The Korespondent Journal compiled a richest Ukrainian list. The Kyiv Post and analysts from Dragon Capital investment bank helped with information to generate this list.


I only found this information via The Action Ukraine Report. The Ukrainian News Agency released the top 30 richest Ukrainians on June 30, 2006. They got the list from the Korespondent journal. I cannot find an on-line reference for them. It could be that they are a Russian only publication.


Here are the top 5.

1. Rinat Akhmetov
   
   The Korespondent estimates his assets at USD 11.8 billion.
   
   Forbes in February 2006 ranked him as the 451 richest person in the world with USD 1.7 billion billion. Interesting difference. He is a practicing Muslim and
   
   

   is the richest Ukrainian business oligarch of Tatar descent. His fortune is estimated at $2.4 billion. Akhmetov's main industrial capital is the SCM Holdings. He also owns the Shakhtar Donetsk football club.
   
   Rinat Akhmetov is considered to be an informal business and political leader of Ukraine's Donbas region. Many perceive him as the leader of local organized crime (although he has never been convicted or charged with a crime (unlike former business associates Ahat Bragin and Samson, both assassinated in the 1990s).
   
   From: Wikipedia: Rinat Akhmetov

   
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2. Viktor Pinchuk
   
   Korespondent estimates his assets at USD 3.7 billion.
   
   Forbes in February 2006 ranked him as the 605 richest person in the world with USD 1.2 billion billion. Interesting difference again.
   
   

   one of the "Business oligarchs" who control post-Communist Ukraine, is the son-in-law of the ex-President Leonid Kuchma. Poland's weekly Wprost ranked him Central and Eastern Europe's 12th richest man, with a fortune of $1.5 billion.
   
   From: Wikipedia: Viktor Pinchuk

   
   




3. Ihor Kolomoiskyi (also spelled Igor)
   
   Korespondent estimates his assets at USD 2.8 billion.
   
   President Yushchenko in 2005 fired Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko. The Orange movement was clearly broken into 2 pieces with this. But until I started researching this list, I didn't realize Kolomoiskyi's role in this.
   

   
   A week before the scandalous resignation of the chief of the president’s secretariat Oleksandr Zinchenko, direct allegations of corruption against members of the president’s entourage were made by one of Ukraine’s richest businessmen Ihor Kolomoiskyi in an interview with “Dzerkalo Tyzhnia” (“Mirrow Weekly”).
   
   From: Democracy’s unlearned lessons

   
   
   




4. Hennadii Boholiubov
   
   Korespondent estimates his assets at USD 2.4 billion.
   
   I haven't been able to get information on him. Anyone know anything about him?
   



5. Kostiantyn Valentynovych Zhevaho
   
   Korespondent estimates his assets at USD 1.9 billion
   
   He associated with ex-President Kuchma. He was a businessman and politician.
   
   In 2002, Zhevaho was investigated for opening an illegal bank accounts in Switzerland.
   
   In 2006, he was elected to the New Verkhovna Rada as part of Yulia Tymoshenko's bloc.
   
   

Most people on the richest Ukrainian list are in pig iron and steel production. Others are in banking.

Now a little information on how number 1 and 2 on the list got rich.

Wednesday, 16 June, 2004

If Ukraine wants to send out a danger signal to foreign investors, it's going about it in the right way.

One of Ukraine's most lucrative privatisation deals has been awarded to the richest man in Ukraine and along with arguably the most well connected man in the country.

On Monday, Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's wealthiest man and businessman Viktor Pinchuk, the son in law of President Leonid Kuchma, won the tender to buy Kryvorizhstal, one of the world's largest steel plants.

For some Ukrainians this is being viewed as another cynical example of pro-government oligarchs profiting at their country's expense.

From: A nasty business in Ukraine

The story continues...... They lost the plant because the deal was ruled illegal by Ukrainian courts.

[the] co-owned Kryvorizhstal, Ukraine's largest steel company, was reprivatized and sold to Mittal last year [2005]

From: Forbes: Victor Pinchuk

Number 3 and 4 from the richest list working together to buy silicomanganese.

A group of companies close to Pryvatbank (Dnipropetrovsk) has purchased company Highlanders Alloys LLC (the United States), which owns a plant producing silicomanganese in New Haven (West Virginia).

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, according to Pryvatbank's report for the third quarter of 2005, the bank's shareholders as of October 1 were Ihor Kolomoiskyi and Hennadii Boholiubov, each of whom directly owned 38.76% of the shares in the bank and indirectly - 16.29% each.

From: Thursday, February 16, 2006 The Action Ukraine

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