Comeback Unravels for Ukraine’s Most Controversial Billionaire
- IMF deal halts Kolomoisky’s chance of getting Privatbank back
- Other assets are also facing headwinds from Covid-19 crisis
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It was the spring of 2019 and change was in the air in Kyiv. Ukraine had just elected its youngest-ever leader and voters were optimistic that the political novice would wipe the slate clean after decades of post-Soviet corruption.
The shifting tides also looked like good news for one of the country’s six billionaires, Ihor Kolomoisky, who’d been in self-imposed exile in Switzerland and Israel after falling out with the previous administration. The new president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, didn’t just represent a fresh start. He was a long-standing business partner who could surely help the tycoon win back the bank his predecessor had nationalized.