Dan Rapoport

Dan Rapoport (Russian: Дэн Рапопорт) is a Jewish American investor and financial executive of Latvian origin. He was born in Riga, Latvia, at the time the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic of USSR and today the independent nation of Latvia. In 1979, his family emigrated to the United State after receiving US political asylum and eventually settled in Houston, Texas. ^[1]

After graduating from the University of Houston, where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity,^[2] Rapoport returned to Russia in 1991 as an expat to join Phibro Energy. He served as a financial analyst for the first Russian American joint venture for oil production, White Nights Joint Enterprises, which was based in Western Siberia. Thereafter, Rapoport remained in Russia for the next 22 years. He worked in corporate finance, brokerage and investment banking, held senior positions with several Russian financial institutions and completed numerous large transactions.^{[3][4] [5][6]}

In 2008, while still based in Moscow, Rapoport was charged by the SEC with an alleged violation of Section 15(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The SEC claimed that the alleged infraction occurred while he was Managing Director of CentreInvest Securities (Moscow) and indirectly oversaw the activities of CentreInvest Inc. (NY).^[7] Unable to properly serve Rapoport with due notice at his Moscow location, the SEC in 2009 entered a default order judgment.^[8] Once aware of the default judgment, Rapoport responded by filing a motion under Exchange Rule 155 (b) to vacate the default judgment. In 2012, the DC District Court, the Honorable Judge David Sentelle presiding, granted Rapoport's petition to vacate, quoting the SEC's failure to consistently apply its own rule.^[9]

In 2012, Rapoport returned to the US, leaving Russia in large part due to his support for Russia's democratic opposition, particularly his support for Alexei Navalny, an outspoken campaigner against Russian corporate and government corruption and the most vocal critic of Putin and his regime.^[10] As a consequence of his support for opposition figures, the Russian authorities concluded that Rapoport posed a threat to the Putin regime.^[11]

In the 2012 US Presidential election, Rapoport advised the Mitt Romney for President Campaign on Russia-related issues. Rapoport's views were best voiced by Romney during the October 22, 2012, televised debate with Barack Obama: "I’m not going to wear rose-colored glasses when it comes to Russia or Mr. Putin".^[12][13]

Rapoport currently resides in Washington, DC, where he manages a small family office, Rapoport Capital LLP, and is a Russia policy adviser for several US elected officials. He is also a partner in Rush Pictures Production (formerly the Russian American Movie Company, which co-produced Captivity (2007), and You and I (2011).^[14] He is also a Board Member of Share Care, (Благотворительный Фонд Поделись Теплом),^[15] a Moscow-based charity that provides assistance to Russian orphans, a member of the American Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation and a 32nd Degree Freemason.^[16]

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