A long, messy affair between US regulators and a Ukrainian businessman named Max Polyakov seems to have finally been resolved. On Tuesday, Polyakov's

Feds who forced Ukrainian investor to sell rocket company backtrack years later

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2024-07-10 14:00:06

A long, messy affair between US regulators and a Ukrainian businessman named Max Polyakov seems to have finally been resolved.

On Tuesday, Polyakov's venture capital firm Noosphere Venture Partners announced that the US government has released him and his related companies from all conditions imposed upon them in the run-up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine .

This decision comes more than two years after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and the US Air Force forced Polyakov to sell his majority stake in the Texas-based launch company Firefly.

This rocket company was founded in 2014 by an engineer named Tom Markusic, who ran into financial difficulty as he sought to develop the Alpha rocket. Markusic had to briefly halt Firefly's operations before Polyakov, a colorful and controversial Ukrainian businessman, swooped in and provided a substantial infusion of cash into the company.

The pair had a turbulent relationship, which is chronicled in the book When the Heavens Went on Sale, by journalist Ashlee Vance. As part of his reporting, Vance traveled to Ukraine with Polyakov and remained in regular contact throughout the ordeal.