As of October 2026, there are 478 individuals in Ukraine, each of whom is registered as the owner or beneficial owner of at least 50 companies. The maximum number of companies linked to a single individual reaches 5,889, according to data from the Unified State Register published by the analytical service “OpenDataBot” on October 26.
According to the study, Vitaliy Ilnitsky of Kyiv remains the individual with the largest number of registered companies, listed as the owner of 5,889 enterprises.
Second place goes to Ruslan Merzlyakov from Donetsk, who is linked to 2,221 companies. Thus, the number of companies registered to the leader of the ranking is more than double that of his closest competitor.
In third place is Vladislav Melekhin from Kyiv, who is listed as the owner or beneficiary of 858 companies.
Fourth place goes to Andriy Puya from Zenkiv in the Poltava region with 799 companies, and fifth place goes to Kateryna Doroshenko from Kyiv with 674 companies.
The top ten also includes Valeriy Ilienko (637 companies), Yuriy Pukhir (571), Andriy Sosonny (525), Tetyana Svyrydyuk (455), and Valeriy Malakhov (408).
Thus, even in tenth place on the ranking, the number of legal entities linked to a single person exceeds 400.
In the study, “mass owners” are defined as individuals who appear in government registries as owners or beneficiaries of at least 50 registered companies. However, the existence of such a record does not mean that the individual single-handedly manages all of the relevant companies.
As Miroslav Laba, a tax and regulatory policy specialist at the Economic Expert Platform, noted, a large number of companies owned or controlled by a single individual does not in itself constitute a violation of the law.
At the same time, the expert believes that the registration of hundreds or thousands of companies under a single individual may indicate the use of nominal directors or owners.
According to him, it is important for tax authorities to identify the actual officers who carry out business operations and are responsible for fulfilling tax obligations.
The use of nominal owners, in the expert’s assessment, is considered a tax risk factor, as it may be accompanied by an opaque management structure and potential tax evasion schemes.
At the same time, the mere fact that a person appears in the registry of a large number of companies does not constitute evidence of fictitious business operations, legal violations, or tax evasion.
The “OpenDataBot” study is based on registration data regarding company owners and ultimate beneficial owners. It does not draw conclusions about the actual financial condition, business activity, or tax compliance of the companies included in the list.
Source: “OpenDataBot,” study “478 Mass Owners of Companies in Ukraine,” October 26, 2026.
