Britain imposed sanctions against Dmytro Firtash and his wife for corruption
- Author:
- Oleksandra Opanasenko
- Date:
Great Britain imposed sanctions against Ukrainian businessman Dmytro Firtash and his wife for corruption.
This was reported by the British government.
In Britain, it is alleged that Dmytro Firtash took "hundreds of millions of pounds" out of Ukraine through corruption and control over the distribution of gas, and hid tens of millions of pounds of profits in the UK real estate market alone.
Sanctions were also imposed against Firtashʼs wife Lada Firtash: she is believed to own British assets on his behalf, including the building of the old Brompton Road metro station. And also against Denys Horbunenko, a British financial "fixer", who contributed to Dmytro Firtashʼs corruption.
In addition, sanctions were imposed against Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of the former president of Angola, Jose Eduardo dos Santos. She became the first female billionaire in Africa. In Angola, charges of corruption were brought against her. Her business partner Paula Oliveira and her chief financial officer, Sarju Raikundalia, who assisted in the financial schemes, were sanctioned.
Also under sanctions is Aivars Lembergs, the former mayor of the city of Ventspils in Latvia. There he was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of corruption, but he calls his persecution political. His daughter Liga Lembergs was also under sanctions.
- Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash has been in Austria since 2014, where legal proceedings regarding his extradition to the USA are ongoing. There, he is accused of money laundering and the creation of organizations operating under the influence of racketeering and corruption schemes abroad.
- The US suspects Firtash of paying $18.5 million in bribes to Indian officials to obtain permission to develop titanium deposits in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Firtash planned to sell the finished products to the American company Boeing, and the annual profit from this could be about $500 million. Firtash denies all the charges.
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