Net Worth: $143 million

Age: 48

Marital status: Married, three children

Last year: $837 million

Industry: Metallurgy, property

Eduard Shifrin, a friend of the Ukrainian film producer Alexandr Rodyansky, provided almost a third of the budget for the film The Inhabited Island. The most expensive Ukrainian-Russian film project cost $36 million to make, but in mid-May had taken only $26 million, rather than the intended $70 million. So Shifrin’s Midland Group isn’t going to see a profit any time soon. But that’s a temporary setback, small change compared to the businessman’s losses in the once fast-growing retail chain Amstor. Losses for 2008 totaled Hr 600 million. At the end of last year, Shifrin split his business with his partner Alexander Shnaider. In Russia he was left with a portfolio of 1.6 million square meters of commercial, residential and hotel property. The largest projects were frozen owing to a lack of resources. The Canadian and Dominican side of the business went to Shnaider. In Ukraine they sold the MD Retail chain and the Kharkiv-based distribution company Ns Ltd. In short, Shifrin had to seriously reformat his business.