Editor’s Note: Gregory Craig, a Washington, D.C., lawyer was acquitted on Sept. 4 about whether he lied to the U.S. Justice Department to avoid complying with the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires formal declarations from lobbyists for foreign countries. Craig and the international legal firm he worked for until last year, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, came to the attention of prosecutors amid the investigation by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential race and possible collusion between the Kremlin and U.S. President Donald Trump. Craig testified at trial that Ukrainian billionaire oligarch Victor Pinchuk paid the law firm most of the $4.6 million fee to issue a report that justified ex-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s imprisonment of his political rival, ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was released only after Yanukovych fled the country in 2014 at the height of the EuroMaidan Revolution. Pinchuk has refused comment. The Yanukovych government said the firm was paid only $12,000. A journalist who covered the trial say that the Kyiv Post’s Aug. 9, 2012, editorial headlined “Skadden stink” played a prominent role in testimony. The journalist said the Skadden lawyers were “really worried” about the firm’s reputation after the editorial was published and began discussing whether to reveal Pinchuk’s involve
The government is preparing its defense with the help of American law company Skadden. But this cooperation is highly suspicious with very few details about the contract being revealed, and those that are made public raising even more questions.
The government claims that Skadden, a top American firm with an annual turnover of $2.17 billion, works for a mere $12,000 for Ukraine’s government. None of the company’s expenses is paid, including expensive flights and stay in Fairmont Hotel, where prices start at 300 euros per night.
Skadden representatives have visited Ukraine at least three or four times. In at least one of the cases the team was made up of two partners from the Washington office, plus two associates. One of the partners, Gregory Craig, a former adviser to the Obama White House, normally charges $1,065 per hour, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The group stayed in Ukraine for several days and visited the imprisoned Tymoshenko in Kharkiv during a trip in June. That trip alone would have cost many times more than the ridiculous $12,000 the government claims it is paying.
These facts fuel speculation that Skadden is being paid by someone on the side. No one knows who is paying Skadden, and it’s a question the company is ignoring. So the public may never know of conflicts of interest, or worse things, that may lurk behind this arrangement.
We hope that Skadden will address these serious concerns. We hope that US anti-corruption bodies are also looking into this issue, since there is little hope that the case will be investigated in Ukraine.Another question is what kind of report Skadden will produce, and how it will be used.
Members of the opposition suspect that parts of the report will be used to whitewash the actions of the prosecutors, the judges and everyone else who was instrumental in Tymoshenko’s conviction. If that is the case, Skadden’s reputation will be tarnished.
It’s not too late for the company (and Ukraine’s government) to set the record straight, and disclose to the public the details of this suspicious contract and who is footing the bill.
