...P.S. Just a few additions cos' it can't be ignored...
Guess who Ukranian president Zelesnky is funded by and heavily associated with...
The United States filed a civil forfeiture complaint today in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida alleging that more than $6 million in proceeds from the sale of commercial real estate in Dallas, Texas, which property was maintained and improved using the proceeds of...
www.justice.gov
Guilt by association is one of the oldest smear tactics around. Here's a place to
start for a
fuller picture of the Kolomoyskyi-Zelenskyy relationship over time.
They don't seem to be very friendly these days...
https://www.post-gazette.com/2022/07/24/Oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky stripped of Ukraine citizenship
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Michael Sallah, Ashley Murray, and Tanya Kozyreva - July 24, 2022 [Excerpts Below]
Years after he was accused of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars in Ukraine and secretly amassing a real estate fortune in the United States, oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky was stripped of his Ukraine citizenship in a stunning move that could remove his protections in the event he’s charged in one of the largest U.S. money laundering cases of its kind.
The order by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could potentially open the way for prosecutors to move for extradition against the billionaire -- the target of a federal grand jury investigation -- for allegedly siphoning the money from Ukraine’s largest bank and buying steel mills and skyscrapers in the American heartland.
"They are taking serious measures," said John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. "It may be a response to this latest expression of concern about corruption in Ukraine. If this is true, this is a big deal. Ukraine, of course, is fighting for its life."
Mr. Zelenskyy’s order in the midst of the war with Russia comes after years of legal battles by prosecutors to seize U.S. properties they say the oligarch and his partners bought with money stolen from his former bank -- the losses large enough to cripple the country's economy -- and moved into the United States between 2008 and 2015...
...Paul Pelletier, a former federal prosecutor and fraud chief at the U.S. Department of Justice, said one of the reasons that Mr. Zelenskyy is taking action against Mr. Kolomoisky is to answer any criticism of the United States for its efforts to help a country known for corrupt leaders.
"I think this is showing in a very tangible way that Zelenskyy is not your typical Ukrainian leader and he is not going to tolerate corruption," he said. "It's purposeful and he's [messing] with the most powerful people in his country."...
...Former Ukraine General Prosecutor Ruslan Ryaboshapka, who met with U.S. law enforcement agents in Kyiv in 2020, said he discussed extradition terms with them and that he favored finding a way to send the oligarch to the U.S. if charges are filed.
Because Mr. Kolomoisky was a Ukraine citizen, it would have been difficult, but this lifts a hurdle...
...Despite any legal efforts by Mr. Kolomoisky, who has filed hundreds of lawsuits to gain control of his former bank, the president's order is critical in letting the world know where he stands, said Kenneth McCallion, a former federal prosecutor who once represented former Ukraine Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
It will "break the stranglehold that the oligarchs such as Kolomoisky have had over politics and the economy," he said. "Zelenskyy and his advisers have finally come to the realization that even if they can successfully fend off the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the victory will be a pyrrhic one unless the country can function as a true democracy, rather than an oligarchy with only the trappings of democratic structures."
[The above are excerpts from a much longer article linked above]
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