Igor Valerievich Kolomoisky
Official biography
Born on February 13, 1964 in Dnipropetrovs’k. He is an engineer by education. He graduated from the Dnipro Metallurgical Institute. He has been involved in business since 1985.
He is a Ukrainian, Israeli and Cypriot citizen.
Business.
— Mr. Kovalev has been involved in business since 1985.
— He is a member of the supervisory boards of Privatbank, the oil refinery Naftochimik Prykarpattya, and the oil company Ukrnafta.
— He owns the Glavred Media holding, which includes the dailies Gazeta po-kievsky, Novaya, Izvestia v Ukraini, and the socio-political weeklies Glavred and Profile, as well as the UNIAN news agency and Plusplus TV channel.
— In April 2010, the agreement to acquire 100% of the 1+1 media group, which includes 1+1 and 2+2 TV channels, expired.
— 2008 — elected President of the United Jewish Community of Ukraine.
— 2010 — President of the European Jewish Council.
— President of FC Dnipro.
Father: Valeriy Kolomoisky
Mother: Zoya Israelovna Kolomoiskaya
Wife: Iryna Mykhailivna Kolomoiskaya.
Son: Hryhoriy Kolomoisky, basketball player.
Daughter: Angelika Kolomoiskaya
Compromising
Connection with the organized criminal group
In February 2009, the Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine Renat Kuzmin stated that the Kapitoshky organized criminal group (OCG) had carried out orders from the Privat group during a conflict with the Forum Bank over the Kremenchuk Steel Plant (KSZ, Poltava region). It was allegedly in 2006.
At that time, raiders engaged about four hundred people armed with firearms, bats and chainsaws to seize the plant.
The sponsor of Oleh Tyahnybok’s Svoboda party
In March 2009, Communist leader Petro Symonenko said that, according to his information, businessman Ihor Kolomoisky had provided funding for the Svoboda party’s election campaign to the Ternopil regional council. “Do you see what they did with the elections in Ternopil to the regional council? I reminded the representatives of this nation that in 1932 they brought Hitler to power, the representatives of this nation, and Kolomoisky financed the election of Svoboda,” Symonenko said (UkrRudProm, March 21, 2009).
There was no reaction from Ihor Kolomoisky.
Taxes and debts
In one of his interviews, the current Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Dmytro Vydrin, said that when he tried to return some debts, Ihor Kolomoisky told him: “I do not pay taxes and do not repay debts.”
Ihor Valeriyovych denies this fact and says that Vydrin has repeatedly apologized to him for this. However, privately, not publicly.
“If I can cheat someone, I do” and ‘I don’t pay taxes at all’ are the principles of Ihor Kolomoisky. This was stated not only by Dmytro Vydrin, but also by Kostyantyn Hryhoryshyn (Kyiv Telegraph, September 5, 2005).
In September 2008, the State Tax Administration of Ukraine revealed a new tax evasion scheme used by Privat Group companies. Using this scheme, Privat allegedly saved UAH 400 million in taxes. According to the State Tax Administration, after it “caught” Vesna, the group simply replaced it with another company. For this purpose, a company called Demol-Service was urgently registered in Khmelnytsky region, which continued to operate according to the established scheme.
Attempted assassination of lawyer Hryhoryshyn
A criminal case was initiated against Ihor Kolomoisky in connection with an attempted assassination attempt on the lawyer of businessman Konstantin Grigorishin, Serhiy Karpenko.
The lawyer was seriously stabbed. In this regard, a criminal case was initiated against Kolomoisky twice — during the presidency of Kuchma and later, when Viktor Yushchenko came to power. According to Ihor Valeriyovych himself, the first time the criminal case against him was initiated by Victor Pinchuk. The re-opening of the criminal case against him in 2005 was due to the fact that the then Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Petro Poroshenko wanted to put him behind bars.
Kolomoisky denies any involvement in the case of the attempted murder of Serhiy Karpenko: “The lawyer you are talking about worked for Pinchuk and Grigorishin. I think that these businessmen carefully developed this whole procedure and put it into action. But even under that political regime, they were unable to open a criminal case against me, it was only an “after-the-fact” case. However, I don’t know if there was a criminal case at all, because I have a paper that says that the criminal case was denied due to the lack of corpus delicti“ (”Dzerkalo Tyzhnia”, August 20, 2005).
