Vitaliy Khomutynnik

Khomutynnik started his first business, a private company Cascade in 1993. Since then, by developing and investing into fast-growing spheres of Ukrainian economy, a private company was transformed into operating now as Cascade Investment Fund.[3] The primary focus of Cascade Investment Fund is investment in the agricultural sector, finance, gas extraction and real estate business in Ukraine. Also has office in London.[4] Today, in the investment fund portfolio not only private equity companies but also shareholdings in public companies, such as biggest Ukrainian agricultural holding Kernel Holding.[5] In 2023 Kernel Holding announced the delisting of the company from Warsaw Stock Exchange[6]

Khomutynnik is a business partner along with Pavel Fuks in a Ukrainian gas company called Ukrnaftoburinnya, usually associated with Ihor Kolomoyskyi.[7][8] In 2017, Ukrnaftoburinnya's volumes of production were around 390 million cubic meters of natural gas.[7] Khomutynnik owns shares in Ukrnaftoburinnya through a Cypriot-domiciled company, Deripon Commercial.[9] In April 2023, the Pecheresky District Court in Kyiv transferred the assets of the Ukrnaftoburinnya company to state management, the company appealed this decision in court.[10][11][12]

In 2019, Khomutynnik acquired a stake in Dresdenco Investments after an approval by Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine.[13]

Khomutynnik is also the owner of an insurance company, Brokbusiness.[14]

Khomutynnik was elected to the Parliament for the first time by majority district in his native city Makiivka (Donetsk Region) in 2002.[15] During his early career, he founded the youth wing of Party of Regions (PR) and later handed its control to Viktor Viktorovych Yanukovych.[15] Later, he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) in 2002, 2006, 2007, and 2012.[1] During this time, he was a head of Committee on Taxation and Customs Policy and head of Committee on Financial Policy and Banking and controlled taxation and VAT refunds.[16][17][15]

In 2012, he was elected for the Party of Regions, as number 23 of its party list.[18]

In 2014, Khomutynnik was elected to the 8th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada in the Ukrainian parliamentary election by winning a majority district in Kharkiv.[18] This time as an independent candidate,[18] he was elected in Kharkiv's Frunzensky District with 30.34% of the votes, Inna Chuiko of People's Front placed second with 23.27% of the votes.[19] In 2014, he was considered as the wealthiest and youngest MP and was a close associate of Viktor Yanukovych.[20] During his time as a member of parliament, Khomutynnik created a pressure group with around ten MPs, termed as "Khomutynnik group" in Wilson Center report, that was created to support Ihor Kolomoyskyi in the parliament.[7] He was one of the MPs who voted for dictatorial laws on January 16, 2014.[15]

In 2017, Khomutynnik and his accompanied Russian-Ukrainian oligarch Pavel Fuks, known as his business partner, in the United States, in an attempt to attend inaugural events.[21][22]

In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election Khomutynnik lost his parliamentary seat.[18][23] He was a candidate of Opposition Bloc (he was placed number 11 on their national election list).[18]

He was the head of the parliamentary group Renaissance.[15][24][25] In September 2017, he left the post.[26]

In October 2019 he was elected president and chairman of the board of the Ukrainian Golf Federation.[27]

During his tenure, Khomutynnik, as other members of Ukrainian parliament,[28] has been accused of evading taxes.[29][30] In a couple of months The General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine closed the criminal proceedings on checking the declarations of Vitaliy Khomutynnik, no crime was established.[28][31] He was mentioned by some journalist and academics as oligarch.[32]