Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky was born on 26 June 1963, in Moscow, (then) Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, of Jewish and Russian descent. Mikhail is a philanthropist, businessman and former oligarch, best known for formerly being the wealthiest man in Russia. He founded several businesses during his career, which were eventually seized by the government. All of his endeavors have helped put his net worth to where it is today.
How rich is Mikhail Khodorkovsky? As of early-2017, sources inform us of a net worth that is at $100 million, mostly earned through the success of his numerous endeavors. Much of his wealth however, was lost after the Russian government took action against him. There is still a lot of speculation about the worth of his current assets and may prove to increase his net worth as time passes.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky Net Worth $100 million
Mikhail attended the D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia, where he became the deputy head of the Communist Youth League, or Komsomol. He graduated in 1986 with a degree in chemical engineering, then started working as part of the Komsomol and started foraying into various business opportunities. He opened his first business in the same year, a private café, then ventured into other opportunities such as finance, computers and many more.
Khodorkovsky and his partners then opened a Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity of the Youth, which was actually involved in importing various products. Eventually, this led to the founding of Bank Menatep which was one of Russia’s first privately owned banks, and would prove controversial as the bank held government funds for months at a time at the expense of the recipients. They also had auctions that were reportedly rigged, which allowed him to acquire the Yukos oil company.
He would become an economic advisor to the first government of Boris Yeltsin, then in 1992 Mikhail became the chairman of the Investment Promotion Fund, and he was also appointed as the Deputy Minister of Fuel and Energy of Russia. Four years later, he started to increase his net worth significantly, thanks to currency trading. This led him to acquire stakes in multiple companies, then becoming an oligarch who would have controlling interest in many of them. During the 1998 Russian economic crash, his bank would go under, and Yukos would also have a problem due to oil price drops. This led him to start the Open Russia foundation, and begin funding numerous projects and a lot of non-government organizations in Russia.
In 2003, Khodorkovsky planned to merge the Yukos with Sibneft, which would make his oil reserves as large as most Western petroleum multinationals, actually the second largest possessor of oil reserves in the world. Thanks to rising oil prices, he was called the richest man in Russia with a fortune that was at $16 billion, a staggering increase of his net worth over the years. The merger was not continued because he was arrested on suspicion of illegally acquiring a stake in the state-owned firm Apatit. He was charged with fraud, tax evasion, and numerous other crimes. In an interview Mikhail mentioned that the charges were “retribution for financing political parties that opposed Putin”. He stayed in prison until 2013 when he was pardoned by Putin, since when he’s vowed to move away from politics and business.
He was exiled from Russia after his release, and he would become a keynote speaker for numerous events around the world. He eventually re-launched the Open Russia movement, and would also launch a website that promoted alternatives to Putin.
For his personal life, it is known that Mikhail married Yelena Dobrovolskaya while he was in college; they have a son but the couple eventually divorced, despite which the two have remained on good terms. Before their divorce, he met Inna whom he would later court and later marry – they have three children.
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