Ihor
Kolomoisky

• Born on February 13, 1963 in Dnipropetrovsk (now: Dnipro).
• Education: Dnipropetrovsk Metallurgical Institute.
• Kolomoisky has a triple Ukraine-Israel-Cyprus citizenship. He insists there is nothing illegal in that fact.

• In 1986 he worked in the trade cooperative Fianit.
• In 1991, together with Leonid Miloslavsky, Oleksiy Martynov and Hennadiy Boholyubov, he founded Sentosa Ltd. Sentosa imported goods and equipment from Moscow to Dnipropetrovsk.

Later, they started importing petroleum products. Then, they switched to the ferroalloy business. They supplied fuel to Ordzhonikidze GOK (now: Pokrov Mining and Processing Plant GOK), and under barter arrangements received manganese ore for further export.

• In 1992, together with partners he founded PrivatBank. The first Chairman of the Board of Privat Bank was Serhiy Tihipko.
• In 1995, Privatbank began accepting voucher certificates from the population, and they were exchanged for shares of strategic enterprises in the region.

According to the media, this process was supported by Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko. One of the first assets was Dneprazot. Now, it is the only producer of liquid chlorine to clean the tap water.

• In 1999-2003, Kolomoisky gained control over Ukrnafta, Kalinin Coke and Chemical Plant, Ozerka market in Dnipropetrovsk, Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant, and other enterprises.

• Kolomoisky is open about his investments in politics. According to the businessman, he spent about $5 million on supporting the Orange Revolution.
• In March 2014, Kolomoisky was appointed Governor of Dnipropetrovsk, replacing Dmytro Kolesnikov. He resigned in March 2015.
• In 2016, the oligarch became a member of the political party UKROP and headed one of the party bodies.
• In the Parliament of the 9th convocation, Kolomoisky’s interests were actively represented by the people's deputy from Servants of the People Oleksandr Dubinsky, a former 1+1 journalist. For instance, he actively opposed the so-called 'anti-Kolomoisky law,' a bill that protected nationalized financial institutions from returning to their previous owners.
• The For the Future faction is headed by Ihor Palytsia. He is a longtime friend and business partner of Kolomoisky.
• Yulia Tymoshenko is now the permanent leader of the All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" political party. She also defends the interests of the oligarch. In particular, there are 64 parliamentarians, including Tymoshenko and Dubinsky, who challenge the law on banks in the Constitutional Court.

• Kolomoisky is one of the TOP-100 richest Ukrainians. Novoe Vremia and Dragon Capital estimate his fortune at $1.48 billion. Focus magazine estimates it at $2.6 billion, while Russian Forbes claims his fortune to be only $1 billion.

Now, there are hundreds of enterprises in the Privat Group. These are metallurgical and ferroalloy plants, mining and processing plants, enterprises of fuel-energy complex, as well as media assets.

• Kolomoisky is a co-owner of the 1+1 Media Group which comprises several TV channels: 1+1, 2+2, TET, PlusPlus, 1+1 International, UNIAN TV, and Bigudi. He also owns the online news platforms UNIAN, Glavred, and Telekritika.
• Kolomoisky's media business partner is Ihor Surkis. Since 2016, his share in Bolvik Ventures LTD is 33%. The company owns a 25% stake in 1+1.

'Surkis holds his shares in 1+1 indirectly, and his share is 8%. This asset was registered in a trust in Cyprus. Under Cypriot law, this is not considered as property,' said the family lawyer Bohdan Slobodian during court proceedings in the PrivatBank case.

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• Another partner in 1+1 is Oksana Marchenko, the wife of the leader of the political party 'Opposition Platform — for Life' and Putin’s friend Viktor Medvedchuk.

'She owns 8.22% shares of the 1+1 channel and 8.17% shares of the TET channel,' the party specified.

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• Wife: Iryna Kolomoiska, born July 1, 1964. The oligarch told reporters that he met Iryna for the first time in a pioneer camp when they were 15 years old. She lives in Switzerland.

'We don’t discuss business at all, only family things,' says Kolomoisky.

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• Daughter: Angelika, born on March 10, 1985.

June 2, 2020, Angelika gave birth to two boys. It is known that in 2011, she got married with Oleg Bokoev, an Israeli citizen. Kolomoisky said in an interview that the couple soon had divorced.

He also said that he got to Switzerland because of Angelika, as she had chosen to study at College du Leman. Larisa Chertok, Ihor's sister, followed the 16-year-old girl to look after her. This way, the family often traveled to Switzerland, and eventually settled down there. Angelika is friends with Kateryna Boholiubova and Ksenia (Xeniya) Martynova. In the social media, the daughters of the oligarchs have a lot of photos of them together.

• Son: Gregory, born on January 27, 1999 in Geneva. The guy professionally plays basketball and lives in the USA.

Last year, the media wrote that he was studying at Cleveland University, playing in the student team Cleveland State Vikings. The guy’s height is 193 cm. Now, Gregory states on Facebook that he lives in Miami.

