Leap Years

I went for a walk at lunchtime with Leonid, a former colleague of mine, today. While we were walking, he asked if a lot people I knew had recently died. He mentioned a number of his friends and relatives who passed away in the past few months and also referred to the recent deaths of Tony Snow and Tim Russert. He then made the peculiar observation that during leap years there seem to be more deaths than in other years. I had never heard of this. He even said that he had been taught this in school and that there was more sun activity during leap years. I was taken aback by this theory which seemed to me to be pure superstition. He grew up in the Ukraine. I wonder if this is a common belief there. According to some, the sun has been eerily calm recently.