More Criminal Cases Launched Against Former Ukrainian President Poroshenko
The Ukrainian Prosecutor-General’s Office has launched four
additional criminal cases against former President Petro Poroshenko, his lawyer
Ihor Holovan said on June 10.
According to Holovan, the probes were launched at the
request of tycoon Ihor Kolomoyskiy, who accuses Poroshenko of interference with
the activities of PrivatBank — once owned by Kolomoyskiy — revealing sensitive
information regarding PrivatBank’s activities, abuse of office, and money
laundering.
Holovan called all the accusations against Poroshenko
“politically motivated.”
Kolomoyskiy, Poroshenko’s long-time foe, lost control over
PrivatBank in 2016 when the central bank took it over after it failed stress
tests and was deemed to be undercapitalized. Poroshenko was president at that
time.
Kolomoyskiy lived in self-imposed exile for nearly two years
and returned after Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s election as president in April 2019.
Kolomoyskiy’s ties to Zelenskiy, who rose to fame as an
actor on a TV channel owned by Kolomoisky, had raised concerns over the
president’s independence from the oligarch.
On July 1, Poroshenko said that, in all, there are 24 probes
launched against him, claiming that his successor “is behind all of them.”
Ukraine’s Prosecutor-General Iryna Venedyktova rejected
Poroshenko’s claims, saying that the probes have nothing to do with politics.
On July 8, Venedyktova withdrew its request to place
Poroshenko under pretrial arrest in one of the cases against him. The case is
related to his alleged illegal appointment of a deputy chief of the country’s
foreign intelligence service. Venedyktova said that the investigations in that
case had been completed.
A billionaire confectioner, Poroshenko currently serves as a
member of parliament.
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