Billionaire ex-Zelensky sponsor detained for money laundering

Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, a close ally of President Volodymyr Zelensky whose support is widely believed to have helped the former actor secure the country’s presidency, has been arrested over money laundering charges.

Kolomoisky was handed over to Kiev’s Shevchenko district court on Saturday after the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) accused him of illegally transferring approximately 500 million Ukrainian hryvnia (€12.5mn) through the “infrastructure of banking institutions controlled by him.”

“It was established that during 2013-2020, Ihor Kolomoisky legalized more than half a billion hryvnias by withdrawing them abroad and using the infrastructure of banks under [his] control,” SBU, which is controlled by Zelensky’s office, said in a statement.

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The pretrial detention hearing was held behind closed doors, as requested by Kolomoisky, who reportedly did not want the media to take photos of him in the courtroom. However, several Ukrainian media outlets took his photo during the proceedings. Kiev’s court eventually set bail at 509 million hryvnia, about the same as what he is accused of laundering.

Kolomoisky’s lawyers said they do not plan to post bail immediately and would seek to appeal the ruling.

On Saturday, in his nightly video address, Zelensky seemed to allude to Kolomoisky’s case as said there would be no return to “business as usual for those who plundered Ukraine and put themselves above the law.”

“Each of us feels that this will be a Ukraine with different rules,” Zelensky said.

The oligarch billionaire entered Ukraine’s political scene in 2014, when he was appointed governor of the southeastern Dnepropetrovsk Region following a Western-backed coup in Kiev. He was dismissed a year later over a conflict with then-Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko.

In February, Kolomoisky’s home in Dnipro was raided as part of a separate investigation into embezzlement and tax evasion at the country’s two largest oil companies partially owned by him.

Kolomoisky is also involved in Ukrainian media, television and banking. His TV channel had hosted Zelensky’s comedy series, Servant of the People, before he backed the former actor’s bid for the presidency.

In the meantime, according to a poll by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation think tank published at the beginning of August, some 77 percent of Ukrainians think Zelensky is responsible for widespread corruption in the government and military administrations.

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Zelensky himself is widely regarded as a member of Ukraine’s corrupt oligarchy, who has been trying to cover his tracks by launching an anti-corruption campaign in a vain attempt to change public opinion by separating himself from the pack.

Vitaly Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center (ANTAC), a Ukrainian nongovernmental organization that monitors graft, said Zelensky’s office is a mere humorous farce that is manipulating the Ukrainian public’s desire for justice.

In reality, Shabunin pointed out, Zelensky’s office is pursuing its own hidden agenda, which has nothing to do with the country’s omnipresent corruption.

Zelensky’s office’s true objectives are to protect Zelensky and other high-level government officials, while destroying all of Kiev’s political opponents, he said.

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