Cases concerning money misappropriated by Pavel Lazarenko have been going on for about 20 years, she said in an interview with the Armenian Voice of America website Mary Butlerhead of the international division of the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Pavlo Lazarenko He was arrested in United States in February 1999, when he escaped from Ukraine. At that time he was also wanted by Switzerland. In 2009, he was found guilty of laundering $22.85 million and sentenced to about eight years in prison.
USA: They Want to Confiscate Former Ukrainian Prime Minister's Money
In Switzerland, he received a suspended sentence of one and a half years in prison and, like the American court, his property was confiscated and he was ordered to pay heavy fines. The money stolen by Lazarenko Ukraine received $6.5 million from Switzerland.
Lazarenko is a former Ukrainian Prime Minister (1996-1997). He was suspected of theft of over 300 million dollars during the sale of privatized workplaces on behalf of the Ukrainian state. He fled the country the day before the vote in parliament on the prosecutor's office's motion to strip him of his parliamentary immunity.
Ukraine. Leonid Kuchma allegedly knew about Lazarenko's escape
The independent Ukrainian press wrote at the time that the prime minister was selling state-owned factories at undervalued prices, pocketing 50 percent of the negotiated amount. According to journalists, Lazarenko's escape, in a small plane under the cover of darkness to Greecetook place with the consent of the then President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchmathe patron of the then emerging Ukrainian oligarchy.
US prosecutors charged Lazarenko with extortion, fraud and laundering of $280 million, demanding 18 years in prison and a fine of $66 million. The Ukrainian politician spent more than four years in prison awaiting the court's verdict. In June 2003, he was released on bail of $65 million. He lives in the United States, where he started a second family.
Ukraine. Difficult financial situation
Ukraine is in a difficult financial situation. As The Economist wrote in early July, the country has a few weeks to avoiding bankruptcy. Over the past two years, creditors have agreed to suspend Kiev's debt repayments, but a moratorium on private foreign bondholders expired on August 1st.
According to the British weekly, if Ukraine fails to meet its obligations, it will be evidence of a worrying lack of faith among private investors in the West's involvement, and in the long term it could spell disaster for the country's reconstruction. Kiev is financially supported by the US and the European Union. In July, the European Fund for Ukraine was supposed to receive the first transfer of 1.55 billion euros. The money was to come from income from Russian assets.
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