In July 2007, Ihor Kolomoisky lost a lawsuit against Kostyantyn Hryhoryshyn. The lawsuit was initiated by Ihor Valeriyovych himself, who in the fall of 2004 purchased about half of his shares in eight regional power distribution companies from Kostyantyn Hryhoryshyn. Kolomoisky went to court after the events around Poltavaoblenergo and Prykarpattyaoblenergo, when in 2005 Hryhoryshyn tried to install his own management at the company.
According to the court’s decision, Kolomoisky had to compensate Grigorishin with $10 million as compensation for lost profits from the regional power companies.
Corporate conflicts
Ihor Kolomoisky has become known as a person involved in corporate disputes. At one time, he was in conflict with Viktor Pinchuk over the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant, with Vadym Novynskyi over Pivdennyi GOK, and with Rinat Akhmetov over Dniproenergo.
Kolomoisky is called one of the most active raiders in Ukraine.
Ihor Valeriyovych himself says that in every case he fights for justice: “My interest is this: I don’t want me, the Privat group or any other company in Ukraine, except SCM, to be deprived of the opportunity to participate in what we consider necessary for ourselves“ (”Ukrainska Pravda”, March 31, 2008).
One of Kolomoisky’s associates, Hennadiy Korban, explains Ihor Valeriyovych’s behavior in corporate disputes as follows: “In fact, any corporate conflict is not resolved in courts, with the help of punitive bodies or political will. Any corporate conflict is resolved by agreement of the parties. Although Kolomoisky is involved in many conflicts, he eventually comes to some kind of agreement. And the people with whom he had conflicts end up becoming Kolomoisky’s partners…. There are a lot of them. Pivdennyi GOK had a conflict with Vadym Novynskyi, or Nikopol Ferroalloy with Viktor Pinchuk. Now they are Kolomoisky’s partners,” says Hennadiy Korban.
Conflict over Ozerka
Representatives of the Privat group had a conflict with the now deceased representative of the so-called Luzhniki group, Maxim Kurochkin. The subject of the dispute was the largest market in Dnipro, Ozerka.
During the conflict, an attempt was made to assassinate a representative of the Privat group, Gennadiy Korban. “Dnipropetrovs’k is our hometown, and we decided to intervene in this case. We sent signals to the presidential administration and the regional administration that a tender for the sale of Ozerka was being prepared for one buyer. Well, Nikopol, the president’s son-in-law, you want to do it that way — go ahead. Well, Kryvorizhstal is a strategic enterprise. If you don’t want it to go to the Russians or Americans, then hold a tender for Ukrainian businessmen. But what does this have to do with Ozerka? What is the geopolitical position of this market? That’s how we got involved in this process. Despite the fact that we had no economic interest there, do not have and will not have any.“ (”Dzerkalo Tyzhnia”, August 20, 2005).
On March 27, 2007, a sniper killed Maksym Kurochkin as he was leaving the building of the Sviatoshynskyi District Court in Kyiv. It is still unknown who killed him and why. Prior to that, Kurochkin’s associate, Vladimir Vorobyov, director of the largest market in Dnipro, Ozerka, was shot dead in Dnipro, and on March 16, 2007, three of Kurochkin’s “associates” were shot dead near Kyiv.
Privat Group
According to Ihor Kolomoisky himself, in the Privat Group he is involved in “corporate things, oil, and partly metallurgy”.
