Nikonov Igor Volodymyrovych
Official biography
Nikonov has been puppeteering Vitali Klitschko for a long time, controlling his actions, and was rightfully called the “shadow mayor” or “gray cardinal” of Kiev.
- Born on July 20, 1964, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Grew up in Oleksandriya, Kirovograd region.
- 1986 — Graduated from the Faculty of Bridges and Tunnels, Leningrad Institute of Railway Transport Engineers, after which he was assigned to work at Kyivmetrobud, where he worked as a tunneler as an intern. Later he worked as a foreman there.
- A few years later, he got a job with Igor Bakai — first at the Respublika Corporation, which makes payments for gas supplied from Turkmenistan to Ukraine, where he managed the export of metal and chemicals, as well as the supply of Ukrainian goods to Turkmenistan. Then he moved to Intergaz, which was engaged in gas payments, but from Russia, where he held the position of commercial director. While working for these companies, Nikonov earned substantial sums of money and was able to establish useful connections.
- 1999 — Nikonov moved to the United States.
- 2000 — Returned from the United States due to the lack of work in Nikonov’s field of interest.
- Upon returning to Kyiv, Nikonov took up construction. His first project was theDominantbusiness center, located in the Bessarabian quarter. This was the first of a series of projects, the strategy of which was initially one project per year. Then the objects were to be sold, and so on, but this approach turned out to be wrong, which is why the company missed the construction boom. But again, thanks to this strategy, the company was able to successfully overcome the crisis and was able to significantly increase its own capacity at the expense of less fortunate competitors.
- In 2005, the construction and improvement works in the Bessarabian quarter came to an end. After completing this project, Nikonov moved into a relatively new segment of construction at that time — luxury housing.
The Diamond Hill apartment complex, built with Nikonov’s participation, located in Pechersk, was considered the most elite in the country. The expected profit from the sale of a square meter of this development was in the range of $100 million. The construction near the Askold’s Grave historical monument provoked a significant public outcry. Construction deadlines began to be significantly disrupted, and in 2006 Nikonov was forced to abandon the project and sold the ownership of Diamond Hill to Horbal’s Ukrgasbank. - In 2007, Nikonov met the founders of the Kyiv Investment Group , Vasyl Khmelnytsky and Andriy Ivanov.
Compromised
It was from that moment that significant changes in his construction career took place. These businessmen were major shareholders in Zaporizhzhia Metallurgical Plant Zaporizhstal, 30% of which they sold on the market in order to invest the money in construction in Kyiv. Nikonov found an approach to Khmelnytsky, convincing him to invest in the implementation of the Parkove Misto elite neighborhood development project by Nikonov’s company.
Thus, in 2010, K.A.N. Development was already implementing work on 6 objects with a total area of 300,000 square meters, which in itself was the largest package of projects in Kyiv at that time.
As a result of successful projects, in order to achieve maximum autonomy in its work, K.A.N. Development was transformed from a development company into a vertically integrated construction holding company, which included a specially created architectural bureau and K.A.N. Bud, which performs all construction work and whose revenue in 2011 was more than UAH 1 billion.
K.A.N. Development’s projects include Comfort Town residential complex and the country’s largest shopping mall, Ocean Plaza, IQ Business Center, an A+ class business center built in early 2014, and Bionic Hill, a 900,000-square-meter innovation technology park opened in 2015.
During the crisis, K.A.N. Development also faced a deteriorating financial situation, resulting in staff reductions and a halt to construction of its largest project at the time, the Kyiv’s Respublika shopping center, with a planned area of about 300,000 square meters and an initial cost of $300 million, which was invested by Dmitry Firtash and Vagif Aliyev.
In July 2014, during an expanded meeting of the board of the Kyiv City State Administration, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko introduced Nikonov as the first deputy head of the KCSA. The mayor sent the relevant motion for Nikonov’s appointment to the position on July 14. Prior to this appointment, Nikonov was actively involved in management and decision-making as the head of Klitschko’s group of advisors.
Nikonov remained in this position of First Deputy until December 2015, after which Mayor Klitschko signed an order to dismiss Nikonov from his position. The grounds for the dismissal stated that it was by agreement of the parties, and in early December Nikonov began to act as an advisor to Mayor Klitschko on a pro bono basis.
