Arcadi Gaydamak

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Aleksandrovich and the family name is Gaydamak.
Arcadi Gaydamak
Born8 April 1952 (1952-04-08) (age 72)
Moscow, USSR
Occupationbusinessman
SpouseIrene Chirolenikova
ChildrenAlexander, Khadija and Sonia

Arcadi Aleksandrovich Gaydamak (Hebrew: ארקדי אלכסנדרוביץ' גאידמק; Russian: Аркадий Александрович Гайдамак; born 8 April 1952 in Moscow, USSR) is a Russian-born French-Israeli businessman, philanthropist, and President of the Congress of Jewish Religious Communities and Organizations of Russia (KEROOR). In the 1990s he was awarded the French Ordre national du Mérite[1][2] and the Ordre du Mérite agricole for actions taken to rescue personnel in the War in Bosnia. He holds Israeli, Canadian, French, and Russian nationalities, as well as a diplomatic passport from Angola. Gaydamak's net worth was valued between $700 million and $4 billion USD in 2007,[3] but following a series of lawsuits, failed investments, and the global economic crisis in 2008, his net worth declined significantly.

Gaydamak invested in real estate in France and Israel, in Kazphosphate - the world's largest phosphate producer, in a gold mine and a metal processing plant in Kazakhstan, in the Russian weekly Moskovskiye Novosti, in food distribution in Russia and in oil fields and granaries in Angola. In Israel, his assets included the Bikur Holim hospital in Jerusalem, the Beitar Jerusalem football club, 15% of Africa Israel Holdings, and 99FM radio station. His significant and rapid investments in Israel made him a celebrity in Israel during the mid-2000s, with many mentions in the local media.[4]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference haaretz.com was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Legifrance.gouv.fr was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Petersburg, Ofer (21 March 2023). "Gayadamak said to be worth USD 1 billion". Ynetnews. Archived from the original on 21 March 2023. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
  4. ^ "Abramovich is latest of more than 30 Russian Jewish tycoons to move to Israel | The Times of Israel". The Times of Israel. 21 March 2023. Archived from the original on 21 March 2023. Retrieved 21 March 2023.