According to the proUA online media outlet, Ihor Valeriyovych controls the following commercial enterprises:
— CJSC Moscow Commercial Bank;
— Sentosa LLC;
— Solm Ltd:
— Business Invest LLC;
— Highlanders Alloys LLC;
— Recruitment Agency “Alternative” LLC;
— Claresholm Marketing Ltd;
— OJSC Zhydachiv Pulp and Paper Mill;
— LLC JV CST-Invest;
— S.T.C. Limited;
— Seiba Limited;
— Technology Ltd;
— Atra Inc;
— Alfa-Nafta LLC;
— Garelio Trading Limited;
— CJSC Kharkiv Fat Plant;
— LLC Concern Osnova;
— Bezpeka. Security. Guarantee”;
— OJSC Dneprovagonmash;
— Chenel-Lux LLC;
— CJSC JV Komsomolskaya Pravda;
— Trading House Privat LLC;
— First Ukrainian Bureau of Credit Histories LLC;
— Ukrainian Bureau of Credit Histories LLC;
— BigOptima Limited;
— Central Bureau of Credit Histories of Ukraine LLC;
— Bureau of Credit Histories of Ukraine LLC;
— Paritate Banka, AS;
— Vialint LLC;
— CJSC Lviv Fat Plant;
— OJSC Kyivmisknefteprodukt;
— Prominmet LLC;
— Design and Research Institute “Pivdenmedbiosintez” OJSC;
— Songo LLC;
— CJSC Synthesis Oil;
— OJSC Eximnefteprodukt;
— Aulbrey Alliance S.A.;
— OJSC Kirovogradnefteprodukt;
— Ferona LLC;
— Korsan LLC;
— AEF LLC;
— Slavutych Capital Investment Company LLC;
— Afina Investments Ltd;
— OJSC Kirovograd Airlines;
— Odessanafteprodukt OJSC;
— Portial Trading Limited;
— Inofos Management Limited;
— Preskona Management Limited;
— Clenton Consulting Limited;
— OJSC Severneftelektroprodukt-Service;
— Newton Capital Enterprises Inc;
— Gambit FC LLC;
— Biotrade LLC;
— CJSC Erlan;
— Incom-2001 LLC;
— Spetstehmash LLC;
— Sepyltura Holdings Limited;
— Sturlak Investments Limited;
— Grinton Management Limited;
— Starmill Limited;
— Exseed Investments Limited;
— Profetis Enterprises Limited;
— Alexton Holdings Limited;
— Malton Industries Corp;
— Bishop Invest & Finance Inc;
— Jarwin trade & finance copr..;
— Koresta Investments Ltd;
— Clanton Consultings Limited;
— Odessanfteproduktservis LLC;
— Rhythm 120 LLC;
— Izmail Pulp and Cardboard Mill LLC;
— Palmary Enterprises Limited;
— Almanzar Holdings Limited;
— Trekin Investments Limited;
— Wadless Holdings Limited;
— OJSC Izmail Pulp and Paper Mill;
— TaoBank JSC;
— Torbock Holdings Limited;
— Albroath International Corp;
— Avias Plus CJSC;
— Posner Trading Limited;
— Kievguma OJSC;
— Melonin LLC;
— Feral SA;
— Energoalliance Company LLC;
— Indeco LLC;
— PrivatService LLC;
— Mobile Payments of Ukraine LLC;
— CJSC Insurance Company Ingosstrakh;
— Privat Service Center LLC;
— Construction and Industrial Company Privat-Investor LLC;
— City Information and Settlement Center LLC;
— Pole Position LLC;
— Alapaevsky Metallurgical Plant LLC;
— Stalmag sp z.o.o. m.;
— Highlanders Alloys LLC;
— Prado LLC;
— Vityaz LLC;
— Margaroza Commercial Limited;
— Geveld Holdings INC;
— Ballioti Enterprises LTD;
— Agropromtekhnologiya LLC;
— UkrNIIengproekt OJSC;
— Veltex LLC;
— Unix LLC;
— Victorex Limited;
— A-Lex Law Firm LLC;
— OJSC Sumynefteprodukt;
— Business-Invest Investment Company LLC;
— Flink Investments S.A.;
— Naxten, Inc;
— Matrimax Limited;
— Tapesta Limited;
— Walltron Limited;
— Blue Island Group Limited;
— Rafels Ltd;
— Ulrich Limited;
— Mildenhall Limited;
— Transeurope Trade & Inv. Corp. Ltd;
— Zaporizhzhia Butter and Fat Processing Plant CJSC;
— Privat-TV-Dnipro TV and Radio Company LLC;
— OJSC PKF Khmelnytsknefteprodukt;
— Komintern Dnipropetrovs’k Metallurgical Plant OJSC;
— LLC JV Eneco;
— OJSC Ukrnafta;
— Ukrfondinvest LLC;
— OJSC Privat-Holding;
— CJSC Privat-Intertrading;
— Wisewood Holdings Ltd;
— OJSC Kremenchuknefteproduktservis;
— CJSC Orlan-Beverages;
— Hayden trading Inc;
— Kreontas Commercial Ltd;
— Almas Limited;
— Express Times Limited;
— Sentosa LLC;
— LLC SPE “Consist”;
— Hovand Corp;
— Duvall Limited;
— Ward Ltd;
— Directfield Ltd;
— CJSC Privat-Online;
— Avias Ltd;
— Athina Investments Ltd;
— Privat Komplekt LLC;
— Occidetal Management Co Ltd;
— Mortondale Assets Limited;
— Mint Data Holdings Limited
— Clemente Enterprises Limited;
— Soltex Limited;
— Varkedge Limited;
— PB-Consulting LLC;
— Copland Industries S.A.”
