International auditors claimed on Thursday that former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s government had misspent about half a billion of public finances.
Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych’s government hired three international firms in May this year—Washington-based Trout Cacheris PLLC, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, and Kroll Inc.—to carry out an investigation into the excessive use of public funds by Tymoshenko’s government during the fiscal years 2008 and 2009, and the first quarter of 2010.
After the four-month investigative period, the investigators presented their results at a press conference in Kyiv in which they accused the former government of money laundering and fraud during public purchases of sugar, medicine, and importing of high-priced cars, as well as selling carbon emission credits.
The investigative report says that Tymoshenko’s government had blown off $24 million purchasing sugar at high prices and never supplied it to the country. It also misappropriated around $44 million importing vaccines and medical equipment using shell companies and offshore zones.
The other issue is that the former officials had spent about $140 million buying around 1,000 German Opel Combo minivans for the health ministry, many of which were then used in Tymoshenko’s presidential election campaign in different regions of Ukraine bearing stickers of her programs, the audit says.
The researchers also found that the previous government had misappropriated about $280 million that was received from selling carbon emission credits as part of the Kyoto protocol. These funds were transferred to the country’s pension fund, which would never find their way back to the Kyoto accounts.
The hired analysts said that the investigative results were objective and the organizations had no conflicts of interest or relationship to politics.
The opposition considers the revision to be linked to a chain of actions taken by the government aimed at threatening and putting pressure on the opposition.
In turn, the authorities have claimed that it is necessary that the reasons for the bad economic situation, which was inherited by Yanukovych’s government, be identified.
Yanukovych won the presidency in February’s elections by beating the Orange Revolution leaders, President Victor Yushchenko and PM Yulia Tymoshenko.
Since then, several former officials from Tymoshenko’s cabinet are the subjects of investigations similar to what the auditors found.
A top Tymoshenko ally said that the authorities were using the audit to discredit the opposition before local elections in the country.
“This is a politically motivated step. That’s why we consider it to be the continuation of putting pressure on opponents to Yanukovych’s regime,” said Hrihoiry Nemyria, deputy head of Tymoshenko’s party, on the party’s website.
Before choosing Trout Cacheris, Ukrainian authorities considered such world institutions as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to carry out the task. Tymoshenko’s party members were skeptical of the chosen auditors.
“Trout Cacheris is a small law firm with a focus on complex litigation, both civil and criminal,” the firm’s website says.
Trout Cacheris’s cofounder, Plato Cacheris, used to work at the U.S. Ministry of Justice and was involved in representing Monica Lewinsky in court in the attempted impeachment of U.S. President Bill Clinton. Among the firm’s clients have been the president of the Republic of the Congo Denis Sassou-Nguesso, considered a dictator by international human rights organizations.
The other company, Kroll Inc., once defended former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma in a case linking him to the high-profile murder of journalist Gyorgy Gongadze in 2001.
The investigators also said the Ukrainian government hopes to return some of the money through legal actions that have been initiated in courts in the United States and Britain, where companies helping Tymoshenko’s government to transfer money were located, local media reports said.
Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych’s government hired three international firms in May this year—Washington-based Trout Cacheris PLLC, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, and Kroll Inc.—to carry out an investigation into the excessive use of public funds by Tymoshenko’s government during the fiscal years 2008 and 2009, and the first quarter of 2010.
After the four-month investigative period, the investigators presented their results at a press conference in Kyiv in which they accused the former government of money laundering and fraud during public purchases of sugar, medicine, and importing of high-priced cars, as well as selling carbon emission credits.
The investigative report says that Tymoshenko’s government had blown off $24 million purchasing sugar at high prices and never supplied it to the country. It also misappropriated around $44 million importing vaccines and medical equipment using shell companies and offshore zones.
The other issue is that the former officials had spent about $140 million buying around 1,000 German Opel Combo minivans for the health ministry, many of which were then used in Tymoshenko’s presidential election campaign in different regions of Ukraine bearing stickers of her programs, the audit says.
The researchers also found that the previous government had misappropriated about $280 million that was received from selling carbon emission credits as part of the Kyoto protocol. These funds were transferred to the country’s pension fund, which would never find their way back to the Kyoto accounts.
The hired analysts said that the investigative results were objective and the organizations had no conflicts of interest or relationship to politics.
The opposition considers the revision to be linked to a chain of actions taken by the government aimed at threatening and putting pressure on the opposition.
In turn, the authorities have claimed that it is necessary that the reasons for the bad economic situation, which was inherited by Yanukovych’s government, be identified.
Yanukovych won the presidency in February’s elections by beating the Orange Revolution leaders, President Victor Yushchenko and PM Yulia Tymoshenko.
Since then, several former officials from Tymoshenko’s cabinet are the subjects of investigations similar to what the auditors found.
A top Tymoshenko ally said that the authorities were using the audit to discredit the opposition before local elections in the country.
“This is a politically motivated step. That’s why we consider it to be the continuation of putting pressure on opponents to Yanukovych’s regime,” said Hrihoiry Nemyria, deputy head of Tymoshenko’s party, on the party’s website.
Before choosing Trout Cacheris, Ukrainian authorities considered such world institutions as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to carry out the task. Tymoshenko’s party members were skeptical of the chosen auditors.
“Trout Cacheris is a small law firm with a focus on complex litigation, both civil and criminal,” the firm’s website says.
Trout Cacheris’s cofounder, Plato Cacheris, used to work at the U.S. Ministry of Justice and was involved in representing Monica Lewinsky in court in the attempted impeachment of U.S. President Bill Clinton. Among the firm’s clients have been the president of the Republic of the Congo Denis Sassou-Nguesso, considered a dictator by international human rights organizations.
The other company, Kroll Inc., once defended former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma in a case linking him to the high-profile murder of journalist Gyorgy Gongadze in 2001.
The investigators also said the Ukrainian government hopes to return some of the money through legal actions that have been initiated in courts in the United States and Britain, where companies helping Tymoshenko’s government to transfer money were located, local media reports said.
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