Has any media reported how Tamerlan Tsarnaev earned a living? What was his job?

[anobserver2]

I am just wondering how this now deceased 26 year old earned a living to afford his boxing training, fancy Mercedes car, rent in Cambridge, MA, food, clothes, and supported his wife and child in Rhode Island.

Does anyone know how this guy earned a living? Has any media reported it?

I find it a very odd omission. Did he have a money tree growing in the backyard?

[anobserver2]

1. I am just curious about this

No employer has been interviewed, to my knowledge.

Also, if he didn't have a job, then I am thinking: someone else somewhere was supporting him financially. (And I don't think it was his younger brother.)

Your thoughts?

[anobserver2]

2. Also re his uncle's comment

I think his uncle is the only one who alluded to this issue -- saying the internal family row concerned the fact
this nephew had rejected "a job" and "school" and decided instead, in "2009" to "work for God."

So, that means: what exactly did the FBI think this guy was doing to earn a living back in 2011 when the FBI interviewed him?

This is really a big missing piece of the news coverage, in my opinion.

It is a big big missing piece: what this guy did to earn money for the past several years. (Or ever, for that matter.)

[JaneyVee]

29. They are most likely wealthy. Chechnya & Grozny are both fairly well off. The father is probably

sending money.

[Tx4obama]

3. The only thing I've heard is...

... when he was in Russia in 2012 he worked with his father for one month remodeling houses/buildings.

[anobserver2]

5. Right ONe month of work - in Russia.

I heard the same. But - this guy was 26 years old. What was he doing the rest of the time? Like since high school in Cambridge?

[seabeyond]

4. i heard his wife worked and he was a stay at home father. but, that is just what i heard.

doesnt make it correct.

[anobserver2]

6. That's interesting - because I don't think he lived with his wife and daughter --

-- except for the weekends in Rhode Island. (I think I heard his wife and child live with the wife's parents in Rhode Island.)

[seabeyond]

9. interesting. i heard this at the very beginning of it all. have not heard anything since. was like,

if he is suppose to be all that as a caring man, being a stay at home, (not extremist, so stay at home makes no sense) married to a christian working woman... why did he leave his baby for 6 months in russia.

so, i do not know anything for sure, that is for sure, lol. just what i heard at the beginning. i have not heard anything about it lately

[City Lights]

11. I wondered about that, because I have only heard about his wife

and daughter living in RI. I wondered if they were still married, but estranged.

[City Lights]

7. I heard that, too.

And that's all I heard about anything job related.

[anobserver2]

8. BTW, law enforcement did a great job, IMO

BTW, I live in MA not far from Watertown, and I think law enforcement on all levels and the mayor and gov all did a great job, as did the public, in trying to solve this extremely difficult situation. I am cheering for law enforcement, too (and I don't understand anyone who does not in this instance). And my sincere condolences to all who suffered and lost their lives, so senselessly and so needlessly by such cruel acts.

[anobserver2]

10. And, as minor as it may seem: I would still like to know: How was this guy paying his bills?

What did he report as his employer on his taxes to the state and federal govt for the past 8 years, since leaving high school? Someone somewhere must know this. Or know he did not file. Whatever.

[anobserver2]

12. Or - for that matter - what did his wife think he did from Mon-Friday?

What did his in-laws think he did from Mon-Friday each week? What did his parents think he did? What in fact was he doing each week? I just find it amazing no one is asking more about that. He wasn't in school. And when he went, he only went part time for three semesters and dropped out (a few years ago), according to reports I heard.

There is a big gap here in understanding this guy. Someone must have known how he paid his bills and spent his weeks for the past several years.


He needed money to pay his bills and live in Cambridge MA. Yet I have not heard one source of steady income for this now deceased guy.


Very very very odd, IMO.

[FarCenter]

26. His wife moved back to her parents in RI with the baby over a year ago

He hasn't been with her for a year according to the neighbors -- probably since he went to Dagestan. They are undoubtedly estranged.

[pnwmom]

15. This isn't a minor question; it's the major question.

Did he have benefactors who were funding him in his new life? And why?

[anobserver2]

16. Well, if it's major then --

-- what was the answer back in 2011 when the FBI interviewed him at that time? I am really curious about that. It had to be something that checked out to make the FBI conclude he was not involved in any wrongdoing. Otherwise, at minimum, the guy would have been arrested for tax evasion, I would think.

[newmember]

19. It would have depended how extensive that interview was

Did they check bank accounts ?
Money transfers?

[pnwmom]

28. Two years ago, the FBI interviewed him and looked into questions about whether

he was connected with terrorism. According to the FBI, they didn't come up with anything.

But a lot can happen in two years. One thing that did happen is that he spent 7 months in Russia.

[anneboleyn]

24. I'd like to know also. There are drug rumors

Probably because his best friend was murdered in an apparently drug-related attack (Brendan Mess, there was a thread about this case earlier today on DU)

There are definitely rumors circulating that he may have had some type of drug involvement -- primarily for the reasons you are wondering about also: where did he get all of this money?

[kentuck]

13. Good questions...

And I read today that the youngest one was wearing $900 dollar shoes?

