U.S. Targets Real Estate Assets Linked to Ukrainian Oligarchs

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. brought forfeiture lawsuits against two office properties worth $70 million and allegedly acquired with money that Ukrainian oligarchs Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Boholiubov misappropriated from a bank they owned.

Federal prosecutors filed forfeiture complaints against a Louisville, Kentucky, office tower known as PNC Plaza and a Dallas office park that's the former CompuCom headquarters, according to a statement Thursday from the U.S. attorney's office in Miami.

Kolomoisky and Boholiubov allegedly stole billions of dollars from PrivatBank through fraudulent loans and lines of credit between 2008 and 2016 when they were still the owners, according to the statement. Prosecutors say they laundered the funds through shell companies and invested hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate and businesses in the U.S.

Michael Sullivan, an attorney for Kolomoisky, and lawyers who have represented Boholiubov in other civil cases didn't immediately respond to emails sent after regular business hours seeking comment on the allegations. The Washington Post cited Sullivan as saying that Kolomoisky “emphatically denies the allegations.”

The forfeiture lawsuits come just days after the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided offices in Miami and Cleveland whose addresses corresponded with those of Optima Management Group, the company U.S. prosecutors say facilitated the oligarchs' money laundering and investments.

Kolomoisky is close to Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. In 2016, Ukraine's previous government nationalized PrivatBank and accused Kolomoisky of stealing billions of dollars. He denies the claim.

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