Ukrainian powerbrokers who allegedly paid U.S. political consultant Paul Manafort tens of millions of dollars for his work for the Party of Regions don’t seem to be worried by the prospect of a Ukrainian criminal probe into the case.
Oligarchs and politicians contacted by the Kyiv Post appeared skeptical that a criminal investigation into the Manafort affair run by the Prosecutor General’s Office would materialize.
Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko on Aug. 21 announced that the State Fiscal Service would oversee a criminal investigation into whether Ukrainian officials named in the Manafort trial illegally retained control of private companies while working for the state, after Manafort himself was convicted on charges of tax evasion and failing to declare foreign bank accounts.
For Ukraine, Manafort’s trial came as confirmation of what many suspected for years: U.S. federal prosecutors brought forth evidence showing that half a dozen Ukrainian politicians associated with the Party of Regions were moving tens of millions of dollars through Cypriot offshores.
But a top PGO official told the Kyiv Post that the United States would not send evidence gathered in the investigation headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller to Ukraine until the Ukrainian probe is completed.
This means that several requests filed by Ukrainian prosecutors to the United States for information related to corruption under the government of runaway former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych will go unanswered.
Ukrainian probe
The six Ukrainians named in testimony from the Manafort case – Rinat Akhmetov, Serhiy Lovochkin, Sergey Tigipko, Borys Kolesnikov, Andriy Klyuyev, and Victor Pinchuk – told the Kyiv Post that they had little to say about the new investigation.
“Our office will be able to provide its position on any law enforcement actions or decisions once they happen,” said a spokeswoman for Opposition Bloc lawmaker Serhiy Lovochkin, a close associate of Manafort during his time in Kyiv, in response to a question about the investigation that Lutsenko announced. “We consider it unprofessional to comment [on] statements made on the basis of media publications.”
Lovochkin in particular faces potential jeopardy from the Manafort case evidence, which shows him transferring tens of millions of dollars through Cypriot offshores that he did not register on his asset declarations.
But in response to a Kyiv Post inquiry, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption said that it was not planning to investigate the case.
“A decision about starting a verification of the asset declarations…filled out by People’s Deputy Serhiy Lovochkin…has not been taken,” wrote Ihor Stepanov, the head of NAPC’s conflict of interests monitoring department.
And Eugene Yenin, head of the PGO’s international legal assistance unit, told the Kyiv Post that U.S. authorities would not send Ukraine relevant documents until the Mueller investigation draws to a close.
“The DOJ informed us that due to unpredictable circumstances, they have nothing to do with the (Ukrainian) case,” Enin said, adding that nine months ago he was told of a “hold on handing over legal assistance materials until the Mueller investigation is over.”
In comments to journalists on Aug. 21, Lutsenko said that the State Fiscal Service had begun a “criminal investigation” into “politicians of Ukraine” that appeared in testimony in the Manafort case.
Lutsenko said that the investigation would focus “on likely legal violations by these civil servants (at that time) who, likely, were managing firms and did not transfer them to the management of third parties.”
But others view Lutsenko’s announcement with skepticism.
“For the general prosecutor, it’s empty words,” Serhiy Gorbatyuk, the head of the special investigations department at the PGO, said of Lutsenko’s statement. “But we will investigate further.”
And when contacted by the Kyiv Post, other oligarchs and politicians besides Lovochkin appeared to scoff at the idea of a criminal investigation.
“As we already stated earlier, neither Tigipko, nor the companies of which he is an owner, transferred money to Manafort’s accounts,” a Tigipko spokesman wrote.
A representative of Rinat Akhmetov echoed Tigipko’s response, telling the Kyiv Post that nothing had changed as a result of the new investigation.