— Metallotechnika LLC;
— Privat-Stok-Service LLC;
— Rivalion LLC;
— Alan Investments S.A.;
— Edgar Alstorm Holdings S.A.;
— Barat Enterprises S.A.;
— St. John Trading;
— Newell Industries Ltd;
— LLC JV Khimprom;
— Gehold S.A.;
— Barrington Industries Ltd;
— CJSC Ilyichevsk Fuel Terminal;
— Verblud Traders and Consultants Ltd;
— CJSC “TeleSystems of Ukraine”;
— Glos Trading Ltd;
— Brotstone Ltd;
— Archon LLC;
— Ukrainian Lotteries LLC;
— Avangardstroy LLC;
— OJSC Zaporozhnafteprodukt;
— Allstream Ventures Ltd;
— Kronstaf Management S.A.;
— Ravenscroft Holdings Limited;
— Melchet Invest limited;
— Olbi Production Ltd;
— Pontadel Limited;
— Rosstock U.K. Limited;
— Burrard Financial Corp;
— CJSC FC Dnipro-96;
— OJSC Dneprospetsstroy;
— JSB Privatinvest;
— CJSC CB Privatbank;
— OJSC “Nafta-Pivden”
— OJSC NPK Galychyna;
— OJSC Neftekhimik Prykarpattya Oil Refinery;
— OJSC Mykolaivnefteprodukt;
— OJSC Chernivtsinaftoprodukt;
— OJSC Chernihivnaftoprodukt
— OJSC Zhytomyrnefteprodukt;
— OJSC Marhanets Mining and Processing Plant;
— OJSC Ordzhonikidze Mining and Processing Plant;
— Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant OJSC;
— OJSC “DniproAzot”;
— OJSC Ukrkhimenergo;
— OJSC Odesa Agricultural Engineering Plant;
— OJSC Red Guard Plant;
— OJSC Dneprokoks Coke Plant;
— OJSC Dneprodzerzhinsky Coke Plant;
— OJSC Dneprodzerzhinsk Coke and Chemical Plant Bagleykoks;
— OJSC Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Plant;
— OJSC Stakhanov Ferroalloy Plant;
— Zaporizhzhya Ferroalloy Plant OJSC;
— OJSC Dnepronefroprodukt.
Ihor Kolomoisky owns more than 40% of Ukraine’s largest oil producer, Ukrnafta. He controls the Kremenchuk oil refinery.
He also owns the Bukovel ski resort and the Dnipro (Dnipro) and Kryvbas (Kryvyi Rih) football clubs.
In 2009, it was reported that Ihor Kolomoiskyi, together with Leonid Chernovetskyi, had purchased the Arsenal football club (Kyiv) from Vadym Rabinovych.
According to Hennadiy Korban, Kolomoisky owns a ferroalloy holding company that controls 20-30% of the global ferroalloy market.
At the end of December 2007, he acquired 12.62% of the British oil and gas company JKX Oil & Gas, about 80% of whose oil and gas assets are located in Ukraine.
Together with Gennadiy Boholyubov, he controls over 10% of Ferrexpo, the company of Konstantin Zhevago.
In August 2007, he acquired a 3% stake in CME, which controls the 1+1 TV channel. Later, he bought out the TV channel.
At the end of 2007, Ihor Kolomoisky and partners became shareholders of the Russian Evraz Group (about 10%).
In March 2008, Ihor Kolomoisky announced that he was negotiating with Dmytro Firtash and Ivan Fursin to buy their stake in RosUkrEnergo.
Kolomoisky was a partner of Oleksandr Tretyakov in a media holding company that includes the UNIAN news agency, Gazeta po-kievsky, Profile magazine, Glavred magazine, Novaya Gazeta, TET TV company, Telekritika, Glavred, and City TV channel. In 2010, Ihor Valeriyovych bought out a part of his partner and established full control over the Glavred Media holding.
“Kolomoisky does not like to sell anything at all. He is like Plushkin, he only buys,” says Gennadiy Korban, one of his associates in the Privat group.