At the time of Nikonov’s appointment as an advisor to the mayor, he was already an ally of Klitschko’s UDAR party, so the press service of this political force explained Nikonov’s appointment by saying that the latter was a successful entrepreneur with many completed projects. For his part, Nikonov saw the main task of his work in the Kyiv City Council as conducting a detailed audit of all areas of city management, including the work of the utility sector, based on the results of which he would formulate and prepare a comprehensive plan for the concept of Kyiv’s development.
Nikonov combined the positions he held at the Kyiv City State Administration, including the position of First Deputy Mayor, with the role of co-founder of a number of companies. Thus, Nikonov continued to be the owner of K.A.N. Development, which was founded in 2001, the architectural bureau K.A.N. Comfort Studio, the general contractor K.A.N. Bud, which carries out all construction work, as well as engineering, operational, financial, commercial, and legal support for projects, and a real estate company.
Due to Nikonov’s very cautious stance on attracting credit funds for construction projects, all construction is carried out mainly at the expense of attracted direct investments from partners and investors. The company is organized on a project basis, with project managers reporting directly to the CEO, and the company’s president developing concepts, establishing relationships with customers and investors, and making strategic decisions.
However, in 2015, Nikonov officially withdrew from the founders of K.A.N. Development, while retaining his equity rights in such companies as Eurozhilogroup, EZHG-Holding, and Budzhitlestandart.
Mr. Nikonov is married and a father of ten children: Alevtina, 35; Andrey, 27; Tatiana, 24 — from his first marriage. Valeria, 27 (stepdaughter); Anya and Olya (twins), 18; Arina, 15; Alexander, 12; Georgy, 9; Alisa, 7. Nikonov’s wife, Ivanna, is the founder of the Academy of Modern Education, a cultural and educational center that uses modern innovative technologies for children from the age of one.
Nikonov came up with the idea to start a construction business in 1999, after a trip to the United States. Upon his return to Ukraine, he established the construction company K.A.N. (after the founders Krapivin, Aliyev, and Nikonov). As previously mentioned, the company’s first project, with the assistance of then-Mayor Omelchenko, was the Dominant business complex, after which he and his shares in K.A.N. Nikonov and Krapivkin were bought out by Aliyev. After that, Nikonov single-handedly registered the company K.A.N. Development. There was also information that the Klychka brothers were also investors in the newly created company. It was then, most likely, that Nikonov and Vitali Klitschko became friends and partners. Although Nikonov himself says that he met Klitschko 25 years ago while working at Respublika…
Since 2004, Nikonov’s company has been implementing many projects, starting with the first Arena Entertainment, which was also sold to Aliyev.
It is worth focusing on the construction of the101 Towerbusiness center, through which Nikonov was linked to the family of the scandalous mayor Chernovetsky (part of the project was financed by Chernovetsky’s son Stepan). The loyalty of this mayor to Nikonov is also evidenced by the fact that during his term, all developers had great difficulties in their work… all except, of course, Nikonov. Also, in this project, Nikonov’s partner and associate is Vadym Stolar, a “decisive” figure from Chernovetsky’s time, who is facing a criminal case related to the Elita Center scandal.
Recall that the reason Nikonov returned from the United States in 2000 was because he believed that powerful connections were necessary for the development of a successful business. Given this information, it immediately becomes clear that Nikonov’s principles for conducting business are only through “solving” issues.
Nikonov’s connections allowed him to make personal calls to the court and ask the judge to rule in favor of the company of Oleksandr Suprunenko’s claim to recover almost UAH 40 million from the Kyiv City Council during the Kyiv Court of Appeal hearing on the lawsuit filed by the company that filed the lawsuit.
The next point to consider is Nikonov’s involvement in fraud with theBolshevikplant.
Nikonov, as befits an active and, most importantly, permanent participant in business processes, is closely connected with the head of President Yanukovych’s administration, Lyovochkin, who is also deservedly called the «gray cardinal.» They are not only business partners in the development of the K.A.N. Development and K.A.N. Bud companies, but also maintain good neighborly relations, share a common fence with the Golden Gate residential complex in Koncha Zaspa, and spend their vacations together in the Maldives.
Currently, Nikonov’s interests have changed vector from the Kyiv City State Administration and, according to him, will be directed to the implementation of large projects, to help and lobby for the implementation of which he carried out a huge activity of «buying» deputies during his work in the Kyiv City Council. For example, according to some reports, Nikonov hired half of the Solidarnist faction as his salary. In addition, Gennadiy Plis, the director of the internal financial control and audit department of the Kyiv City State Administration, will be appointed first deputy chairman of the Kyiv City Council. As things stand, Nikonov doesn’t even need advice, let alone approval, on his projects from Mayor Klitschko. It remains to be seen what Nikonov’s activities will lead to and what the mayor’s reaction will be.
