A U.S. district court in New York accepted on June 4 an amended complaint from Universal Trading & Investment Co. (UTICo) to collect on two federal judgment debts worth a total of $41 million from Yulia Tymoshenko and 12 other defendants, including her exiled husband Oleksandr Tymoshenko.
The claim followed a U.S.
federal court’s decision on April 12 to grant UTICo the right to amend a
previous complaint under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations act (RICO) for $18.3
million.
The complaint, in particular, says that a 2005 Massachusetts court
judgment that awarded UTICo $18.3 million from United Energy Systems of Ukraine
(UESU), a company once controlled by Yulia Tymoshenko, was uncollectible
because she had unlawfully drained the company’s assets.
“Aided by her husband Oleksandr Tymoshenko, she (Tymoshenko) had put the
assets of UESU under her personal control,” read the complaint. “UTICO is also
the judgment creditor under a sister judgment for $23 million due from the
assets of Bassington Inc., UESU’s offshore parent and holding company for Yulia
and Oleksandr Tymoshenko.”
On April 9, 2012, a federal court in Massachusetts awarded UTICo $23
million from Bassington.
Tymoshenko’s chief legal counsel, Serhiy Vlasenko, dismissed the amended
court complaint to Ukrainska Pravda on June 10.
“UTICo has for 10 years now, if memory serves me, tried to file a
complaint against Yulia Tymoshenko. I have a clear understanding that his
company is absolutely coordinating with Ukrainian law enforcement bodies,
including the General Prosecutor’s Office, in particular, from whom as I
understand they have power-of-attorney to represent in the U.S.,” said
Vlasenko.
A criminal trial is currently underway in a Ukrainian court that accuses
Yulia Tymoshenko of embezzling some $400 million as the chief executive of UESU.
Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached
at [email protected].