In 2009, Kolomoisky won a tender to privatize the Odesa Port Plant. However, Tymoshenko’s government canceled the results of the tender.
Politics.
For a long time, the oligarch did not get involved in politics. He was only interested in increasing his wealth by any means necessary. With the “hostile takeover” specialists Boris Filatov and Gennadiy Korban at hand, it was easy and fearless to carry out a neat raider seizure. And without bloodshed and contract killings, as has become customary in the neighborhood in Donbas. Sometimes, of course, there were some hiccups, but in general, Kolomoisky’s business empire was afloat.
Everything changed dramatically with the beginning of the active phase of Russian aggression against Ukraine. While Kolomoisky (and the Dnipro region as a whole) had an extremely cold attitude to Euromaidan, the occupation of Crimea and the loss of control over the Privat group’s property there forced the businessman to abandon all his business in Switzerland and return home. Without hesitation, he accepted Oleksandr Turchynov’s offer to head the Dnipro Regional State Administration and began transforming the pro-Russian territories into an outpost capable of repelling a frontal attack by the invaders, while effectively trolling the occupiers and their misguided supporters from among Ukrainian citizens.
It is also known that Kolomoisky spent about five million to support the first Maidan in 2004. The oligarch invested another forty million in two parliamentary campaigns (2006, 2007). In 2006, according to the businessman, Viktor Yanukovych personally offered him to join the Party of Regions list. But he refused.
There were also rumors that the businessman financed nationalist organizations: the Svoboda party and Dmytro Yarosh’s Right Sector. There was also talk of his sponsorship of Samopomich and the People’s Front, as well as a number of majority MPs.
Officially, Ihor Kolomoisky was involved in politics for only a year. After the Revolution of Dignity, acting President Oleksandr Turchynov decided to appoint oligarchs as governors of the eastern regions to fight separatism. In March 2014, Ihor Kolomoisky tried on a new role for him: he became the head of Dnipropetrovs’k region.
The value of Kolomoisky’s assets
Ukrainian businessman Ihor Kolomoisky said that during the disclosure of information about PrivatBank, his assets were estimated at $7.5-8 billion. He said this in an interview with NV magazine.
“I estimate Zaporizhzhia plant (of ferroalloys — Ed.) at no less than $500 million. And I estimate Nikopol (Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant — Ed.) at $1 billion,” the businessman said.
“(Kharkiv businessman Alexander — Ed.) Yaroslavsky bought Petrovsky and Sukhu Balka from Evraz for $100 million. I once sold them Sukha Balka for $400 million and Petrivka (Petrovsky DMZ — Ed.) for $600 million. Or vice versa,” he added.
Kolomoisky reminded that when he was suing Victor Pinchuk, experts estimated the revenues of their joint business for 6-7 years at $3.5 billion.
At the same time, he drew attention to the non-public nature of his business, unlike his “colleagues.”
“What’s the difference between Kolomoisky and the rich people listed in Forbes? If they say they have shares in a company or enterprise, they have shares in public companies that have a price every day. We can be valued from zero to infinity: $7 billion, $70, or zero. What you find in your pocket is yours,” the oligarch said.
Earlier it was reported that due to a lawsuit filed by PrivatBank in a London court, Ihor Kolomoisky had to disclose all assets worth more than £1 million.
The US government has opened a case against Kolomoisky. He is accused of laundering money stolen from PrivatBank.
This is related to the recent FBI searches.
The United States Department of Justice has accused Ihor Kolomoisky of stealing money from PrivatBank and then laundering it in the United States and other countries. This was reported by the Washington Post.
A civil lawsuit was filed against Kolomoisky and another former co-owner of PrivatBank, Hennadiy Boholyubov. The lawsuit alleges that they used personal bank accounts to build a business empire in the United States. Using a network of companies to which they had some connection, Kolomoisky and Boholyubov purchased a lot of real estate in the United States.
They used the laundered money to purchase more than 5 million hectares of real estate in Ohio, as well as steel mills in Kentucky, West Virginia, and Michigan, a cell phone manufacturing plant in Illinois, and commercial real estate in Texas. The civil lawsuit states that the Department of Justice is seeking to confiscate Kolomoisky’s assets.
In addition, Kolomoisky faces criminal charges in a case of possible money laundering. That is why the FBI conducted searches at the offices of Optima, which is owned by Kolomoisky, on Tuesday.