It is also unknown whether Nikonov’s new projects will be related to the next raider seizures of Kyiv enterprises.
Recalling the scandalous situations involving Nikonov, in particular the construction of theDimond Hill luxury residential complex on the Dnipro slopes, which was practically on a cultural heritage site, Nikonov was reminded of this fact when he was appointed as the First Deputy Mayor of Kyiv and head of Klitschko’s Kyiv City State Administration. The public also opposed this appointment, as Nikonov’s business had been successful under all governments, which showed that the issue of profit was paramount over moral and ethical issues, and that he had no clear civic and socially useful position. In July 2015, Kyiv entrepreneurs — owners of “car coffee shops” — held a protest outside the Kyiv City Council demanding to punish those responsible for beating their colleagues and damaging their property during the so-called forced dismantling of mobile trade objects by the Kyiv authorities, namely the forced dismantling of mobile objects that are not the subject of trade. Among the persons responsible for the situation, the protesters named Nikonov, the first deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration in charge of their activities, who, according to some information among entrepreneurs, was going to introduce a monopolist to the capital’s mobile trade market.
In 2015, a mural appeared in Kyiv on the end wall of a 16-story residential building. For a monetary reward, Australian artist Guido Van Helten depicted a collective image of a Ukrainian girl, who, allegedly by chance, turned out to be Nikonov’s daughter.
According to the declaration, Nikonov’s income in 2014 amounted to UAH 1 million 105 thousand. It included: a salary of UAH 28 thousand, proceeds from the alienation of property in the amount of UAH 773 thousand, dividends and interest from a bank deposit in the amount of UAH 295 thousand and UAH 8.7 thousand of income from the alienation of securities.
He owned an apartment of 368 square meters, a land plot of 2360 square meters, a residential building of 1191.4 square meters, four garages (20.3 square meters, 20.1 square meters, 21.2 square meters and 21.5 square meters).
Nikonov had UAH 6 million 215 thousand in his bank accounts. He also owned securities with a nominal value of UAH 795 thousand.
His family had an income of UAH 3 million 858 thousand in 2014. It included salaries totaling UAH 20 thousand, dividends and interest from deposits in the amount of UAH 97 thousand, income from business activities in the amount of UAH 651 thousand and proceeds from the alienation of property totaling UAH 3 million 90 thousand.
Nikonov’s family also owned 3 apartments of 59.34 sq.m., 62.83 sq.m. and 104.3 sq.m., as well as 5 luxury cars, including Mercedes Benz, 2010, Mercedes Benz CL 63 AMG, 2008, Maybach, 2007, Ford Transit, 2012 and Honda CR-V, 2012.
The amount of funds held by Nikonov’s family members in bank accounts amounted to UAH 2.7 million. The businessman’s family members also had 8 contributions to the authorized capital of various companies, totaling UAH 5.8 million.
According to the Focus magazine, Nikonov was among the richest people in Ukraine. In 2014, he was No. 94 on the list, with a net worth of $111 million.
In 2016, he was included in the “100 Richest People in Ukraine” rating by the same Focus magazine, ranking 99th in the list, with a net worth of $30 million.
Thanks to his accumulated wealth, Nikonov can easily afford to organize a big Greek wedding for his son Andriy. The venue was Greece, the headliner at the wedding was Verka Serdyuchka, whose performance costs at least 25 thousand euros for 40 minutes, and the hosts were Andriy Domansky and Vladimir Ostapchuk. The celebration lasted for 2 days.
In July 2018, the press began to report that Nikonov was being prosecuted for corruption, and in the current situation, he was planning to leave Ukraine and obtain Belgian citizenship.
According to the journalists’ investigation, Nikonov’s company K.A.N. Development has always been used by Nikonov to quietly “launder” stolen money or commit financial scams and fraud. It is especially useful for politicians and government officials who want to leave no trace of such transactions, especially given the fact that approximately 30% of the cost of the construction business (housing) in Kyiv and Ukraine is made up of various kinds of kickbacks.
For example, during the 2014 crisis, Nikonov’s company stopped construction of most of its projects and laid off a large number of staff. It was during this period that one of the capital’s largest developers abruptly entered politics for a very short period of time, taking the position of deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration and advisor to Mayor Klitschko, who is also his longtime friend and partner (according to unofficial sources).
