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Comment by miohtama | Hacker News Reader

Here is the original article - boingboing is just a copy-paste post https://gijn.org/2019/06/14/document-of-the-day-how-ukrainia...

It links to this commentary which is much more interesting to read https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/how-kolom...

Looks like the claim is that they misappropriated clients funds and invested it in USA under companies whose control can be linked back to them.

I am somewhat puzzled how this could fly under the radar of US banks... this is much bigger deal than the recent Danske Bank scandal in Estonia.

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Seems likely there was a failure of the FinCen Know Your Customer (KYC) rules. I like the plot twist in the filing:

"Kolomoisky is now reported to have made a return to Ukraine for the first time in several years, a decision which is believed to be linked to the recent victory in the Ukrainian presidential election of the television star and comedian Mr. Volodymyr Zelenskiy, behind whom Kolomoisky is widely reported as being the principal power and financial backer. Press reports speculate that there is a deal between Mr. Kolomoisky and Mr. Zelenskiy: in exchange for Kolomoisky’s support, Mr. Zelenskiy will ensure the return of PrivatBank to the ownership of Mr. Kolomoisky in order to circumvent any pending or threatened litigation against Kolomoisky." -- https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/images/royaltyfree/kolomoisk...

That is some serious corruption allegations right there.

From a financial controls perspective it seems like the US government was pursuing these folks (according to the complaint) so somebody was making complaints.

Also another Ultimate Beneficial Owner is in Israel which has a spotty history of extracting financial criminals to US.

To make sure you have a local community support when things start to heat up, I would not be surprised by

- How much London real estate these businessmen own

- How much money also was poured into Israel communities

Seems like an interesting strategy to use ill gotten gains to elect a pliable television personality to the role of chief executive, Then once that is accomplished pressure them so that they will use the power of the office to obstruct any attempt to bring the criminals to justice.

Pretty far fetched though, you would have have someone on the inside running your faux campaign, etc. Perhaps I'm reading too much Stieg Larsson.

Those things happen all the time...

It’s not far-fetched it’s just a regular day out here.

Previously it was the other way around — to be in office yourself and book profits for your son in law (Kuchma—Pinchuk) or other related person. Conflict of interest? Never heard about that.

This was commercialized and outsourced at some point, but only at MP level, so you could enjoy Presidential impunity yourself.

Zelensky happened as a controlled exit strategy because all other contenders had highly toxic reputations to assume office for themselves after being in some office or another for nearly 30 years, so it was a chance that somebody really from the outside would get ir

Also it’s not really chief executive, as executive power is in the hands of PM, so upcoming elections matter even more. You are however on point, since president proposes candidates for General Prosecutor and head of Intelligence-Counterintelligence Service.

The man in question however could simply bribe officials on lower levels with the same effect and for far price.

To top it — extradition of a citizen is constitutionally prohibited, so everybody could sleep well and show middle finger to the rest of the world, as we traditionally do here.

Well, it's Russia... the land of the oligarchs.

It's actually a different country...

> Seems likely there was a failure of the FinCen Know Your Customer (KYC) rules

In this case, it seems nothing has failed. From what I read, news of this were all around, and they knew their customer more than very well.

Anybody going to launder that much of money can setup or buy his own bank and hire an army of financial lawyers to keep it compliant on paper.

All those CFT, KYC laws do sound as completely nonsensical and ineffectual in light of that. Why to go after money laundry clients, when they should really go after the bank laundry owner

Well looks like they got them in the end, but there is no way to extract them to USA.

What will happen to the property? Confiscated to the government?

Thanks, we've updated the link from https://boingboing.net/2019/06/14/kyivland.html.

Better link: https://m.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2019/06/11...

Goes way more in depth, giving local history on some of the construction projects.

That kind of money can buy a lot of silence.

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