Recently, a US investigation confirmed the connection between the Surkis brothers and Kolomoisky in terms of the sources of funds on deposits in English companies. The report states that from 2008 to 2010, the former owners of PrivatBank received loans from the bank in the amount of $361 million.
At the end of July, PrivatBank said that Kolomoisky and Boholyubov laundered more than $800 million through the Optima group of American companies.
«Ukrnafta.
Another topic Kolomoisky touched upon was the situation at Ukrnafta, the largest oil company. Traditionally, there were no acute issues raised. As it turned out, the number one topic was the division of the company between the state as a shareholder and minority offshore companies controlled by Kolomoisky and his partners.
The Privat Group has been exercising operational control over the company for the past fifteen years. The results are depressing. During this time, oil production has more than halved from 2.9 to 1.4 million tons, gas production has tripled from 3.3 to 1.1 billion cubic meters, and Ukrnafta has become the largest debtor to the state budget. The company’s tax debt has exceeded UAH 14 billion, which is about 20% of the country’s tax debt. Back in August of this year, Ukrnafta received legal grounds to recover UAH 3 billion from commercial entities affiliated with Privat. The NABU managed to prove in court the facts of abuse at Ukrnafta as part of the investigation into the seizure of crude oil totaling more than UAH 7.7 billion. However, not a single penny was recovered from the defendants.
At the same time, Ukrnafta’s foreign CEO, Mark Rollins, is giving victorious interviews on how we can achieve mythical energy independence. But no one is in a hurry to pay off record tax debts.
Minority shareholders claim to own Ukrnafta’s retail network of more than 530 gas stations. The lion’s share of them was once acquired by Ukrnafta from Privat-affiliated entities. According to oil market analyst Sergiy Kuyun: “Privat’s oil depots and fuel trucks are involved in the supply of fuel to Ukrnafta’s filling stations. How much the company loses on these manipulations, how much it costs to refine oil at the Kremenchuk refinery, and the level of losses are all a mystery,” he adds. The privateers’ plan is obviously quite simple: to leave Ukrnafta’s upstream business, which is burdened with debts, to the state/Naftogaz, and to get a profitable distribution network. Sleight of hand and no fraud.
As a result, we have a situation in which the current status quo suits everyone, including the head of Naftogaz, Andriy Kobolyev, who is called upon to implement the policy of the shareholder-state in Ukrnafta?
Ihor Kolomoisky bought an anti-Semitic Austrian MP
Austrian MP Peter Pilz has published court documents that describe two people close to the Austrian Freedom Party who testify under oath about buying a place on the party list for a protege of Ukrainian businessmen, Schellenbacher. “Deutsche Welle points to Schellenbacher’s unexpected career success: the owner of an engineering bureau from the province registered in Vienna on the eve of the 2013 elections and was ranked 9th on the party list.
In the election, the position on the list turned out to be unassailable, but the three candidates ahead of the bureau owner withdrew their mandate, allowing Schallenbacher to become a deputy.
According to court documents, the plaintiff, Ernst N., claims that the Austrian Freedom Party officials did not pay him €2 million for mediation services. According to him, it was he who brought Schellenbacher into contact with the party leadership, and Ukrainian businessmen paid for his entry into parliament, spending €8 million: 4 for the party treasury, 2 each for one of the party leaders and the plaintiff himself.
The court documents contain the names of Ukrainian businessmen — Ihor Kolomoisky, his business partner and current member of the Verkhovna Rada Ihor Palytsia, and the son of the then Minister of Justice Maksym Lavrynovych. According to the Ruspress news agency, ex-minister Oleksandr Lavrynovych Sr. is currently under investigation on suspicion of embezzling 8 million hryvnias during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych.
According to Ernst, he did not receive his money after the deal. Representatives of the party and Schellenbacher deny the plaintiff’s claims. According to DW, Kolomoisky might have known Schallenbacher since 2012, when the latter’s company IBS was building a water treatment plant in Bukovel, where the Ukrainian oligarch is one of the owners. In addition, since 2015, Palytsia has been the executive director and co-owner of this company and has established a charitable foundation with an Austrian MP.
The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office says that even if the information is true, they cannot do anything because there is no criminal liability for buying a place on a party list.
