Kamprad No Longer Europe's Richest

IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad is now dethroned as Europe's richest person by Ukrainian businessman Rinat Akhmetov. The latter is richer than Kamprad by more than $100 million.

Akhmetov is cited as such by Ukraine's Korrespondent Magazine, in a recent article that listed the country's richest people according to asset valuations by the investment bank Dragon Capital.

Akhmetov controls a diverse band of companies, from oil and energy to mass media and mining. He also founded Ukraine's premier financial company, Systems Capital Management.

As a philanthropist, Akhmetov is not any less renowned. He recently pledged $150 million to the Foundation for the Development of Ukraine. In his desire to improve the standard of living in his nation, he incepted the Foundation for Effective Governance in 2007.

Judging from his publicity people's scramble to send press releases to New York City, Akhmetov seems like he's raring to be really touted as Europe's richest.

Akhmetov's wealth belies the economic standing of his country, one of Europe's poorest. If there is anything his wealth corroborates, it's the steepness of income inequality in Ukraine.

But what with all his noble causes, it looks like Europeans, Kamprad included, should cut him some slack. If a title is all it takes to lift a nation from being downtrodden, then a press release may be more than it's worth after all.

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