Prosecutor General’s Office Will Not Apologize

Last Friday Mykhailo Potebenko, Prosecutor General of Ukraine, announced that 10 million Swiss francs acknowledged by a Swiss court as laundered by former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko would be returned to Ukraine. This amount may as well be reduced by 100,000-200,000 Swiss francs which Switzerland will use to cover the expenses of investigation and court costs. As the Prosecutor General’s Office learned, a total $250 million have been deposited in Mr. Lazarenko’s bank accounts traced and now frozen in various countries.

The Prosecutor General also said with confidence that his office has enough evidence to indict Mykola Ahafonov. “We have arrested him, so it means we will not apologize,” Mr. Potebenko said. Deputy Prosecutor General, Mykola Obikhod, announced that a Swiss court had completed on June 30 this year hearing the case of the Ukrainian Damianabank, opened in 1994. The Swiss court found the bank president Fedorenko, vice president Dvorianchykov, and general manager of the Ukrainian Hard Currency Trade Association Kramny, guilty of unfair business practices, abuse of confidence, and forgery of documents. As a result of these crimes, they stole over $19 million belonging to the Ukrahrotekhservis Ukrainian state-owned concern. The defendants were sentenced to an 18- month prison term. Mr. Obikhod said the completion of this case is “a serious step toward returning the $19 million dollars to Ukraine.”

The Prosecutor General is delighted with these first precedents such that the law-enforcement bodies of two countries managed to complete criminal cases and even return stolen money to Ukraine. It looks like the Prosecutor General’s Office could become a powerful financial donor for the Ukrainian economy.