The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine estimates that Yanukovych and associates stole $40 billion
Deputy Prosecutor General Evgeniy Enin stated on Ukrainian Media Network TV that during Victor Yanukovych’s presidency, he and his associates stole 40 billion USD from the country.
"According to our estimates, about 40 billion US dollars were stolen during Viktor Yanukovych's rule. In just 2.5 years they managed to get away with an amount equal to the state budget of Ukraine," Enin said.
According to investigators, Yanukovych’s criminal organization consisted of seven criminal groups which were responsible for different spheres of the economy.
"We investigated in detail the activities of one of the seven groups of criminal organization, the Klimenko group that operated under Kurchenko. These individuals controlled the activities of certain spheres of Ukraine’s national economy. They collected about 100 million US dollars in cash every month from the Dnipropetrovsk region alone. These were so-called taxation layers. The money would then pass through a range of banking and financial transactions," Enin said.
He went on to add that, "This group kept thousands of fictitious enterprises under its control; about 400 financial experts were responsible for their activities. 600 other experts were responsible for maintaining the connection of this money supply with the enterprises in the outside world. We are talking about the activity of an international "laundering" hub where money was laundered abroad and then used to purchase real estate, football clubs, yachts, deputy votes, or for so-called reinvestment in Ukraine in the form of purchases of domestic government bond loans."
On May 4, the Obolonskyi District Court of Kyiv started hearing proceedings in a lawsuit against Yanukovych on charges of high treason.