A pre-trial investigation has estimated the cost of state controlled assets allegedly misappropriated by former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko and another three former ministry officials at more than Hr 970,000.
The property owned by the suspects has been seized, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office said on Friday.
On January 26, Lutsenko was officially charged with conspiring to misappropriate a large amount of state owned assets and abuse of power, the Prosecutor General’s Office said.
All of the documents linked to the pre-trial inquiry have already been forwarded to the suspects.
Lutsenko and his driver Leonid Prystupliuk were charged with the misappropriation of Hr 360,000 in state property and fraud on Dec. 13.
Lutsenko was also charged with abuse of office.
The former interior minister, who is currently being held in a detention facility, was detained near his home on December 26, 2010. On December 27 a court ordered his arrest on the grounds that he had been dodging questioning in violation of his written pledge not to leave Kyiv.
Lutsenko’s lawyer Ihor Fomin said earlier that Lutsenko’s charges of involvement in the poisoning of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko and on the embezzlement of budget funds had been merged into one case.
The former minister is also suspected of misusing the budget of the Police Day ceremony at the Ukraine Palace, the lawyer said.
