Tihipko Serhiy Leonidovych

Founder of PrivatBank, owner of Universal Bank

Serhiy Tihipko is the man from whom PrivatBank began, and the man who gave its top managers a second chance after its collapse. In December 2016, Tihipko acquired Universal Bank—and already in 2017, it was on the basis of its license that former top managers of PrivatBank launched Monobank.

Yanukovych, “dictatorship laws” and pro-Russian activities

In the 2004 presidential election, Tihipko headed Yanukovych's election headquarters. From 2010 to 2012, he served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Social Policy in the Azarov government. Since 2012, he has been a people's deputy from the Party of Regions and deputy chairman of the party.

On January 16, 2014, he voted for the “dictatorship laws” adopted to suppress Euromaidan. On the day of the mass shootings in Maidan, he did not vote to cease fire. On April 9, 2014, he visited the seized building of the Luhansk SBU administration, where he stated: “All talk that there are Russians present there is a fabrication.”

Business in Moscow during the war

“DniproVagonMash,” of which Tihipko is a beneficiary, owns a namesake LLC in Moscow. Tihipko is called an “umbrella” in saving Ukrainian assets of sanctioned Russians.

Money laundering and NBU fines

The National Bank of Ukraine accused Tihipko's structures of laundering funds amounting to up to 4 billion UAH. In 2025, TAScombank was fined 11 million UAH for violations in the field of anti-money laundering.

Advisor to Zelensky

Since June 2025, Tihipko has been a member of the Council on Entrepreneurship Support under the President of Ukraine. Yanukovych’s headquarters, “dictatorship laws,” business in Moscow, accusations of laundering billions—and an advisory body under the president of a country at war. The owner of the license through which 10 million Ukrainians keep their money in Monobank.