As of October 2026, Ukraine has 478 individuals, each registered as the owner or beneficiary of at least 50 companies. Meanwhile, the maximum number of enterprises associated with one person reaches 5889, according to data from the Unified State Register, published by the analytical service “OpenDatabot” on 26 October.
According to the study, the individual with the most registered companies remains Kyiv resident Vitalii Ilnytskyi, who is listed as the owner of 5889 enterprises.
The second place is held by Ruslan Merzlyakov from Donetsk, associated with 2221 company. Thus, the number of enterprises registered to the rating leader is more than twice that of the closest competitor.
The third position is occupied by Vladyslav Melekhin from Kyiv, who is listed as the owner or beneficiary of 858 companies.
The fourth place is held by Andrii Puiia from Zenkiv, Poltava region, with 799 companies, and the fifth by Kateryna Doroshenko from Kyiv with 674 enterprises.
The top ten also includes Valerii Ilenko (637 companies), Yurii Pukhyr (571), Andrii Sosonnyi (525), Tetyana Svyridyuk (455) and Valerii Malakhov (408).
Thus, even in the tenth position of the rating, the number of legal entities associated with one person exceeds 400.
In the study, mass owners are defined as individuals who appear in state registries as owners or beneficiaries of at least 50 registered companies. However, the presence of such an entry does not mean that the person individually manages all the corresponding enterprises.
As noted by tax and regulatory policy expert of the Economic Expert Platform Myroslav Lab, a large number of companies owned by one person or under their control is not in itself a violation of the law.
At the same time, the expert believes that the registration of hundreds and thousands of companies in the name of one individual may indicate the use of nominal managers or owners.
According to him, it is important for tax control to establish the actual officials who carry out business operations and are responsible for fulfilling tax obligations.
The use of nominal owners, in the expert's opinion, belongs to the number of tax risk factors, as it may be accompanied by an opaque management structure and potential tax evasion schemes.
At the same time, the mere fact of a person's presence in the registry of a large number of enterprises is not proof of fictitious entrepreneurship, violation of the law, or tax evasion.
The study by OpenDatabot is based on registration data on company owners and ultimate beneficiaries. It does not contain conclusions regarding the actual financial condition, business activities, or tax discipline of the enterprises included in the list.
Source: OpenDatabot, study "478 mass owners of companies in Ukraine", 26 October 2026.
