U.S. citizen Isabella Kirichenko, the wife of a former business partner of Ukrainian ex-premier Pavlo Lazarenko, Petro Kirichenko, was detained in Kyiv on September 2, according to a posting on the Web site of the English-language Kyiv Post newspaper, referring to informed sources.
The newspaper reported that the Prosecutor General’s Office suspects Kirichenko of fraud and forging documents in order to sell her husband’s apartment.
"[Kirichenko], was approached around lunchtime in a restaurant by Ukrainian law enforcement, who invited her and her nephew, a Ukrainian citizen, for questioning as witnesses in a fraud case. She was then designated a suspect and detained, the Kyiv Post learned from two informed sources," the report reads.
Two Ukrainian citizens were detained along with Kirichenko, namely her nephew and her real estate broker. On Monday a court is to select a measure of restraint against Kirichenko.
The Kyiv Post said the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine has been informed of Kirichenko’s detention and is trying to arrange a meeting with her.
As the newspaper reports, in the nineties Petro Kirichenko was a business partner of Lazarenko, who is now in jail in the United States for money laundering. Lazarenko was a close friend of the Kirichenko family and godfather to Kirichenko’s granddaughter.
"But when Lazarenko was tried in the United States, Kirichenko, who was also charged, made a plea bargain and became the main witness against the former premier, [and] since then the Kirichenkos have lived in San Francisco," the Kyiv Post writes.
