The Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked a federal court in Florida to allow forfeiture of two properties owned by associates of Ukrainian oligarchs Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Boholiubov worth a combined $70 million. The DOJ alleges the properties were purchased with money stolen from a Ukrainian bank the oligarchs used to own.
Kolomoisky and Boholiubov denied stealing the money.
The DOJ alleges that Kolomoisky and Boholiubov siphoned over $5 billion from PrivatBank, one of the largest banks in Ukraine, before it was expropriated by the Ukrainian government in late 2016.
The oligarchs set up a special office at the bank to approve fraudulent loan applications from entities the oligarchs themselves controlled, the complaints allege. The money was then funneled through a web of shell companies that used accounts at PrivatBank’s Cyprus branch “to thoroughly disguise their nature, source, ownership, and control,” the complaints say.
The money was then invested into companies and properties, including the two buildings in Louisville and Dallas, controlled by Kolomoisky and Boholiubov, the allegation states.
The loans were seldom repaid, DOJ said, except through new loans or sometimes proceeds from the investments.
A Reuters reporter who visited the depot found sheep grazing there and was told by Artsyz Mayor Volodymyr Mikhov: “It has not operated for at least 10 to 15 years.”
Kolomoisky, meanwhile, is fighting the PrivatBank nationalization in Ukrainian courts, demanding compensation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made his fame playing a president on a comedy TV show that ran on a channel owned by Kolomoisky, who backed his candidacy. Zelensky has been accused by opponents of having ties to Kolomoisky that are too close, which he has denied.