Leonid Chernovetskyi

Leonid Mykhaylovych Chernovetskyi (Леонід Михайлович Черновецький; born November 25, 1951) is a former Mayor of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, from 2006 until the summer of 2012.

He was a successful businessman, founder and controlling stakeholder of the Pravex Group and Pravex Bank, one of the largest banks in Ukraine.

From 1970 until 1972, Chernovetsky served his military obligations.

In 1977, he graduated from the Kharkiv Law School with specialization in jurisprudence.

He worked as the senior detective in the prosecutor's office of Kyiv Oblast.

In 1981, he returned to Kharkiv Law School attending aspirantura and obtained his doctorate in 1984 with a dissertation about Methods of investigation of plunders conducted by officials.

Until 1989 he was a teacher at Kyiv University.

Soon after perestroika, he went into private business, becoming one of the earliest big businesspeople in Kyiv.

He founded the Pravex Group (Правекс, an abbreviated from "Law, Economics and Sociology").

Later the banking division of the Pravex Group rose into the Pravex Bank - one of the largest banks in Ukraine, possessing a dense network of offices in Kyiv and other regions.

In 2001, Chernovestkyi and his bank founded the "Kyiv Bank Union" banking association.

In 2003, Chernovestkyi made headlines for his links to the deaths of two pedestrians who had died on separate occasions after being run over at high speed by cars linked to Chernovetsky on the road leading to his mansion in the elite Koncha Zaspa residential neighborhood.

Chernovetsky, who is a collector of expensive souped-up automobiles, was behind the wheel in the second incident; his wife was a passenger in the first.

Pravex Bank was sold in 2008 to Banca Intesa São Paulo for 509 million euros.

Chernovetskyi has acknowledged giving millions in bribes during his days as a businessman.

On August 18, 2008, President Victor Yushchenko granted him the Order of Yaroslav the Wise, though it was harshly opposed by Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko who urged to "stop granting decorations to corruptionists".

Chernovestkyi is a member of the Embassy of God, an evangelical church founded by Nigerian immigrant Sunday Adelaja.

He is also a longtime philanthropist of Kyiv, caring for the city's old and poor.

In January 2009 Chernovitskyi bought FC Arsenal Kyiv for 1 Hryvnia from Ukrainian businessman Vadim Rabinovich.

In February 2009 he released a compact disc with "popular songs of the 1980s" sung by him.

In 2009 he became the man of the year according to Korrespondent magazine.

In response, Chernovetsky posed on March 18, 2009, in tight swimming trunks in front of scores of reporters to try to show he was both physically and mentally fit.

Chernovestkyi was the subject of several personal and political attacks when he took office as mayor of Kyiv.

Some were critical about his lack of experience and his authoritarianism.

Others considered him off-balance or speculated that he has drug or alcohol problems.

However, none of these accusations have been proven to date.

Pravex Bank, one of the largest retail banks of Ukraine formerly controlled by Chernovestkyi and his family, was rumoured to submit its new employees to a polygraph test and to use coercive methods to recover impaired loans.

However, the Bank came out to be one of the most profitable financial institutions in Ukraine despite strong competition from foreign-owned banks.

Since the appointment by President Viktor Yanukovych of Oleksandr Popov as Head of Kyiv City State Administration on 16 November 2010, replacing Chernovetskyi, Chernovetskyi was deprived of any real decision-making role in Kyiv.

He tendered his resignation on 1 June 2012.

After this resignation Chernovetsky and his family moved to the Georgian town Kobuleti and he received Georgian citizenship.

Chernovetskyi quit school when he was 14 and went to work as a fitter at an aviation factory, but soon returned to resume his education, graduating from the Kharkiv public school #4.

In 2012, Leonid Chernovetskiy founded the Chernovetskyi Investment Group, a venture capital group based in Kyiv.

On January 2, 2013, Leonid Chernovetskiy founded Chernovetskyi Investment Group, investment potential of which exceeds 750 million dollars.

He is currently Honorary President of Chernovetskyi Investment Group.

Chernovetskyi was nicknamed "Cosmos" (Космос) after he publicly announced that he intends to fly in outer space with his cat.

However, that name got stuck with him later due to his non-ordinary administrative and political decisions and announcements that have been viewed as "bizarre".

He has sung at rallies and offered to auction off his kisses.

That behavior prompted some officials to call for a medical examination into whether he is mentally healthy to govern the city.

In 2015, the Chernovetskyi Investment Group made an investment of $1 million into Busfor, a Moscow-based online tour company.