Yesterday, on August 6, the U.S. Justice Department accused Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky of stealing billions of dollars from a bank he once owned (Privatbank - 112 International.) and laundering that money in the United States and all over the world, The Washington Post reports.
The Department stated that Kolomoisky and his business partner, Gennadiy Boholiubov, had used Privatbank as a personal account to build a business empire in the United States.
Kolomoisky's side denies all the allegations. Michael J. Sullivan, his lawyer, said in an email: “Mr. Kolomoisky emphatically denies the allegations in the complaints filed by the Department of Justice.” Boholiubov's lawyer, in his turn, did not give any comment.
It is not Kolomoisky's first "encounter" with the U.S. judicial system - the oligarch has long been facing a criminal probe by the U.S. attorney’s office in Cleveland for possible money laundering.
As we reported earlier, PrivatBank, after checking additional bank documents, filed a lawsuit against Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Boholiubov in Delaware on July 21.
It claims that both former owners of the financial institution laundered 660 million dollars through the Optima group of American companies and another 100 million dollars through other companies in the United States.