Mikhail Khodorkovsky Net Worth 2024

What is Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s net worth?

Mikhail Khodorkovsky is a Russian businessman and philanthropist who has a net worth of $100 million. Mikhail Khodorkovsky is a vocal critic of the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin following his exile from Russia and at the moment resides in London.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested in October of 2003 on expenses of fraud and tax evasion. At the time, Mikhail was the richest person in Russia and the Sixteenth-richest individual on this planet, with a private net worth of $15 billion. Soon after his arrest, Vladimir Putin ordered that shares of his firm Yukus be frozen on Russian inventory exchanges. In May 2005, he was discovered responsible and sentenced to 9 years in jail. He was then additional charged with cash laundering and embezzlement. Mikhail Khodorkovsky was pardoned by Putin in December 2013 after spending more than ten years in a Siberian jail. Upon his launch, Mikhail was requested concerning the standing of his former wealth, to which he responded, “I do not know about my monetary scenario.” Yukos, which was at one time one of many largest oil firms on this planet, was bankrupt. Assets have been seized and offered.

Early and Personal Life

Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky was born on June 26, 1963 in Moscow. His mother and father, Boris and Marina, have been engineers at a manufacturing facility that made measuring devices. His mom was a Russian Orthodox Christian, and his father was Jewish. His mother and father have been against Communism however stored their opinions from their son, who turned a supporter of Communism and a patriot of the Soviet Union in his youth.

He attended D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia, the place he acquired his diploma in chemical engineering in 1986. While there, we have been the deputy head of the Communist Youth League, referred to as Komsomol. He additionally met a fellow pupil, Yelena, whom he married and had a son with. However, he then left his spouse after assembly one other younger pupil, Inna. He courted her by sleeping in his automotive outdoors of her house till she agreed to start seeing him. They then married and have had three youngsters collectively since. He was additionally in a position to keep a great relationship together with his first spouse, Yelena, in addition to together with his first son.

Early Career

Khodorkovsky’s first profession after ending college was with the Komsomol, which was the standard path for people searching for to enter Soviet politics. However, relatively than following the trajectory of slowly transferring up the ranks right into a administration place, Khodorkovsky proved to be a eager businessman. He used his connections within the Komsomol to assist open his first enterprise, a café, in 1986. His efforts have been made doable by Soviet chief Mikhail Gorbachev’s reform program, perestroika, which inspired the growing Soviet free market.

In 1987, Khodorkovsky opened a Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity of the Youth, which imported and offered computer systems and likewise offered a variety of different merchandise. He additionally developed a lot of connections with giant banks, enabling him and his companions to open Bank Menatep in 1989, considered one of Russia’s first privately owned banks. The financial institution expanded shortly and was appointed by the federal government the proper to handle funds allotted for the victims of the Chornobyl nuclear accident. The financial institution, together with different Russian banks, started the method of holding onto authorities funds for months on the expense of the recipients of the financial institution’s funds as a way to enrich the financial institution’s homeowners. This loans-for-shares program launched the time period oligarch, describing the beneficiaries of those transactions, of whom Khodorkovsky was one. Khodorkovsky wealth elevated dramatically throughout this time. He acquired the Yukos oil firm and reportedly made tens of millions in foreign money coaching. By 2003, Khodorkovsky was reportedly the richest man in Russia and was additionally a political influencer and advisor.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky / Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Arrest and Trial

While initially one of many political in-crowd, Khodorkovsky butted heads with Russian president Vladimir Putin, who had Khodorkovsky arrested in 2003 and charged with fraud. Not solely did this have an effect on Khodorkovsky but in addition the Yukos oil firm, which skilled a pointy collapse following the freezing of its shares. Khodorkovsky stood trial for his alleged crimes and, in May 2005, was discovered responsible and sentenced to 9 years in jail. While serving his sentence, he was additional charged with embezzlement and cash laundering, and his sentence was prolonged. Only after Hans-Dietrich Genscher lobbied for his launch did President Putin pardon Khodorkovsky, releasing him from jail in December of 2013.

Khodorkovsky’s trial and sentencing have been extremely criticized overseas by the international press and governments, lots of whom have been involved that his punishment was politically motivated. He filed a number of purposes with the European Court of Human Rights, alleging a number of human rights violations dedicated by Russia. While the court docket did discover that a number of violations had been dedicated, they in the end dominated that the trial and arrest weren’t politically motivated.

Upon his launch from jail, Khodorkovsky left Russian and was granted residency in Switzerland, after which he moved to London in 2015. While his wealth decreased considerably following the scandal of his arrest and time in jail, he was nonetheless a rich man by any margin and his wealth elevated by the he made the transfer to London.

Open Russia

Khodorkovsky had initially launched the group Open Russia within the early 2000s with the aim of making a basis to strengthen the civil society of Russia. He relaunched Open Russian in 2014 as a nationwide neighborhood platform, a lot to the displeasure of President Putin and the Kremlin.

The group advocates for unbiased media, the rule of legislation, political training, and better help for political prisoners. They hope to finally introduce sweeping reforms to Russia, together with these aimed toward legislation enforcement and elections. Khodorkovsky has stated he hopes Open Russia could be a conduit by way of which a constitutional convention might be achieved to direct energy away from the workplace of the presidency and in the direction of the legislature and judiciary.

In 2017, the workplace of the Prosecutor General of Russia designated Open Russia as an undesirable group, successfully banning it and all of its affiliated actions in Russia. The identical yr, it was additionally added to the registry of blocked web sites in Russia. Fearing legal prosecution of its members, Khodorkovsky introduced Open Russia would formally stop its operations in Russia in 2021, although they continue to be lively elsewhere on this planet.