• Sister: Chertok Larisa, born April 16, 1975.

In 2019, journalists published investigation about her luxurious life.

'Chertok runs a family-connected concierge service for the ultra-wealthy and is related to an art gallery serving the rich in Geneva’s Old Town,' the investigation reports.

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Kolomoisky’s sister has acted on behalf of Kolomoisky since at least 2004. She also helps him make deals.

For example, in 2007, she signed as witness for his purchase of a $110 million stake in Central European Media Enterprises Ltd., paving the way for his later ownership of the 1+1 TV channel in Ukraine.

She also founded a Swiss firm called Gehold SA, which privatized a stake in Sukha Balka, a major Ukrainian iron ore mine, and thus, Kolomoisky got control over the mine.

'By 2008, ownership of Sukha Balka had been consolidated under one offshore company, Palmrose Ltd., which was controlled by Kolomoisky and Boholyubov. Palmrose was then sold for more than $1 billion to Russia’s Evraz group, part-owned by oligarch Roman Abramovich,' the journalists state.

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• In 2017, Larisa's husband Vladimir Chertok registered Ukrmining SA in Geneva. The company is part of the Engineering Services Industry. It has 4 employees and $406,000 annual revenue.

In Ukraine, Vladimir is a co-owner of a company with the same name Ukrmining. It is registered in Nikopol and provides services in engineering, geology, geodesy and mediation in the sale of fuel, ores, metals and industrial chemicals.

Another business of Kolomoisky’s son-in-law is tourism. He is a beneficiary of Sentosa-Tour (the website is down).

Apart from that, Chertok, Kolomoisky and Vadim Rabinovich are members of the leadership of the European Council of Jewish Community, registered in Geneva.

• March 3, 2014, right after being appointed head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration, Ihor Kolomoisky called Putin a "schizophrenic of short stature."
• In 2019, he unexpectedly called the war in the Donbass a "civil conflict."

'They (Russia) are stronger anyway. We have to improve our relations. People want peace, a good life, they don’t want to be at war. And you— America—are forcing us to be at war, and not even giving us the money for it,' the billionaire said.

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• In 2005, a criminal case was instituted against Ihor Kolomoisky. He was charged with attempted murder of Serhiy Karpenko, a lawyer that represented the interests of the Russian oligarch of Ukrainian origin Konstantin Grigorishin.

Karpenko was attacked by unknown persons with hammers, iron rods and knives a week after meeting with Kolomoisky.

Previously, Kolomoisky invited the lawyer to his office and demanded to change the situation with the meeting of shareholders of Dneprospetsstal, but the lawyer did not comply with his demands. A bit later, the case was closed, and Kolomoisky called all the charges against him 'political persecution.' According to the journalist Serhiy Leshchenko, Prosecutor General Sviatoslav Piskun helped the oligarch close the case allegedly for $40-50 million.

• In 2014, Viktor Pinchuk tried to reopen the investigation, yet by a strange coincidence, the investigator who worked with the case died in the ATO zone.
• In 2015 during a parliament meeting of the special commission on privatization issues, Kolomoisky told the people's deputies that since 2003 he had been giving $5 million in bribes every month.

According to him, thar money was demanded by President Leonid Kuchma and his son-in-law Viktor Pinchuk for the right to manage Ukrnafta. He paid them totally $110 million.

'Everything has been provided to an English court. These accounts were identified as the accounts of Pinchuk and Kuchma,' the oligarch told the deputies.

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Law officials opened criminal proceeding, and three years later the Specialized Anti-Corruption closed it due to absence of the elements of a criminal offence.

• In 2016, the state nationalized PrivatBank due to UAH 113 billion capital shortage, according to the NBU audit.
• In 2017, PrivatBank filed a lawsuit to the High Court of Justice in England against the former owners Kolomoisky and Boholiubov, as well as companies which allegedly belonged to them or were under their control.

The bank is confident that they will be able to prove a scheme of fraud committed on a preliminary agreement and make them pay back more than $3 billion.

• In 2018, the National Bank reported that an independent investigarion by the company Kroll performed the audit of PrivatBank and confirmed that prior to the bank nationalization, the former shareholders had withdrawn $5.5 billion from the bank.
• In 2019, it has been reported that the FBI investigated Kolomoisky’s business in Ohio for money laundering. The businessman was not brought any accusations, so his lawyer assured that there were no cases in the United States against his client at all.

• Kolomoisky is the president of the United Jewish Community of Ukraine.

About Petro Poroshenko:

'I will never forget the merits of everyone, including Poroshenko and his achievements at that dangerous time. There was a risk, and each showed himself. While someone quietly hid and hummed, waiting for the end, the other spoke and acted bravely, and together we defended our Fatherland. At that time, very few decided a lot for Ukraine.'

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About Volodymyr Zelensky:

'A man with a lower IQ and erudition cannot influence a more intelligent and talented one. Therefore, I can say that he is independent enough, even absolutely independent.'

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