Friends and acquaintances of Baratov said he was a quiet, polite person who rarely spoke about his work.
“Extremely nice, polite and smart kid,” Kovljenic said. Baratov paid on time for work on his cars and Kovljenic never asked what this young customer did for a living, he added.
Those same cars are what set Baratov apart from other kids, said another friend who attended high school with Baratov but declined to be identified for this story. Pictures on his Facebook account show a two-story suburban home with Audis and a Porsche out front.
At first, classmates thought his parents were wealthy, but then Baratov bought a luxury car for this father, said one of his friends. When he did talk about work, he would say he built websites for clients he found online, the friend said.
In a Feb. 14 Facebook post, Baratov said he was expelled during his last year of high school, four years ago. That allowed him to focus on his “online projects” and increase the amount of money he was making. He’d already paid off his first mortgage and drove a BMW 7 Series in high school, he wrote in the post.
Baratov’s Instagram account shows him posing with friends at a club, flexing his tattooed biceps at the gym and cuddling a grey cat. He drew pencil drawings of cars, friends and a portrait of Arnold Schwarzenegger, which he also posted to Instagram and Facebook.
“Karim’s one of my closest friends; he’s a great guy. Wouldn’t even hurt a fly,” said Jeff Josiph, who worked out with Baratov at the gym. “I didn’t pay attention to his work life. I hung out with him because he treated everyone fairly and always had nice things to say about everyone else.”
In the Feb. 14 post, Baratov said his expulsion from school helped spur him onto success.
“Get the most out of your life,” he wrote. “Taking shortcuts doesn’t mean shortcutting the end result.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.