Out of this
list, 15 individuals have fallen under criminal investigations of
Ukraine’s General Prosecutor’s office, and have been informed that
they are subject of criminal investigation. There are not details
available officially, however.
There is a
risk that the assets of the rest of the officials from the black
lists of the European Union, Switzerland, Lichtenstein,
USA, Canada and Britain (including at least 30 former top officials
from the close circle of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych), will be
de-freezed.
Nine of those
former officials have begun the procedure for challenging the
European Union sanctions in Luxemburg. These are Viktor Yanukovych
ans his sons, brothers Andriy and Serhiy Klyuev, Mykola Azarov and
his son, and Andriy Portnov.
According to
Daryna Kaleniuk, an expert in asset recovery from Anti-Corruption
Action Centre, those officials do have a chance to get their property
back because most of those sanctioned individuals are (at least for
now) suspected of crimes that do not foresee confiscation of
property.
“As long
as Ukraine does not start investigating financial crimes from the
list of international sanctions, as long as there is no full
investigation of the criminal origin of their wealth and they are not
proven guilty by the prosecutors in court, there is a risk that their
assets found and frozen by law enforcers abroad, will be unblocked,”
Kaleniuk says.
Former
President Yanukovych is suspected of exceeding his authority during
the mass peaceful demonstrations on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv,
which lef to mass murders of citizens and multiple injuries. He is
also accused of organizing premeditated murder of at least two
citizens.
If
Yanukovych’s crimes are proven in court, he can get life in prison.
However,
nobody really knows what happens to the stolen properties and money
of the fugitive president. For example, there are 137 million euro
frozen in Switzerland on the accounts of the former president and his
associates. Another 17 million euros originating from Ukraine are
frozen in Britain in local banks.
But
Ukrainians will not see the money very soon because it cannot be
confiscated without a court order, which is impossible in the absence
of the accused individual. This is why, while the former Ukrainian
dictator is hiding out in Russia, his assets will remain frozen –
at best.
We have a
similar problem with the assets of Former Interior Minister Oleksandr
Zakharchenko, former Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka, Prime
Minister Azarov, ex-SBU chief Oleksandr Yakymenko, ex- Head of
Presidential Administration Klyuev, former Uzhgorod Mayor Serhiy
Ratushnyak, ex-Kharkiv Governor Mykhailo Dobkin, Kharkiv Mayor
Gennadiy Kernes, former Ministers Oleskandr Klymenko and Olena
Lukash. Ukraine’s law enforcers say that all these individuals are
suspects in cases that do not envisage confiscation of property.
At the
moment, we can hope that the ill-gotten fortunes of only four
Ukrainians from the European black lists, who are suspected of
financial and economic crimes, will be returned to the Ukrainian
people. These are former First Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Arbuzov,
the president’s son Oleksandr Yanukovych, ex-Minister for Agriculture
Mykola Prysiazhniuk and former Energy Minister Eduard Stavytskiy.
Tata
Peklun is an expert of Anti-Corruption Action Centre, an
anti-corruption, asset-recovery non-government organization.
