Net Worth: $488 million

Age: 43

Marital status: Widower, bringing up a daughter

Last year: $4.9 billion

Industry: Ferroalloys, petrochemicals

While preparing the list of Ukraine’s richest last year, Korrespondent asked each nominee to say how he saw the future of his business. Aleksei Martynov, co-owner of Privat business group, answered, “The ferroalloy business is of special interest.” Then he added, “I see its future together with Ukraine.” This second, pretentious part of his short speech wasn’t in the final edition. Martynov was offended. A strict woman from his office called Korrespondent’s editorial and said that her boss had sent two sentences, so why had only one been published? Then she said that every work that Martynov says is gold. Which is surely an understatement. It’s long been time to weigh Martynov’s words like diamonds. Because he never says anything publicly. Nevertheless, even after the Dnipropetrovsk entrepreneur’s shares plunged tenfold in value in one year, our editorial was curious how he saw the future of his business. The answer? Silence. Either he sees no future, or he sees a future, just not in Ukraine.