Smolii Yakiv Vasylovych

Billionaire banker, former governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, who resigned "under political pressure"

A mathematician by profession, Candidate of Economic Sciences. In banking since the 1990s: manager and shareholder of Aval Bank (1.25% of shares), which was purchased in 2005 by Austrian Raiffeisen — through this sale Smoliy became a dollar millionaire. Then — co-founder and chairman of the supervisory board of Prestige Bank. Since April 2014 at the NBU (cash, IT, payment systems), from October 2016 — first deputy, governor of the NBU (March 15, 2018 – July 3, 2020). Resigned, citing "systematic political pressure" on the regulator; G7 and IMF ambassadors warned against rollback of reforms.

One of the wealthiest officials

For years he ranked among the wealthiest: in 2015, only Poroshenko surpassed him by funds in accounts. Declared millions of dollars in deposits, income from renting about 11 real estate properties, several cars, a personal watercraft, Swiss watches. Wealth was mostly legal, acquired before public service.

Scandals and "Russian trace"

In 2017, his subordinate — director of the NBU's Payment Systems Department Shatsky — was detained over a $35,000 bribe. According to the media, the insurance company Etalon of the Smoliy family was once bought by Russian investor Duvanov. Smoliy himself has not been personally suspected.