The mysterious death of the teenager who posed as a Russian billionaire – podcast

The journalist Patrick Radden Keefe on trying to unravel the double life and tragic death of 19-year-old Zac Brettler – and what it tells us about London’s dark underbelly

For decades, London has been a magnet for global wealth, a flashy playground for the super-rich. To one teenage boy, it contained an elite scene he desperately wanted to be part of: the oligarch class.

Not just rich, but powerfully connected billionaires who amassed such huge fortunes with so few questions asked that they helped turn London into what was called the “dirty money capital” of the world. Zac Brettler began posing as the son of one. Within months, he was found dead on the riverbank in central London. He was 19 years old.