Swiss authorities freeze accounts believed to belong to Lazarenko (10/03/99)

Swiss authorities freeze accounts believed to belong to Lazarenko

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Swiss authorities, acting on a U.S. request, have frozen some 20 bank accounts believed to belong to Ukraine's ex-Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko.

Mr. Lazarenko, who sits in a San Francisco area detention center, awaiting a decision on his request for political asylum in the United States has been indicted in Switzerland on money-laundering charges. He is wanted also in Ukraine for further questioning on charges that he embezzled money and sold state property for illegal personal gain.

Geneva magistrate Laurent Kasper-Ansermet said on September 21 that the accounts, found in four Geneva banks and one in Zurich, were frozen as part of a U.S. request for legal assistance tied to its own investigation into the merits of the political asylum request by the former Ukrainian prime minister.

U.S. immigration officials also are attempting to determine whether they should heed a Swiss request for the extradition of Mr. Lazarenko to face trial there.

"The investigation is continuing and widening. The difficulty now is defining precisely the source of the money and to establish the criminal nature of the funds that have been frozen," explained Mr. Kasper-Ansermet. "There is a strong suspicion of money-laundering in this affair."

The latest bank accounts frozen are in addition to at least 40 accounts that were impounded last year, which contained more than $20 million.

Swiss investigators suspect that Mr. Lazarenko profited illegally from natural gas deals he made as Ukraine's minister of energy and later from inappropriate use of his office as prime minister in dealings involving state enterprises.

Mr. Kasper-Ansermet said the accounts that were frozen had been active right up until the time they were blocked, and that his investigation would also determine to what extent Swiss banking officials may have been involved.

"Banks should have been prudent and vigilant in dealing with such funds," explained Mr. Kasper-Ansermet.

Switzerland has had a money-laundering law on the books since April 1998, which makes it obligatory for banking institutions to report all suspicious transactions to government authorities. The law allows the government to freeze accounts while investigations are ongoing.

Mr. Lazarenko was originally arrested in Switzerland in December 1998 when he attempted to enter the country with an illegal Panamanian passport. He was subsequently indicted on money-laundering charges.

The former Ukrainian prime minister's 1998 purchase of a $7 million home in the San Francisco area formerly owned by actor Eddie Murphy made headlines in the West last month. Mr. Lazarenko recently made an overture to Ukraine's Parliament to request that it delete a portion of the resolution it passed in February, which removed his parliamentary immunity and paved the way for criminal proceedings against him.

In a letter dated September 7, Mr. Lazarenko stated that, if the Verkhovna Rada would remove wording that gives consent for his arrest, he is ready to return to Ukraine "for the sake of establishing the truth." He expressed his readiness to face a "fair, just and objective trial."

On September 15 the Verkhovna Rada voted to review his appeal and place it on the parliamentary agenda for the fall session.

| Home Page |