Conflict with the basketball club
A week ago, the Dnipro basketball club lost to its main rival in the fight for leadership in the Ukrainian Super League, the Prometheus team from Kamianske, Dnipro Oblast (formerly Dniprodzerzhynsk), with a score of 60-67. Opinions on this result were mixed. Prometheus president Volodymyr Dubinsky said that Dnipro’s defeat was natural. But Dnipro lodged a protest, counting 16 episodes in which the referees made mistakes in favor of the opponents. But the outcome of the match outraged Ukrainian oligarch and politician Ihor Kolomoisky the most. According to the Strana.ua and Censor.NET websites, after the match, the leadership of the Ukrainian Basketball Federation and the president of the Prometheus BC began receiving threats from Kolomoisky via WhatsApp demanding that the referees be punished and the outcome of the match be reviewed. The most egregious was the oligarch’s attack on Dubinsky. According to Strana.ua’s source, Kolomoisky told the Prometheus owner the following over the phone:
— “Listen, you … darned, I’ll break your legs! You decided to buy judges here? Then I’ll take you to the forest.
The next day, Dubinsky started having big problems with his business.
Why is Kolomoisky so excited about basketball? It’s simple: the oligarch has a personal interest in basketball — since this season, 20-year-old Hryhoriy Kolomoisky, the businessman’s son, has been playing for Dnipro.
Hryhoriy is not a star in the making, but he has a good base — he used to play on college teams in the United States and then played in Israel. Born in Switzerland, Kolomoisky Jr. is one of the richest heirs in Ukraine, but for now he prefers to build a sports career with the help of his father.
The oligarch attends almost every Dnipro basketball game and actively supports his son.
In addition, according to Strana.ua, the oligarch and Dubinsky have overlaps in business and politics, which added spice to their conflict.
The declaration
In 2011, Focus magazine estimated Ihor Kolomoisky’s wealth at $5.323 billion (No. 2 in the ranking of the 200 richest Ukrainians compiled by Focus magazine).
In 2009, Forbes magazine estimated Ihor Kolomoisky’s net worth at $1.2 billion. The publication noted that the crisis had caused a 75% drop in the value of Privatbank, which is controlled by Kolomoisky and his partner Hennadiy Boholyubov.
In 2009, Focus magazine estimated Kolomoisky’s net worth at $2.294 billion.
In 2007, the Korrespondent magazine estimated Ihor Kolomoisky’s wealth at $3.82 billion.
In 2008, the Polish weekly Wprost estimated Kolomoisky’s wealth at $11.3 billion.
According to the declarations that Kolomoisky filled out in the years when he was the head of the Dnipro Regional State Administration (2014-2015), he owns a 15-hectare plot of land and 6 apartments.
His family uses two other apartments. However, the declaration does not specify where the real estate is located.
The nominal value of the securities owned by Kolomoisky in 2015 reached UAH 10 billion, and his capital was UAH 16 billion.
In his declarations, Kolomoisky also indicated the receipt of funds from an offshore country, Cyprus, in the amount of 142 thousand dollars.
He owns a large car fleet: Bentley, Porsche Boxster, Toyota Land Cruiser 4700, Daimler Chrysler 6100 and three Mercedes-Benz cars of different models? BMW.
Ihor Kolomoisky owns elite ski resorts. He owns a part of the Ukrainian Bukovel. He lives in Geneva. He has an estate in the village of Mykilske-on-Dnipro, located in the Solonyansky district of the Dnipro region.
Kolomoisky’s last income declaration was dated March 2015.
At that time, he indicated that his total income for one year as governor amounted to more than UAH 514 million. Most of it (508 million) was income from the alienation of securities and corporate rights.
According to a rating compiled by Novoe Vremya magazine in cooperation with Dragon Capital, Kolomoisky is the fourth richest Ukrainian. He is worth $1.48 billion. His longtime partner, Hennadiy Boholyubov, is fifth on the list. He has 1.3 billion.
Summary
Those who have a lot of money are not subject to the law. The Ukrainian court and political force are useless against Ihor Kolomoisky, because every second member of the Verkhovna Rada is his “own” person. MPs can be controlled, the court can be bribed, and it’s all in the bag. After all, the situation with corruption in the country is more favorable for the oligarch than ever. And thanks to the control of the 1+1 TV channel, he can manipulate people by feeding them false information that is beneficial to Igor Valerievich and spoil the reputation of his enemies.