Ukraine accuses business tycoon Kolomoyskyy of fraud, money laundering

Ukraine's security agency on Saturday named powerful businessman Ihor Kolomoyskyy suspect in a criminal investigation, accusing him of fraud and money laundering.

In a statement, the Security Service of Ukraine said it formally presented the Ukrainian tycoon with relevant documents with officials from the Office of the Prosecutor General and the Bureau of Economic Security too.

According to the probe, in 2013-2020, Kolomoyskyy laundered more than $13 million using banking institutions under his control.

In the 2022 autumn, Ukraine's anti-corruption bureau took a statement from Kolomoyskyy and searched his property in the case of the seizure of the property of the Ukrnafta company, Ukraine's largest oil and gas producer.

The Ukrainian media also reported that the businessman had been stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship, but no official confirmation was received for it. He also has Israeli and Greek Cyprus administration citizenships.

Kolomoyskyy had once been considered the leading oligarch in Ukraine. He also served as the Dnipropetrovsk governor but was dismissed by then Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

In 2019, Kolomoyskyy's media power and funding supported Volodymyr Zelenskyy's successful presidential campaign to unseat Poroshenko.

In 2021, Ukrainian Forbes estimated the businessman's fortune at $1.8 billion, as he ranked fourth in the list of the richest people in Ukraine. But in December 2022, the publication lowered this estimate to $850 million. The reason was the decision taken in early November to forcibly withdraw the Ukrnafta company, which was under the actual control of a businessman, into state ownership.