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March 25, 2010
Mikhail Prokhorov: The Russian Is Coming
60 Minutes
Remember when 60 Minutes used to be the pinnacle of hard-hitting investigative journalism? Unless they're holding back the good stuff for Sunday's broadcast, those days appear to be over.
Mikhail Prokhorov hopes to give the lowly New Jersey Nets a brand new start of it in old New York and the challenge it poses goes right to the very heart of the Frank Sinatra song, the Russian billionaire tells "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft.
Prokhorov, perhaps Russia's richest man, discusses the Nets, his vast wealth and the surprisingly unusual way he made most of his money in his first American television interview to be broadcast this Sunday, March 28, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
"I am real excited to take the worst team of the league and turn it to be the best," says Prokhorov. Asked by Kroft if he really thinks he can pull it off, the 6-foot-8-inch billionaire responds, "I am confident. Do you remember in the Frank Sinatra song, 'New York, New York?' If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere," he tells Kroft with a laugh.
Prokhorov has certainly made it outside of the U.S., amassing a fortune estimated at as much as $17 billion. His Moscow team won the European pro-basketball championship some years ago. He's a famous man in Russia, whose fortunes took off amid the collapse of communism, when he and a partner got sweetheart deals from the Russian government, making them and other "oligarchs" who had gotten similar treatment, extremely wealthy.
NoLandGrab: And now he and his U.S. partner, Bruce C. Ratner, are getting sweetheart deals from New York's government.
Posted by eric at March 25, 2010 8:45 PM