Jack Sweeney first came to the public’s attention after opening a Twitter account dedicated to tracking the private jet of Tesla founder Elon Musk. Now the college teenager has a new pet project that involves another group of billionaires: publicizing the movements of private jets owned by Russian oligarchs.
“It would be a lot of fun to see one of his planes confiscated,” Sweeney, 19, told CBS MoneyWatch about his Twitter account. @RUOligarchJetso Jets of the Russian oligarch.
Sweeney, a freshman at the University of Central Florida, said the account is based on an algorithm he developed that takes advantage of publicly available aircraft ownership records and flight data to track about 30 people. private jets belonging to the Russian oligarchs.
The teenager said he was inspired to create the service after the Russian attack Ukrainewhen people on social media asked him if he could use the algorithm used to track Musk to control the private planes of Russian oligarchs.
“People want these people to be located and their assets to be located and their yachts and jets to be taken away,” Sweeney said.
Since Sweeney launched the service to track the planes of Russian oligarchs, the Twitter account has grown to more than 340,000 followers.
The term “oligarch”, denoting a small group of government exercising control, usually for corrupt purposes, has been used to describe the hugely wealthy business elite in Russia, whose wealth is suspected to have been gained. mainly through its political connections with members of the government. , even through the privatization of state assets.
This is what it means to be an oligarch
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In his State of the Union address, President Biden dit the US and its allies are waging an economic war against Russian President Vladimir Putin over the country’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as Russian oligarchs who are believed to support him. Wednesday, the Department of Justice announced the formation of a new working group aimed at the oligarchs.
“We are joining our European allies to find and grab your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets. We come for your ill-conceived profits, “Biden said.
A Sweeney private jet is tracking, via its Twitter account @PutinJetbelongs to Putin himself, although flight data so far are only for trips within Russia.
Other aircraft tracked by Sweeney include aircraft owned by Sweeney Roman Abramovichthe Russian billionaire who this week said he would sell the Chelsea football club and donate the profits to the victims of the invasion of Ukraine, and Leonid Mikhelson, CEO of Russia’s largest natural gas supplier.
“They have huge planes: some of them keep flying, they don’t stop,” Sweeney said, noting that one of the planes is a commercial Boeing 787.
Owning and operating a Gulfstream GIV for private business use can cost between $ 30 million and $ 50 million a year, depending on hangar services and whether a new or used aircraft is purchased, according to Honeywell Aerospace. The private jet version of the Boeing 787 could cost more than $ 200 million, Business Insider reports.
Sweeney, who is studying information technology and aims to get a job in software engineering in the aviation industry, said he is not concerned about threats or security as he is in the United States. He said he will follow more planes if he finds information about them.
As for Musk, who tops Bloomberg’s rich list with an estimated fortune of $ 226 billion, Sweeney said he still follows his plane. He also said Musk offered him $ 5,000 to close the account, but he declined.
“I won’t lower it for just $ 5,000,” he said, noting that he made a $ 50,000 counter-offer or a Tesla. “He said he wasn’t feeling well; then all the news came out and he blocked me.”
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