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The US Department of Justice wants to confiscate the personal assets of Pavlo Lazarenko, Prime Minister of Ukraine in 1996-1997, in favor of Kyiv.
This was stated by Mary Butler, head of the international division of the US Department of Justice’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Unit, in an interview with Voice of America.
«The United States Department of Justice is trying to confiscate money from former Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Lazarenko in favor of Ukraine through a civil forfeiture procedure in a lengthy lawsuit. It is over $200 million.»
Butler emphasized that Lazarenko was convicted in the Northern District of California in San Francisco, where he served about six years in prison. The scope of charges in the case for which Lazarenko was found guilty was much narrower than the charges under the jurisdiction of the US Department of Justice.
«The case is still not over. But I am pleased to announce that we have reached another decision that brings us closer to the possibility of obtaining a final decision on confiscation. Then Mr. Lazarenko can appeal as much as he wants. But we are still moving forward. We may be talking about more than $200 million. That’s a lot of money and a lot of sensitive issues», — Butler said.
According to the American official, the court cases over these funds have been going on for almost 20 years.