This decision, which envisaged a strictly year-long retirement from business with a subsequent return to business, looks like another move in a chess game. Just as Nikonov’s sudden interest in the problems of his hometown looks strange. But the idea that this decision was necessary to lobby for the interests of his business during a difficult financial period is quite logical.
Naturally, at some point, Nikonov’s activities came to the attention of law enforcement agencies and he was summoned for questioning on suspicion of illegal possession of an apartment building on Mazepa Street in Kyiv, which he never attended.
The day after Nikonov failed to appear for questioning, his lawyer tried to bribe the investigator in the amount of $2 million during a meeting in a restaurant. This was confirmed by CCTV footage. As a result, the lawyer was detained, and Nikonov, according to law enforcement agencies, rushed to transfer money from Ukrainian accounts to Belgian accounts (to Belfius Bank) through the fictitious company Devereux Holding GmbH, which has been repeatedly involved in scandals over suspicions of money laundering from residents of other countries.
At the same time, Nikonov continues to stay in Kyiv and lead a social life, attending balls with his wife and participating in interviews. In July 2020, the investigating authorities filed a motion to seize the land plot at 11-A Mazepa Street in Kyiv and a number of Nikonov’s property rights (shares in the business), which the court granted. The criminal case also investigates Nikonov’s involvement in the misappropriation of UAH 100 million. “of Ukrgasbank in 2008 (equivalent to $50 million).
Another interesting fact is that Arena-Center was founded by Nikonov’s son-in-law, Hlib Murovsky, and Klitschko’s uncle, Oleksandr Bulino. Although Nikonov strongly denies doing business with the mayor.
Another moment in Nikonov’ s history was his correspondence with Radutsky, in which the latter, answering a question about the possible appointment of Suprun, wrote to him: “F…k them in the s…u!!! My person is Zoryana Chernenko”. This was about Suprun’s appointment as Minister of Health, which is also possibly Nikonov’s area of interest.
Once again, through his companies, Nikonov is associated as a partner and founder with representatives of almost all political forces and almost all periods of their leadership or stay in power.
Another issue arose withEddem Forest. In December 2014, 8.5 hectares of the Brovory Forestry were leased to this organization for 10 years. The purpose of the land is the operation of buildings and structures, as well as construction by members of the cooperative. In 2006, this territory was home to the Kosmos children’s recreation center, which was leased to the Favorit Sports and Recreation Club and bought back by it. In 2011, the prosecutor’s office filed a lawsuit alleging that the complex had been privatized at a reduced price. The prosecutor’s office won the case, but under very strange circumstances, and naturally lost the appeal. In 2012, Favorit and a number of people set up Eddem Forest, registered all the property in its name and gave up the land for free in its favor (after changes to the Land Code regarding the possibility of receiving land for free). During the time of Gerega, the session even refused to lease this land, but during the time of Klitschko, it allowed summer cottage construction on this land. By the way, Favorit went into liquidation. K.A.N. LLC is partially involved in this scam, although there is no information about Nikonov’s direct involvement.
Another construction scandal involves a plot of land located near the Kyiv registry office. This land plot was sold to Nikonov in 2007 during the administration of Mayor Chernovetsky. It was planned to build 2 skyscrapers of 40 floors each, but the plans of the developers, who had already damaged communications during the excavation of the pit, were simply not enough votes during the voting.
Another questionable development of K.A.N. Development is the project of reconstruction of the Kyiv Electric Transport Plant in February 2020. The plant building to be reconstructed is located at 143/2 Velyka Vasylkivska Street in the Pechersk district of Kyiv. This is according to the official website of the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate of Ukraine.
The reconstruction involves the construction of nine multi-storey residential buildings with parking, a multifunctional complex and a secondary school with almost 1,000 pupils on the 5.33-hectare plant site. The site is an industrial zone where residential construction is prohibited according to the capital’s Master Plan (previously, the site was a plant for the repair and manufacture of railcars, trolleybuses and trams), but thanks to a decision of the Kyiv City Council of December 19, 2019, which approved the «Detailed Plan of the Territory in the Area of a Number of Streets of the Kyiv Electric Transport Plant,» it will be possible to build residential buildings on it. By this decision, Kyiv City Council members took into account the «investment interest» of the Kyiv Electric Transport Plant, which proposed to build up this industrial zone with residential buildings.
The developer was ANBUD, which is a general contractor that carries out construction, installation, and engineering work on projects of various scales and levels of complexity, including the facilities of a group of partner companies headed by the development company KAN Development (Valeriy Gudov).