A federal court in Switzerland has refused to unblock ex-head of the Regions Party faction in Ukraine’s parliament of the 7th convocation Oleksandr Yefremov’s bank accounts where 33 million Swiss francs have been frozen since June 2016, Deutsche Welle’s Ukrainian service has said.
“According to a March 21 ruling by the Federal Court of Switzerland, which was published in the register of court decisions in early May, Yefremov’s accounts will be blocked until Ukraine proves in court the criminal origin of the assets,” DW wrote with reference to documents published in Switzerland’s register of court cases.
According to DW, which refers to the Money Laundering Reporting Office of Switzerland, 33 million Swiss francs have been transferred to Swiss-based accounts related to Yefremov since 2006. According to law enforcers, these accounts are controlled by his son, Ihor Yefremov and the daughter-in-law, who both, according to Ukrainian media reports, live in Vienna, Austria.
These funds are deposited on the accounts of a number of companies from Cyprus, the British Virgin Islands and Canada, and “it is these accounts that appear in the criminal case opened against Yefremov in Ukraine after the escape of [ex-president of Ukraine and ex-leader of the Regions Party] Viktor Yanukovych.”
Ihor Yefremov, his wife and the companies under their control have been suing in Switzerland for several years, demanding the unfreezing of the accounts with 33 million francs, but Swiss judges in March 2018 refused to unblock the accounts.
As DW learnt at Switzerland’s Federal Office of Justice, documents on the movement of the funds on the Swiss accounts were transferred to Ukrainian investigators in the middle of April under a Federal Court decision.
“The Swiss law enforcers also handed the materials of the criminal case opened on suspicion of money laundering by Igor Yefremov over to their Ukrainian counterparts. They include a protocol of the interrogation of Yefremov, Jr. This case was closed in Switzerland 2015 due to lack of evidence,” DW wrote citing a source at the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland.
