Jack Sweeney is now tracking the private jets of Russian oligarchs.
Okay, so you started a Twitter account tracking the richest man in the world’s private jet. What do you do for an encore?
Funny you should ask.
Jack Sweeney, the 19-year-old college student who created a Twitter account that tracks Tesla (TSLA) – Get Tesla Inc Report CEO Elon Musk’s private jet, has trained his sites on Russian oligarchs.
Sweeney, who created the @ElonJet account, set up a new Twitter account called @RUOligarchJets.
‘People Asked Me to Go Track Them’
The account tracks the movements of various aircrafts owned by Russian billionaires by using bots to detect air traffic data.
The account is currently tracking 39 planes and helicopters belonging to 19 oligarchs.
Sweeney, a student at the University of Central Florida, said in a direct message to TheStreet via Twitter that he set up the account “mostly because people asked me to go track them” following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I’m mostly doing whatever people ask me to track,” he said. “The aircraft some of these oligarchs have are huge normal airliners like a Boeing or Airbus.”
Some of the oligarchs the account follows include Vladmir Potanin, who acquired his wealth through a controversial loans-for-shares program in Russia in the mid-1990 that ultimately resulted in emergence of the Russian oligarchs.
Potanin is listed in 57th place on the Bloomberg Billionaire Index with a total net worth of $24.7 billion.
Also on the list is Roman Abramovich, a businessman and politician who owns the Chelsea football club and is the primary owner of the private investment company Millhouse LLC.
‘Your Generation Will Save This Planet’
Abramovich also enriched himself through the loans-for-shares program. He ranks 141 on the Bloomberg list with a total net worth of $13.7 billion.
“Roman Abramovich’s Jet LX-RAY Landed near Istanbul, İstanbul Province, TR. Apx. flt. time 4 Hours : 33 Mins, the account tweeted on Tuesday.
Oleg Deripaska is also being tracked by the account. Deripaska, who is known for his close ties with Russian president Vladimir Putin, is the founder of Basic Element, one of Russia’s largest industrial groups, and Volnoe Delo, Russia’s largest charitable foundation.
Last year, FBI agents swarmed Deripaska’s home in Washington D.C., NBC reported. His personal wealth is about $4 billion.
“19 years old…wow,” one person tweeted. “Your generation will save this planet. Great idea.”
“Insane!” another person declared. “I’ve not been abroad (weekend in Dublin) since November 2014 and some of these people have 6 private jets. It really is another world.”
“Never seen someone own so many jets — it’s disgusting,” another tweeted about Abramovich. “Literally have seen 4 different destinations shuffling around his precious jewelry and wads of cash.”
Sweeney first gained attention when he launched the Musk jet-tracking account, one of of 15 flight-tracking accounts he created.
They are run by bots that Sweeney programmed to parse the data and tweet every time a chosen plane takes off or lands.
‘Shot By A Nutcase’
Each one of them follows a famous person, most of them in the tech sector, and includes Microsoft’s (MSFT) – Get Microsoft Corporation Report Bill Gates and Amazon’s (AMZN) – Get Amazon.com, Inc. Report Jeff Bezos.
Musk’s tracker, however, is the most popular and he asked Sweeney via Twitter DM to take the account down because “I don’t love the idea of being shot by a nutcase.”
“It would be great support in college and would possibly allow me to get a car maybe even a Model 3,” he told Musk.
“Doesn’t feel right to pay to shut this down,” Musk replied in his last message to Sweeney.
Earlier this month, the people behind a meme coin inspired by @ElonJet said they would give the college student a Tesla Model 3 if the crypto’s market cap reaches $10 million.
While Sweeney exchanged messages with Musk, that hasn’t been the case with the oligarchs.
“No word from any of them yet,” he said.
