New York Observer: Ukrainian oligarch would prefer to be called a Carpathian billionaire

We learned a lot in the Businessweek profile on Alexander Rovt, the Ukrainian fertilizer billionaire who’s been making huge, all-cash investments into American real estate lately (he spent $303 million to acquire a majority stake in the Banker’s Trust building this April), reads The New york observer report. 

Mr. Rovt should not be confused with Russian fertilizer billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, who spent $88 million on a penthouse at 15 CPW.

First of all, Mr. Rovt hates to be called a Russian oligarch—he’s actually Carpathian, a border region that is now part of the Ukraine. And while he did make the bulk of his fortune in connection with the purchase of an old, formerly government-owned Ukrainian fertilizer plant, he is adamant that he is not the kind of Eastern European billionaire who has capitalized on Post-Soviet privatization. 

Read more here.