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Ukrainian-born oil tycoon found dead at £18,000,000 Surrey mansion

Provided by Metro Mikhail Watford was found hanged at home by a gardener on Monday (Picture: Facebook/LinkedIn)

A Ukrainian-born tycoon who made his fortune in oil and gas has been found dead in the garage of his Surrey mansion.

Father-of-three Mikhail Watford was found hanged at around midday Monday by a gardener at his home in the exclusive Wentworth estate in Virginia Water.

Police are treating his death as ‘unexplained’, but it is not thought to be suspicious.

News of his death came as Boris Johnson told the Commons he will publish a full list of people associated with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Most of these oligarchs are will face sanctions from the UK, including a freezing of assets and travel bans.

A family friend said Watford, 66, could have been worried over the ongoing crisis in Ukraine following Putin’s invasion launched a week ago, the Sun reports.

They said: ‘The timing of his death and the invasion of Ukraine was surely not coincidental’.

Another associate said Watford’s death ‘raises questions’ after other suspicious deaths of Russian nationals in Britain.

Born Mikhail Tolstosheya in 1955 in Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union, the tycoon made his fortune in oil and gas before building a property empire in the UK.

He changed his name to Watford when he moved to Britain, where bought homes in Eaton Square in Belgravia, central London; his £18 million mansion in Virginia Water, and most recently, a series of properties on the Wentworth estate, MailOnline reports.

In 2015, he complained about how difficult it was to find a ‘superyacht-perfect’ mansion outside of London.

Unable to find a home that fitted his need, he commissioned his own 9,640 sq ft property, complete with wrought-iron gates made by the company that supplied Kensington Palace.

The £56,000 driveway was modelled on the circular stone piazzas outside King’s College, Cambridge.

Yesterday Mr Watson’s Estonian wife Jane, 41, posted a photo on social media showing her kissing her husband in the grounds of their home.

Friends and family reacted to the businessman’s death on social media. In a message to Mrs Watford, Gazolina Di Pitim wrote: ‘He had such a beautiful life because he met you. To me your story is one of the greatest love stories. This is love for ever.’

A Surrey Police spokesman said: ‘We were called around midday on February 28 following reports of the discovery of a man’s body. An ambulance was called but the man, who was in his 60s, was sadly pronounced dead at the scene.

‘An investigation into the circumstances of the death is under way but it is not believed there any suspicious circumstances.’ 

Reference:Metro: James Hockaday