Ukraine raids lair of ‘Bond villain’
Country cracks down on corruption
Anotorious “warlord oligarch” accused of keeping sharks in his office to intimidate foes, has had his home raided in Ukraine. Ihor Kolomoisky was once regarded as one of Ukraine’s most powerful men, with majority shares in oil companies, a bank and the TV channel that launched Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s comedy career before he entered politics.
The SBU, Ukraine’s security service, has not commented on the raid but unnamed officials quoted in Ukrainian media said it was part of an investigation into claims that
Kolomoisky embezzled about $1.9 billion from two oil companies in which he was once a majority shareholder. He is also suspected of dodging customs duties.
The Ukrainian authorities were carrying out dozens of searches across the country yesterday in connection with corruption allegations, two days before Zelenskyy is scheduled to host leaders of the European Union.
Zelenskyy was elected president in 2019 on an anti-establishment and anti-corruption platform in a country long gripped by graft.
Ukraine’s Security Service said the operation targeted “corrupt officials who undermine the country’s economy and the stable functioning of the defence-industrial complex”.
Kolomoisky is credited with helping Zelenskyy win the 2019 presidential election, throwing the weight of his media empire behind him during the campaign.
The Ukrainian president denies being supported by the tycoon.
The 59-year-old oligarch has over the years cultivated a Bond villain persona, infamously keeping a shark tank in his office to intimidate visitors. He once attempted to forcibly take over a steel plant by deploying “hundreds of hired rowdies” armed with chainsaws and baseball bats, according to Forbes.
According to another report, he previously filled the reception of a rival Russian oil company with coffins.
Despite multiple corruption scandals and his verbal attacks on journalists, Kolomoisky did not face any pressure from the government until recently, mainly because he was often hailed with staving off Kremlinfuelled separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
The Ukrainian-born businessman with Jewish heritage famously helped to bankroll Azov, a volunteer battalion, known for having far-right leanings in its infancy, which over the years got rid of some of its most notorious elements and evolved into an ordinary military unit.
Last year, Zelenskyy reportedly stripped Kolomoisky of Ukrainian citizenship, paving the way for him to be extradited to the US where he is being investigated for money laundering.
On the battlefront, a Russian missile destroyed an apartment building in the eastern Donetsk provincial city of Kramatorsk, killing at least two people and wounding at least seven, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko reported.
Rescuers were searching the building’s rubble for other victims.
Elsewhere, the Kremlin’s forces were expelling residents near the Russian-held parts of the front line so they can’t tell Ukrainian artillery forces about Russian troop deployments, Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said.