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Who is this shadowy Russian oligarch?

By Ben Muessig
The Brooklyn Paper
Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov has just agreed to buy 80 percent of the New Jersey Nets and heavily invest in Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project.

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The billionaire bachelor who might rescue Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project made his fortune in the mines and spends his time at play.

Mikhail Prokhorov is a self-made mogul who became the richest man in Russia by leading companies that extract precious metals from the Siberian ground.

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In 2007, the Moscow Finance Institute grad cashed out of his 25-percent stake in Norilsk Nickel and used the money to start a $17-billion private investment fund called the Onexim Group dedicated to mining technology.

The 6-foot-8, 44-year-old playboy — dubbed “Russia’s Warren Buffett” — witnessed a 51-percent drop in his net worth over the past year, but he is still the 40th wealthiest person in the world with holdings of $9.5 billion, according to Forbes Magazine.

When he’s not racking up cash from rocks, Prokhorov — who once owned a share of the Moscow hoops team CSKA — is practicing his kickboxing, hitting the slopes, or pulling nifty maneuvers on a Jet Ski.

But his life isn’t all metals and fetes.

In 2007, French cops locked up the mogul and his friends for four days at a French ski resort Courchevel amidst allegations that they were running an international prostitution ring. Prokhorov was never charged with any crime.

Though he is known for maintaining a relatively private life, the magnate maintains hilarious a personal Web site and an even funnier Russian-language blog.

But just how rich is he?

“If you know how rich you are, you are not a billionaire,” he once told the Times Online, our sister publication across the pond.

©2009 Community Newspaper Group

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