Augie Fabela Net Worth 2026: VEON Founder and Chairman
Augie K. Fabela II co-founded VimpelCom, now the Nasdaq-listed VEON, in the early 1990s and has chaired its board since returning to the company. No reputable outlet has published a figure for his personal net worth.
- Full name
- Augie K. Fabela II
- Known as
- Augie Fabela
- Profession
- Telecom entrepreneur, co-founder and chairman of VEON
- Nationality
- American
- Source of wealth
- Co-founding VimpelCom (VEON), VEON shareholding
In this article
No reputable outlet has published an estimate of Augie Fabela's net worth. The $23.5 million figure and the "more than $1 million a year" income that appeared on this page before had no source and have been removed. What is on record is his career: Augie K. Fabela II co-founded VimpelCom, one of Russia's first mobile operators, in the early 1990s, took it public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1996, and is today chairman of its successor, VEON Ltd., a Nasdaq-listed digital operator that reported $4.4 billion in revenue for 2025.
What is Augie Fabela's net worth?
Forbes, Bloomberg and Celebrity Net Worth have not published a figure for Fabela. As a VEON director he must disclose his trades in VEON shares, but a shareholding is only one part of a person's wealth, and his gains from VimpelCom's early decades, private investments and foundation giving are not public.
Several low-quality sites now publish "hidden wealth" articles with invented figures for him. None cites a filing or a named estimate, and this page does not repeat them.
Augie Fabela yearly earnings, monthly income and salary
Fabela's pay as VEON chairman is set by the board and reported in VEON's annual filings, but no reputable news outlet has reported the amount, and the earlier income table on this page had no source. Historically, most of his wealth would have come from his founding stake in VimpelCom rather than from salary.
Related Article: Alan Lewis Net Worth
Career: from Chicago to VimpelCom
A long 2025 profile in citybiz sets out the story:
- Early life: born to immigrant parents from Mexico and Colombia, he grew up in a working-class Chicago suburb and went to Stanford University in the mid-1980s.
- 1990: already on his fourth business, he and his father buy Plexsys Systems, a maker of mobile network equipment, and try to sell it in the Soviet Union. A meeting in Moscow with Vimpel, a Soviet radar company, introduces him to scientist Dmitry Zimin.
- 1991-1992: Vimpel could not afford the equipment, so Fabela and Zimin found VimpelCom together. The first call on its network is placed in 1992.
- 1996: after 13 banks turn them down, VimpelCom lists on the NYSE in November 1996, the first Russian company to do so, at a valuation of over $800 million.
- 2001 onward: Zimin leaves business for philanthropy. Fabela helps him set up the Zimin Foundation and runs his own family foundation for children in Chicago.
Police officer and author
In one of the more unusual turns in any telecom founder's career, Fabela was asked to help the AirOne police helicopter unit in Cook County, Illinois, enrolled in the police academy and became a sworn officer at 44, citybiz reported. In 2017 he published DECIDE, Tactical Crisis Decision Making: A Framework for Law Enforcement, with proceeds going to law enforcement causes. His life and friendship with Zimin are the subject of a 2025 documentary, Connected.
Chairman of VEON
VimpelCom later became VEON, which now runs mobile and digital businesses in frontier markets and is run from Dubai and New York. Fabela returned as chairman of the board. The company re-elected him chairman for a second term at its May 2025 annual meeting and for a third term in May 2026, according to VEON. The board he chairs includes former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former UK minister Sir Brandon Lewis.
VEON's latest reported figures, from its May 2026 release:
| Measure (FY2025) | Figure |
|---|---|
| Total revenue | $4.4 billion (up 9.9%) |
| EBITDA | $2.0 billion (45.7% margin) |
| Direct digital revenue | $759 million (up 62.5%) |
| Active digital customers (4Q25) | 205.8 million |
| Shareholder returns policy | At least $100 million a year |
Recent changes (2025-2026)
- Third term: re-elected chairman in May 2026.
- Buybacks: VEON authorized a $100 million buyback in November 2025 and adopted a policy of returning at least $100 million a year.
- Bangladesh: in mid-2026 VEON proposed a $1 billion investment initiative in Bangladesh through its Banglalink unit, reported by The Daily Star and other Bangladeshi outlets.
- AI: in a July 2026 interview with The National, he argued that AI is creating opportunities for telecom operators rather than squeezing them.
Early life, family and education
Fabela is from the Chicago area and attended Stanford University in the mid-1980s. His exact birth date is not public; he co-founded VimpelCom in his early twenties, which places his birth in the late 1960s. The earlier page's height, invented childhood details and claims about a wife had no source and have been removed.
See also: Bren Chong Net Worth
Why there is no reliable figure
Fabela's disclosed VEON shares are public, but his wider holdings, the proceeds of past share sales and his private assets are not. No reputable outlet has combined those into an estimate. Until one does, this page will describe his wealth rather than put a number on it.
Frequently asked questions
What is Augie Fabela's net worth?
No reputable outlet has published an estimate of Augie Fabela's net worth. He co-founded VimpelCom, now VEON, and is its chairman, and he discloses his VEON share trades, but his wider holdings are private. The $23.5 million figure seen online has no source.
What is Augie Fabela's yearly income?
No reputable outlet has reported his income. His pay as VEON chairman is set by the board, and most of his wealth historically came from his founding stake in VimpelCom rather than salary. The income figures that appeared on an earlier version of this page had no source.
How old is Augie Fabela?
His exact birth date is not public. He attended Stanford in the mid-1980s and co-founded VimpelCom in his early twenties around 1991, which suggests he was born in the late 1960s. His height has not been reported by a reliable source.
Where did Augie Fabela go to school?
Augie Fabela grew up in a working-class Chicago suburb and attended Stanford University in the mid-1980s, according to a 2025 citybiz profile. Later in life he also completed police academy training in Illinois and became a sworn officer at 44.
What is Augie Fabela's profession?
Augie Fabela is a telecom entrepreneur. He co-founded VimpelCom in Moscow in the early 1990s, took it public on the NYSE in 1996, and chairs its successor, VEON Ltd. He has also served as a police officer in Cook County, Illinois and written a book on crisis decision-making.
Who founded VEON?
VEON began as VimpelCom, founded in the early 1990s by American entrepreneur Augie K. Fabela II and Soviet radar scientist Dmitry Zimin. It became the first Russian company listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1996 and is now a Nasdaq-listed digital operator run from Dubai and New York.
Sources
- citybiz: https://www.citybiz.co/article/719132/augie-k-fabela-ii-the-renaissance-man-of-global-tech/
- VEON: https://www.veon.com/newsroom/press-releases/veon-shareholders-re-elect-board-and-chairman-reaffirming-confidence-in-digital-growth-strategy
- Taiwan News (GlobeNewswire): https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/news/6105944
- The National: https://www.thenationalnews.com/future/technology/2026/07/31/ai-is-pumping-oxygen-into-the-room-not-taking-it-out-says-veon-chairman-augie-fabela/
- The Daily Star: https://www.thedailystar.net/top-news/news/veon-proposes-1-billion-investment-initiative-bangladesh-4211231
