Ex-Prime Minister of Ukraine is waiting for a decision on asylum in a California mansion

Фото: Depositphotos

Former Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavel Lazarenko lives in California in Marin County in a house worth $ 1,8 million, writes New York Times. At the moment, Lazarenko is awaiting the decision of the American government to grant him political asylum.

According to the newspaper, the mansion belongs to Lazarenko’s wife Oksana Tsykova, who worked as a translator during the trial of the ex-official in 2004. The couple have three children. Bykov is now reportedly working at the Daniel Horowitz Law Office, which manages the affairs of Pavel Lazarenko.

Journalists of the newspaper also report that Lazarenko’s house is quite comfortable, but it is far from his estate in Novato, which the former prime minister bought before escaping from Ukraine and which was later confiscated by the US authorities.

Simultaneously with the expectation of a decision on asylum, Pavel Lazarenko is suing the Americans for $ 250 million, which were frozen on his accounts. According to media reports, the Lazarenko case has many volumes and can get to court no earlier than 2018 of the year.

According to Daria Kalenyuk, executive director of the Anti-Corruption Center, quoted by the NY Times, it would be surprising if the US still granted asylum to the ex-official, despite the trial of frozen bills and recent imprisonment.

Pavel Lazarenko served as Prime Minister of Ukraine from May 1996 to July 1997. In 2006, the former prime minister was convicted by a US court of “financial abuse” and sentenced to 9 years in prison. In November 2012, he was released from federal prison and turned over to immigration authorities.

Как told ForumDaily, in February, 1999, the former head of the Ukrainian Cabinet, was detained at the airport in New York for attempting to enter the US illegally. Lazarenko wanted to get to the United States with a passport of a Panamanian citizen.

After the arrest, he appealed to the American authorities for political asylum, but instead in the 2000 year, Pavel Lazarenko was charged with extortion, money laundering and fraud.

According to the UN, Lazarenko stole 200 million dollars. At that time, this was equivalent to 0,4 percent of Ukraine’s GDP. The Prime Minister transferred 114 million dollars to his US accounts. In anticipation of the verdict of the court, the Ukrainian politician spent more than three years in prison. In July, 2003, after paying them a pledge of 65 million dollars, he was transferred to house arrest.

The trial of Lazarenko took place in 2006, in San Francisco, because his family owned a Californian estate in Novato. The Ukrainian side has repeatedly asked the Americans to extradite them to the former prime minister, which was refused, citing the absence of an extradition treaty between the countries.

1 November 2012 of the year Lazarenko left the federal prison of Terminal Island after the termination of his sentence and was placed in a detention facility for migrants in Adelanto, California. The reason for this was the uncertain legal status of Pavel Lazarenko in the United States.

After 7 days, Lazarenko was taken out of the immigration detention center, but information about where he was after that was not published.

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