The United States government gave $13.3 million dollars in loans intended to help businesses weather the COVID-19 pandemic to companies owned by Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky that were under investigation at the time, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
The U.S. Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) set aside $669 billion to help U.S. businesses and nonprofits keep paying employees during the economic downturn connected to the pandemic. More than 5 million businesses received the loans. Many are eligible for loan forgiveness.
The program has been controversial for several reasons. Critics called it convoluted and inconsistent. Large sums went to big companies rather than vulnerable small businesses, and some loans were given to companies run by politicians and their families.
But some money also went to companies allegedly running on funds stolen from Ukraine’s now state-owned PrivatBank. Out of the $5.5 billion Kolomoisky and his associates stand accused of siphoning from the bank, close to $750 million were invested in U.S. businesses and real estate, according to the U.S. government. Most of these firms go by the name Optima.
Kolomoisky, who co-owned PrivatBank until its 2016 nationalization, denied the money laundering charges. He said the investments came from the sale of his Evraz metallurgical business to a Russian buyer for $2 billion in 2008.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are currently investigating. Last week, federal agents raided two Optima offices in Cleveland and Miami. Days later, the DOJ filed civil forfeiture complaints against two Optima properties worth $70 million in total.
Now, RFE/RL has discovered that some of these businesses received more than $150,000 in loans each. They include CC Metals & Alloys, Felman Production, Felman Trading Americas, Optima Management Group and Optima 777, according to government records.
All are directly or indirectly controlled by Mordechai Korf and Uriel Laber, two of Kolomoisky’s American business associates. According to PrivatBank and the DOJ, Korf and Laber helped create a stateside web of entities to conceal assets stolen from PrivatBank.
Many of these entities are functioning businesses. However, the DOJ’s complaint stated that Korf and Laber “rarely” managed to turn a profit.
Laber and Korf denied the accusations against them and told media that they were the victims of a politically motivated attack on Kolomoisky and his business partner, Gennady Bogolyubov
While the DOJ publicly moved on Korf and Laber’s businesses last week, the companies have been under investigation since at least last year, long before PPP was conceived.
