in june 2004, akhmetov and viktor pinchuk (the son-in-law of then-president leonid kuchma) acquired the steel factory kryvorizhstal for roughly $800 million from the state in a 2004 tender despite much higher bids made by foreign companies. later, in 2005, the first tymoshenko government reversed this sale, and held a nationally televised repeat auction that netted a record-breaking $4.8 billion.