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Rinat Akhmetov remains Ukraine's richest billionaire. Five Ukrainians made Forbes magazine’s annual list of richest people in the world, with a combined fortune of $13.2 billion. They are: Rinat Akhmetov, with $5.2 billion; Viktor Pinchuk, with $3.1 billion; Igor Kolomoisky, with $2 billion; Henadiy Boholyubov, with $1.7 billion; and Kostyantyn Zhevago, with $1.2 billion. The entire list and biographies can be found on www.forbes.com. Below are Forbes magazine excerpts of the Ukrainians’ biographies:

Rank 148
$5.2 billion
Rinat Akhmetov, 43



A son of a coal miner, Rinat Akhmetov built his business in the mid-1990s by forging ties with then-governor of Donetsk Oblast and later prime minister, Viktor Yanukovych. With Yanukovych winning the country’s presidency in February, Akhmetov is poised to benefit. Already his fortune has rebounded in the past year, thanks to the improved outlook for his metals group, Metinvest. He invested $1 billion in U.S. coal miner United Coal. His energy company, DTEK, is rumored to be considering a public offering. He christened his $400 million soccer stadium last August, which will host Euro 2012 soccer matches. He has spent more than $30 million on personal charities in the past two years.


Rank 307
$3.1 billion
Viktor Pinchuk, 49



Viktor Pinchuk made headlines in the art world this year. He announced a $100,000 prize for artists under age 35, to be awarded every two years, and was appointed to the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. He hobnobs at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, every year. Despite his glitzy lifestyle, Pinchuk’s pipemaker, Interpipe, is struggling. Fitch downgraded the company’s debt to restricted default over concerns of meeting its $900 million of total debt, nearly half of which is secured by company assets and future sales. He sold his Ukrsotsbank in 2008 at top of the market to Italy’s UniCredit Group for $2.2 billion. He reportedly paid Britain’s former prime minister, Tony Blair, to give a speech in Ukraine. He hosts a Yalta European Strategy summit every summer in the Crimea. He is the son-in-law of ex-President Leonid Kuchma and used his Ph.D. in pipe design to found Interpipe in 1990.


Rank 488
$2 billion
Igor Kolomoisky, 47




Igor Kolomoisky, with partner and fellow billionaire Henadiy Boholyubov, failed to get a board seat on fellow Ukrainian billionaire’s Kostyantin Zhevago’s iron ore company Ferrexpo last year. Their purchase of an ammonia plant from the government was annulled. With Boholyubov, Kolomoisky controls Privat group, a banking and industrial conglomerate. He began with Privatbank, which was founded with $1 million of capital in early 1990s. Its value has not yet recovered from 2008 credit crisis, which brought Ukraine to brink of collapse. He is expected to receive at least $100 million from a dividend payout from oil concern Ukrnafta. Separately, bought Ukrainian assets of U.S. billionaire Ronald Lauder’s Central European Media Enterprises Ltd. for $300 million in January; some analysts posit he overpaid.

Rank 582
$1.7 billion
Henadiy Boholyubov, 48



Via his private company, Palmary Enterprises, Henadiy Boholyubov won control over Australia’s manganese ore miner Consolidated Minerals in 2008; value of company plummeted by 40 percent along with market. He is currently in a tussle with investment bank JP Morgan over a $50 million advisory fee related to the deal. He is gearing up for a takeover battle involving Australia’s OM Holdings, regarded as the world’s last independent supplier of high-grade manganese; he now holds 12 percent stake in the company. With partner and fellow billionaire, Igor Kolomoisky, Boholyubov controls Privat group, a banking and industrial conglomerate they founded in early 1990s. The bank value has not yet recovered from the credit crisis that brought Ukraine to the brink of collapse. Oil concern Ukrnafta is set to pay $600 million in dividends owed from three prior years; his take: at least $100 million.


Rank 828
$1.2 billion
Kostyantyn Zhevago, 36



Ukraine’s youngest billionaire Kostyantyn Zhevago returns to the billionaires list as his iron ore producer Ferrexpo recovers from the 2008 market collapse. At the time, the company’s share price tumbled 94 percent in 5 months, and Zhevago was forced to sell a 21 percent stake to meet margin calls; he also took over as chief executive. His Finance & Credit Bank is still struggling. It recently reported profit losses for 2009. A deputy in Ukraine’s parliament, Zhevago’s party leader was defeated in a recent election. He started out as finance director of bank Finance & Credit in 1992 when he was 19 and he eventually gained a majority stake in its holding company.