Lazarenko awaits trial in U.S. (07/30/00)

Lazarenko awaits trial in U.S.

Hearing to determine court date

by Yaro Bihun

WASHINGTON - As a result of two recent decisions - one in Geneva and the other in San Francisco - Ukraine's former prime minister, Pavlo Lazarenko, will not be extradited to Switzerland, but neither will he be set free as he awaits trial in California on charges of laundering millions of ill-gotten dollars in U.S. banks.

Mr. Lazarenko, who was Ukraine's prime minister for a year in the mid-1990s, will remain where he has been for close to a year and a half - in a U.S. detention facility.

The Swiss government had sought his extradition to Switzerland, where he had been arrested while entering the country in December 1998 with various passports in his possession. He was subsequently charged with laundering $9 million in Swiss banks and released after posting $3 million bail.

But last week, on July 20, the Swiss government sent a diplomatic note to the U.S. State Department withdrawing its extradition request.

Keri Douglas, of the Swiss Embassy Press Office in Washington, said the decision was made in light of Mr. Lazarenko's guilty plead to the charge and his conviction in absentia on June 29 by a court in Geneva, which sentenced him to an 18-month suspended prison term.

Asked if this closes the book on the Lazarenko case in Switzerland, Ms. Douglas said, "Probably - unless new evidence comes to light."

The Swiss government also confiscated $6.6 million from his bank accounts there - a small part of $880 million Swiss prosecutors alleged Mr. Lazarenko had misappropriated from Ukraine between 1994 and 1997.

Following a lengthy investigation in this country, U.S. prosecutors last month formally charged Mr. Lazarenko with laundering $114 million through U.S. banks and other financial institutions, as well as with numerous counts of transporting stolen property and with conspiracy. He has pleaded innocent to all charges.

During a Federal Circuit Court hearing on July 25 in San Francisco, Mr. Lazarenko's lawyer Joseph Russoniello unsuccessfully sought to have his client released on bail. Magistrate Elizabeth Laporte denied the request "on flight grounds."

"(She) did not think there was any combination of conditions which would reasonably assure his attending the court session" if he were set free before the trial, said Mr. Russoniello.

The magistrate's decision could be appealed, he added, and the defense team will take "a very, very hard look" at the possibility.

He said the date of Mr. Lazarenko's trial would probably be set during a "status conference" that was scheduled for July 27. He would not speculate about when the trial would begin, but he indicated that it would not be very soon.

"The government has told us there are 35,000 pages of documents that are available for review and discovery," he said. "So it will take some time to figure out what that's all about."

The government of Ukraine, the source for Mr. Lazarenko's alleged ill-gotten millions, has called for Mr. Lazarenko's return to stand trial there. But the absence of an extradition treaty between Ukraine and the United States precludes this from happening, Mr. Russoniello said. "So they couldn't actually do that if they wanted to."

While Mr. Lazarenko's assets in the United States have not been confiscated, Mr. Russoniello said, the U.S. government has made a "forfeiture request" in its pleading to the court. This request identifies the assets the accused may not dispose of without substituting them with other unknown assets, he explained, adding that the ultimate fate of the assets will be decided during the trial.

Mr. Lazarenko's assets include a $6.7 million mansion near San Francisco, where his wife and three children lived when he was detained in February 1999 at New York's Kennedy Airport for entering the country without proper documents. First detained in New York, the former prime minister was later moved to a federal detention center in San Francisco.

His three student-age children, twin daughters and a son, were present at the July 25 hearing, Mr. Russoniello said. Mrs. Lazarenko could not attend, however, because the U.S. government would not give her a visa, he added.

| Home Page |