fell into the hands of journalists and became available to the public. The information leak occurred just at the time of the appointment of Valentina Matvienko as the governor of St. Petersburg and could become for her the beginning of the end of her career as a politician. The woman then was able to stay in her high position, but the illegal act of her son became the topic of many discussions.
Case details
How did it happen that an educated, wealthy guy from a decent family turned out to be involved in crime? According to the protocol, Sergey Matvienko and his friend Yevgeny Murin (the son of a well-known professor at St. Petersburg State University) brutally beat his friend A. Rozhkov, and then tried to take away valuable things from him on account of the debt that he did not return to them. A criminal case was instituted on the fact of a crime. They were facing 4 to 10 years in prison.
Sergei Matvienko was arrested on the day the crime was committed, but three days later he was released home, taking a recognizance not to leave. The guy partially admitted his guilt. Murin was taken into custody after Matvienko was released from jail. However, not one of Rozhkov’s offenders suffered a well-deserved punishment. In 1994, the case was hushed up, apparently, not without the intervention of high-ranking parents of the guys. Soon after, Matvienko went headlong into his own business, setting up the company "Northern extravaganza", and his accomplice Murin went to reeducate in the army.
Acquaintance with Zara
In 2004, Sergey Matvienko turned into a hero of secular chronicles. The personal life of the businessman began to be discussed in the media in connection with his marriage to the young singer Zarif Mgoyan, better known under the stage name Zara. Sergei saw the girl at one of the fashion shows, and her exotic beauty immediately attracted him. Brought up in strict Eastern traditions, Zara did not reciprocate Matvienko for a long time. In order to win her favor, the man began to beautifully look after her. He attended all her performances, gave her gorgeous bouquets of flowers. But Zara was in no hurry to let him into her life. Then the businessman decided to go for broke and made the singer an offer. The girl agreed with him. Zara's parents liked her daughter's groom, and they gave the young their blessing. After Valentina Matvienko approved the choice of her son, preparations for the wedding began.
First marriage
The marriage of the couple took place 2 months after the engagement. Matvienko insisted that she and Zara be not only painted, but also married in the church. For this reason, the girl converted to Orthodoxy. They married young people in the Wedding Palace No. 1 of the city of St. Petersburg, and married in the Kazan Cathedral. The bride and groom moved around the city in a carriage. All relatives and friends of the newlyweds were invited to a luxurious celebration.
Family life and divorce
The wedding of the singer and businessman has become a real social event. However, the couple turned out to be very different in cultural education and could not get along together. In addition, the banker's young wife was interested in the career of a pop star, and not the birth of an heir. Sergey’s friends believed that when she married an influential and wealthy man, Zara counted on his financial support. However, Matvienko was in no hurry to invest in the promotion of his wife, and soon after the wedding, the newlyweds began serious conflicts. Her high-ranking mother-in-law was not delighted with Zara's ambitions.
A year and a half after the marriage, the couple broke up. The divorce of Zara and Sergey Matvienko cost the latter $ 500 thousand. It is this amount that the young singer demanded from her husband as a repayment. She invested the money in her own promotion. Soon after the divorce, Valentina Matvienko's ex-daughter-in-law met with the official Sergey Ivanov and married him in 2008. The second marriage of Zara was more successful than the first. Today, the couple raise two sons and look quite happy.
Wedding with Julia Zaitseva
The first husband of Zara Sergey Matvienko did not waste time after the divorce. Photos of his new darling were kept secret for a long time and appeared in the media shortly before the wedding. The second wife of the banker was a student of the Faculty of Philology and fashion model Julia Zaitseva. She is much younger than her chosen one: by the time she met her future husband, she was a little over 20 years old. The spectacular blonde conquered Sergey with her beauty and mind. Having fallen in love with the girl, Matvienko soon proposed to her.
Young people got married in St. Petersburg on the last day of November 2008. At the time of the wedding, Julia was already in her fourth month of pregnancy. She was dressed in a chic snow-white dress, which successfully concealed a rounded tummy. Only close relatives of the couple were invited to the holiday, and immediately after its completion, the happy newlyweds went on a romantic trip to Italy for 7 days. Returning to Russia, Sergei took up his work, and his wife began to prepare for the defense of the dissertation on economics.
The birth of a daughter
Late in the evening of April 6, 2009, in the elite Swiss clinic, Julia Matvienko, Sergey’s wife, gave birth to his daughter Arina. The appearance of the baby on this very day was a real gift for her grandmother-politician, because on April 7, Valentina Ivanovna was preparing to celebrate her sixtieth birthday. The governor of St. Petersburg has long dreamed that her only son would give her a grandson or granddaughter, and, finally, her wish came true. Valentina Matvienko was one of the first to congratulate her son and daughter-in-law on the birth of the heiress. In addition to her, many celebrities expressed their good wishes to the young family. But Sergey Vladimirovich did not receive congratulations from his ex-wife Matvienko. Zara, who had just married a second time before, ignored the joyful event in the life of her first husband.
Details of the family life of Sergey and Yulia Matvienko are not advertised today. The businessman’s second wife turned out to be a non-public person, so it’s almost impossible to see her at fashionable parties. Secular life is of little interest to a young woman. She is engaged in raising her daughter and home, which her influential husband, a banker, really likes.
Interesting details about a businessman
The biography of Sergey Matvienko contains many interesting facts from his life. For example, the famous businessman celebrated his 35th birthday in the luxurious Yusupov Palace - one of the main attractions of the Northern capital. The banker then spent about 60 thousand euros to celebrate his birthday.
Despite the high status of his mother, Sergei Matvienko did not evade the army. For two years he served in the Russian border troops on the border with Finland.
There are a lot of rumors about Sergey Matvienko on the Internet. After a divorce from Zara, false information appeared on one of the sites stating that he died from an overdose of heroin.
The son of Valentina Matvienko loves to read. On business trips, he always takes 5-6 books. In addition to literature, Sergey Vladimirovich is fond of classical music. His favorite composers are Chopin, Beethoven and Mozart.
