33 Facts About Ihor Kolomoyskyi

Ihor Valeriyovych Kolomoyskyi is a Ukrainian-born Israeli billionaire businessman, once considered the leading oligarch in Ukraine.

Already an entrepreneur in the last years of Soviet Ukraine, in 2010 Kolomoyskyi was rated as the second richest person in Ukraine, and as one of the country's most influential oligarchs.

Between 2014 and 2016, Ihor Kolomoyskyi served as Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast until his dismissal by President Petro Poroshenko.

Later that same year, those of Ihor Kolomoyskyi's assets deemed to be of strategic value to the state in light of the Russian invasion were nationalised.

In 2023, Ihor Kolomoyskyi was arrested by the Security Service of Ukraine on charges of money laundering and fraud, and placed under pre-trial arrest.

Ihor Kolomoyskyi uses the nickname Benya, an invocation of the infamous Ukrainian criminal reprobate Benya Krik, popularly fictionalized in Isaac Babel's Odessa Stories.

Ihor Kolomoyskyi was born into a Jewish family in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union.

Ihor Kolomoyskyi's mother worked at the university and father in a metallurgical plant.

Ihor Kolomoyskyi used his role in organising approved dance venues and concerts to begin his trading career, as did others in his position, several of whom would go on to play prominent roles in post-Soviet national politics, among them Yulia Tymoshenko, Victor Pinchuk, Serhiy Tihipko, and Oleksandr Turchynov.

In 1986, Ihor Kolomoyskyi found work in the Fianit trading cooperative.

In 1990, with two other graduates from Dnipropetrovsk universities, Gennadiy Bogolyubov and Oleksiy Martynov, Ihor Kolomoyskyi created a joint enterprise marketing office equipment bought in Moscow.

Between 1999 and 2003, Ihor Kolomoyskyi gained control of Ukrnafta, Kalinin Coke and Chemical Plant, Ozerka market in Dnipropetrovsk, Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant, and other companies.

Ihor Kolomoyskyi has been a prominent figure in Ukraine's organised Jewish community.

Ihor Kolomoyskyi became a major funder in Ukraine of the Chabad movement, which has Ukrainian roots.

In December 2016, declaring that Ihor Kolomoyskyi's bank was severely undercapitalized and a threat to the country's financial system, the Ukrainian government nationalized the lender, then the largest in Ukraine.

Ihor Kolomoyskyi stated that he has no interest in taking back control of the bank but sought $2bn in compensation for losses he insists were incurred during the nationalisation.

Legal filings from American prosecutors in 2019 detailed how Ihor Kolomoyskyi used his control of Ukraine's largest retail bank, PrivatBank, to loot staggering sums from Ukrainian depositors, and via a series of shell companies and offshore accounts whisked the money out of the country and into the US.

Ihor Kolomoyskyi opposed the presidential ambitions and government of Viktor Yanukovych and his broadly pro-Russian Party of Regions.

Ihor Kolomoyskyi supported Yulia Tymoshenko and her bloc of political parties, Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko.

Ihor Kolomoyskyi drafted thousands of Privat Group employees as auxiliary police officers.

Russia asked for Ihor Kolomoyskyi to be put on Interpol's wanted list.

Ihor Kolomoyskyi, according to Filatov, helped with some equipment purchases, but the volunteer guard performs defence and law and order functions under the leadership of the national police.

On 1 February 2021, Oleksandr Dubinsky, a former 1+1 journalist who had actively opposed this so-called "anti-Ihor Kolomoyskyi law", was expelled from Zelenskyy's Servant of the People parliamentary faction.

Ihor Kolomoyskyi explained that his former protege "has chosen his path".

Ihor Kolomoyskyi had the reputation for being able to dictate the votes of deputies within Zelenskyy's parliamentary faction by phone but press reports before the Russian invasion suggested he had "disappeared", staying deliberately away from politics.

In July 2022, a member of Zelenskyy's team reportedly claimed that Ihor Kolomoyskyi was "holed up" in the Menorah Centre that he helped finance in Dnipro, hiding from Russian shelling, and that he had retired not only from business, but from "socio-political life".

Under martial law, in November 2022 the Ukrainian authorities seized two oil companies, Ukrnafta and Ukrtatnafta, in which Ihor Kolomoyskyi is a major shareholder, after Ukraine's security service said it had uncovered the embezzlement of more than $1bn.

Ihor Kolomoyskyi was arrested by the Security Service of Ukraine on 2 September 2023 on charges of money laundering and fraud, and placed under pre-trial arrest until 31 October with the option of posting 509 million hryvnia in bail.

Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office accused Ihor Kolomoyskyi of laundering $13.5 million between 2013 and 2020 by transferring funds abroad.

Ihor Kolomoyskyi's lawyers said he would not pay bail and would appeal the ruling.

On 8 May 2024, while still in detention pending trial for the previous charges, Ihor Kolomoyskyi was served with another notice of suspicion for allegedly ordering the contract killing of a law firm director in 2003.

Ihor Kolomoyskyi obtained Cypriot citizenship through a golden visa, which was revoked in 2024 after a review found that he had withheld information about his criminal charges in his application.

Ihor Kolomoyskyi is married to fellow Dnipro native Iryna Mikhailivna Kolomoyska.