[anobserver2]

14. Yeah - where do these people get all this money?

"Follow the money" -- I think that's what media should be talking about a little bit more. Because these guys had it. But good grief, no jobs ever mentioned that would result in such a steady stream of much needed on-going funds, just to live in MA the way they did.

[OhioChick]

20. Louis Vuitton shoes and Burberry pants don't come cheap.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-nn-na-auto-body-shop-cambridge-bombing-suspect-20130419,0,2116032.story

[newmember]

17. none of it makes sense

THE only thing for sure is he spent money on cars and clothes.

They even talked to garage he brought his car to.
The mechanic said he had worked on different expensive cars the suspect brought in.
Not just the Mercedes he owned now. (or was it a BMW)

[anobserver2]

18. Yeah, that interview was very bizarre, IMO

What mechanic do you know takes "two weeks" to have a car sit in a lot without doing any work on it?
What mechanic allows anyone to pick up a car? I thought that mechanic - "Junior" was his last name? - was
very odd in the way he allegedly does business in his car lot there. I would never bring a car to a mechanic
and expect that after two weeks, the work would still not be finished. I found the mechanic interview aspect of this
saga to be extremely odd in a very quiet low key way. But extremely odd nevertheless.

[politicat]

30. It was a 67 Mercedes, and it was body work. Finding vintage parts can be tough.

We had a 67 Volkswagen for a few years, and those were common on the scale of vintage cars. Mercedes have always been less common. Getting mechanical parts for the Bug wasn't hard, but body parts always took at least a week, if not longer, because they had to be ordered and shipped.

Body work always takes longer, too, because body work always includes paint.

On the other hand, a 67 Mercedes is not a beater -- probably 15 grand for a "restore me" to 100k for ready to go.

And in Boston traffic.... Oi. Unlikely car for a parent to give a college student, especially in a city with such good public transit and such high insurance rates.

IIRC, mechanics don't generally allow unsafe vehicles to be picked up, and a car without tail lights is absolutely unsafe.

Interesting lead to track down, though... Not too many 67 Mercedes in the registration databases, and not too many that were in some sort of accident 3 weeks ago.

[anobserver2]

21. Tsarnaev's odd quote: "America has a lot of jobs"

From http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/ci_23061347/dead-bombing-suspect-boxed-lowell-golden-gloves?source=rss_viewed


...Tsarnaev fought in the Lowell Sun Charities Golden Gloves in the 178-pound novice class and won his fight.

"I wanted to fight in the Gloves to see how I would do," Tsarnaev told The Sun that night. "So far, so good."

He also said: "I like the USA ... America has a lot of jobs. That's something Russia doesn't have. You have a chance to make money here if you are willing to work."

Read more: http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/ci_23061347/dead-bombing-suspect-boxed-lowell-golden-gloves?source=rss_viewed#ixzz2R4FAzNew

-------

To me this is an odd quote from him because: he doesn't seem to ever have had a job. (What makes him think there are "a lot" of jobs in America? It sounds like he's never ever held one.)

[FarCenter]

27. He knew this would sound good to the audience.

[reformist2]

22. To live in Cambridge by yourself you have to earn $2,500 a month, minimum.

Rents there are very expensive.

[starroute]

23. I don't find them in the online phone and address listings

I find the relatives in Maryland. One site which doesn't remove old listings shows the father in Cambridge. But nothing for the brothers. So either somebody else was paying their rent or they were paying to be unlisted.

[politicat]

31. We don't show up in those databases, though we own our house and have for 12 years.

We've been cell-phone only since before we bought the house; we've never had a land line here. That's more common.

[starroute]

32. It can't be just about cellphones, because I find my kids listed

They're both listed at my address, though neither of them had anything in their own names here. And one, but not the other, is listed at their current address, though I'm pretty sure they've never had a landline. So there must be some other source.

But I'll grant that it's easier for young people to slip through the cracks.

[riderinthestorm]

33. Follow the money. Also who paid for Dzhokhar's college tuition? A $2500 scholarship won't do it.

Who was paying for him at school?

[muriel_volestrangler]

34. He worked as a lifeguard

Mostly, Finlay said, Tsarnaev behaved like a typical Cambridge teen. During high school Tsarnaev was employed by the University, working intermittently as a lifeguard as recently as the summer of 2012, a Harvard official told The Crimson.

“He seemed like a regular high school kid, just trying make a buck after class,” Finlay said. “He sat in the chair, guarded people, did his job.”

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/4/19/dzhokhar-tsarnaev-profile-classmates/?page=single

And perhaps he got some money from his father. Or uncles or aunts, at least 2 of whom live in North America.

[riderinthestorm]

35. UMass-Dartmouth costs $22,200 per year. He got a $2500 scholarship.

That figure is excluding "living" costs like toiletries, laundry etc. which Dzhokhar would have had to pay on top.

Somebody was subsidizing him for more than $20,000 per year.

http://www.umassd.edu/financialaid/eligibility/costofattendancebudget/

PLUS they were subsidizing the brother. Cars, expensive clothes, care for the wife and baby....

And travel expenses to Chechnya for extended stays for both of them....

None of that is small change.