The European Union has removed the assets of Yury Ivanyushchenko, an ally of ousted former Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych, from its sanctions list, according to media reports and activists.
Rikard Jozwiak, a Brussel-based reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, wrote on March 2 that the EU would extend sanctions imposed on Yanukovych and 14 of his associates while excluding Ivanyushchenko However, the EU has yet to issue any official statements.
Daria Kaleniuk, the executive director of the Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Action Center, said that an official decision would be announced on March 6. Kaleniuk previously said that it was very likely that the EU would remove sanctions from Ivanyushchenko, as all the criminal cases against him in Ukraine had been closed a year ago.
Kaleniuk also said that Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko and Deputy Prosecutor Yuriy Stolyarchuk, who is also head of a new anti-corruption department at the prosecutor’s office, were at fault for allowing the sanctions against Ivanyushchenko to lapse.
Ivanyushchenko is accused of embezzling money received by Ukraine from the sale of Japanese greenhouse gas emissions quotas under the Kyoto Protocol, and setting up corrupt schemes.
According to various media reports, Ivanyushchenko is known to be a crime boss in Yenakiieve, the town in Donetsk Oblast where Yanukovych was born.
Kaleniuk said that Ukraine lost its chance to return $200 million of Ivanyushchenko’s assets that had been frozen in banks of Monaco and Switzerland. A Swiss court froze these assets as a part of a criminal inquiry into suspected fraud.
Ivanyushchenko reportedly fled to Moscow in December 2014. He has been placed on Interpol’s wanted list, and then been removed, several times. The last time he was removed was on Sept. 8, Ukrainian lawmaker Sergii Leshchenko said.
Ivanyushchenko had been wanted in Ukraine from January 2015. But on Feb. 28, Prosecutor General Lutsenko said that the Ukrainian Supreme court had withdrawn all charges from Ivanyushchenko. The press service of the Supreme Court said that this had been due to the inaction of prosecutors in the case.
According to the Supreme Court, the case against Ivanyushchenko was suspended by the court of the first instance on Jan. 29, 2014 after prosecutors failed to submit the case to the court on time. Prosecutors filed appeals to higher courts, but these appeals were turned down.
Prosecutors then asked the Supreme Court to review the rulings of the lower courts, but a panel of Supreme Court judges concluded on Feb. 16 that there were no grounds to reverse previous rulings.
Kaleniuk said on Feb. 28 that Deputy Prosecutor Stolyarchuk “didn’t show up in the court during the most critical moments” for investigators.
Three years after the EuroMaidan Revolution, no assets allegedly stolen by Yanukovych allies have yet been recovered.
