Yuri Gushchin

During the Soviet era Yuri Gushchin was an underground producer of consumer goods, particularly candy. Then during Perestroika he became one of the first businessmen to legalize those operations. In 1991 he founded Guta-Bank Moscow, and in 1993 the bank began working with Gosincor, a state-owned investment company created by President Boris Yeltsin to draw foreign investment to Russia. After the 1998 Russian financial crisis Gushchin bought a controlling stakes in Moscow's biggest confectionery factories and created Obyedinennye Konditery (United Confectioners). He leases out buildings near the Kremlin which used to belong to candy company Krasny Oktyabr (Red October). Tenants include billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov's Snob magazine, former billionaire Mikhail Abyzov's Digital October educational center, and billionaire Alexander Mamut's Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design. In 2014 he closed his insurance company GUTA Insurance. In 2008 he bought the Coral Strand Hotel in the Seychelles, which was previously owned by British Airways and built a new luxury hotel there, Savoy Resort and Spa.