Russia starts investigation into Ukrainian oligarch’s company
The Russian FSB is conducting searches regarding a case of fraud on an especially large scale, the primary subject of it being the Ukrainian oligarch Victor Pinchuk, Rosbalt news web site reports.
As Rosbalt reports with reference to a source in the law enforcement authorities, searches have been carried out at a number of former managers of the insurance company “Rossiya”, at the offices of firms related to this company, and also at the major legal office which represents the insurers’ interests. The criminal case itself, which was filed according to section 4 article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud on an especially large scale), is located at the Department of Internal Affairs for the North-Eastern Administrative District of Moscow, and the operational support for it is being done by members of the FSB.
According to the investigation, in 2013 more than 1 billion rubles of policyholder funds were stolen and taken offshore to Cyprus. The primary subject of the investigation is the businessman Victor Pinchuk, brother-in-law of the former president of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma. Pinchuk has controlled the activity of the insurance company “Rossiya” since 2009, the media affirms.
The case materials indicate that operatives suspect that some of the stolen funds may have been used by Pinchuk in order to finance the electoral campaign of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, and in 2016, the electoral campaign of US Senator from New York Hillary Clinton.