The U.S. Department of Justice is trying to confiscate $200 million from former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko in favor of Ukraine through the court, Radiosvoboda reports.
Mary Butler, head of the international division of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Unit, said this in an interview with the Armenian service of the Voice of America.
According to Butler, the scope of the charges in the case was much narrower than the charges brought by the Department of Justice.
The case is not yet complete. But I am pleased to report that we have reached another decision that brings us closer to being able to obtain a final judgment of 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.
Voice of America notes that the case Butler is referring to concerns the Justice Department’s efforts to confiscate more than $200 million of Lazarenko’s money seized in various countries. Litigation over this money has been going on for about 20 years.
Pavlo Lazarenko served as Prime Minister of Ukraine from May 1996 to June 1997. He fled Ukraine in 1999 and eventually ended up in the United States, where he unsuccessfully sought asylum and was instead sentenced to more than eight years in prison, a substantial fine and confiscation of property on money laundering charges. In 2012, he was released from prison after serving his sentence and reportedly obtained a right to reside in the United States, where he lives with his family. Meanwhile, U.S. law enforcement agencies continue to investigate the details of his money laundering.
