Ukraine’s Deputy Prosecutor General Mykola Obikhod says there is a link among the cassette scandal, former Premier Pavlo Lazarenko and former Vice Premier Yuliya Tymoshenko, reports Interfax-Ukraine. Answering a journalist’s question on whether such a link exists, Obikhod said at a February 6 press conference in Kyiv, “This link will in due time be analyzed by media and by us. The link is apparent and is being currently scrutinized by investigators.”
The investigation by the Prosecutor General’s Office of the criminal cases filed against the management of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine Corporation and former Vice Premier Yuliya Tymoshenko has encountered “strong opposition from interested forces,” he declared.
Obikhod confirmed to journalists that the PGO has put experts from the State Tax Administration on its inquiry commission investigating criminal charges against Lazarenko, Tymoshenko and other UESU top executives. These STA investigators will form a special group that will focus on tax violations established by the STA.
The Deputy Prosecutor General recalled that the STA, as part of its Slovyansky Bank investigation, recently released a statement making public the fact of an illegal $1 billion transfer by the UESU to a bank based in Nauru (a thriving 8.2 mile gem of the Pacific with a population of about 11,000 — Ed.). STA audits of UESU books “have revealed transfers of payments for Russian natural gas to a fictional bank. In doing so, UESU has undertaken a commitment for debts due Gazprom and the Russian Defense Ministry,” Obikhod said.
On February 3, one UESU top manager Petro Prystromko, another suspect in the case, was arrested by PGO representatives. As Mr. Obikhod confirmed, in the past two weeks a group of Russian investigators faced Tymoshenko with witnesses from Russia who had been brought to Ukraine. He also confirmed that his office had filed new charges in December 2000 against Pavlo Lazarenko which “include new facts emerging from Petro Kyrychenko’s statement that beginning from 1992 Lazarenko had extorted money from him and a number of entities and individual businessmen in Ukraine. Mr. Kyrychenko was aide to the former Ukrainian vice premier. “Facts of Pavlo Lazarenko laundering this money have been established by prosecutors,” Obikhod added, specifying that the money had originated from “the fraudulent financial practices in which the UESU top management had been involved jointly with United Energy (UK) and Cyprus-based Somoli Enterprises.” In total, he stressed, Lazarenko had illegally funneled to foreign banks and misappropriated about $114 million.
Addressing the same press conference, Acting Prosecutor General Mykola Harnyk dismissed rumors of any possible resignation by his boss, Mykhailo Potebenko. Potebenko was said to be “on a scheduled vacation,” Mr. Harnyk declared. “Rumors of Mr. Potebenko’s possible resignation and that the president has already signed a decree to this effect are plots aimed at destabilizing the work of the Prosecutor General’s Office, which is currently investigating a number of high-profile cases.” According to this official, the Prosecutor General will be back in his office on February 16.
