US, UK agencies assisting Ukraine in Yanukovych corruption investigation (UPDATE)

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt
said on March 10 that experts from the FBI, the Department of Justice and
Department of Treasury “are working with their Ukrainian counterparts to
support the Ukrainian investigation… to uncover the financial crimes that were
committed by the previous regime and to see what can be done to recuperate some
of those assets (stolen from the state).”

Meanwhile, on March 6 the British government
said that a task force led by the National Crime Agency has sent “UK experts in
financial intelligence, money laundering and tracing criminal assets…to Kyiv to
help the Ukrainian government recover misappropriated assets.”

An alleged insider businessman and 32
former senior officials, including Yanukovych and his two sons, Oleksandr
and Viktor Yanukovych Jr., have had their assets frozen in the European Union,
and separately, in The Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Lichtenstein, Latvia,
the U.S. and Canada.

The U.S. and Canada have also imposed
travel bans on former senior officials but due to privacy laws the identities
of sanctioned individuals are unknown.

On March 10, Switzerland expanded its list by
nine former senior
officials to 29.

Yanukovych hastily fled his lavish Mezhyhirya
estate outside Kyiv overnight on Feb. 21, leaving behind thousands of documents
that guards had attempted to burn and throw into the nearby Kyiv Sea. Ukrainian
investigative journalists were able to recover many of the documents and spent
several days holed up inside the presidential compound, scanning and cataloging
them before they were turned over to law enforcement officials.

Yanukovych is wanted for mass murder and
stealing as much as $70 billion from Ukraine over the past three years. He
remains defiant as a fugitive from justice and is believed to be hiding out in
Russia, where he is scheduled to hold a press conference in the southern of
Rostov-on-Don on March 11.

One of the sanctioned individuals, Party of
Regions lawmaker Serhiy Klyuyev whose older brother Andriy Klyuyev was
Yanaukovych’s presidential chief of staff, complained on Austrian
television of having his bank account frozen on March 7.

He told ORF TV that he and his brother “aren’t
businessmen, we are just shareholders,” while denying that he’s an oligarch. He
added that his Austrian bank account was registered legally with Ukraine’s
central bank and that he only has Ukrainian citizenship and travels with his
diplomatic passport.

According to legislation, lawmakers are
allowed to use their diplomatic passports when travelling on official business
approved by parliament’s administration, otherwise the diplomatic passports
should be kept with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Illegitimate
Crimean referendum

Pyatt also reiterated that the U.S. would not
recognize the “so-called” referendum in Crimea set for March 16.

Pyatt also said the U.S. would not recognize
the results of a “so-called referendum” about the future of Crimea
set to be held on March 16 and that it would continue to consider the peninsula
as a part of Ukraine. He said in the days leading up to the referendum
that “gangs of pro-Russian thugs” were roaming the streets in Crimea,
beating up activists and journalists and creating an atmosphere of fear and
intimidation. He said he believed there was also an “active campaign right
now” to stir up dissension and division in Ukraine.

The referendum in Crimea proposes just two
options: “Do you support Crimea’s reunification with Russia?” and
“Do you support the restoration of the Constitution of the Crimean
Republic dated 1992 and Crimea’s status as a part of Ukraine?”

Pyatt said that U.S. President Barack Obama
and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had spoken over the weekend with
European leaders, as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin, adding that EU
leader were on the same page as Washington. “There is no daylight
between us,” Pyatt said.

Washington is ready to introduce sanctions
against Russia due to its stance on Ukraine, Pyatt said, adding that the U.S.
is prepared to go further if the situation escalates, so that Moscow’s military
actions here would cost it dearly.

The Ukrainian authorities and the
international community have been forthright about their stance regarding the
referendum, deeming it illegal, along with the Ukrainian courts.

The ambassador said that the conflict in
Crimea should be solved diplomatically.

“The U.S. is exerting every effort to ensure
the diplomatic resolution of the contention in Crimea. The American point of
view is that there is no military solution to the conflict,” Pyatt said, giving
praise to the Ukrainian military in Crimea for resisting Russian forces there
peacefully over the course of the past 10 days.

Reiterating the words of top U.S. officials
last week, Pyatt said: “The U.S. believes that Crimea is and should remain a
part of Ukraine. Discussion over.”

Kyiv Post
editor Christopher J. Miller can be reached at millerjchristopher@gmail.com, or
on Twitter at @ChristopherJM. Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached at rachkevych@kyivpost.com.