Pavlo Lazarenko | |
|---|---|
Павло Лазаренко | |
 Official portrait, 1998 | |
| 5thPrime Minister of Ukraine | |
| In office 28 May 1996 – 2 July 1997 | |
| President | Leonid Kuchma |
| Preceded by | Yevhen Marchuk |
| Succeeded by | Valeriy Pustovoitenko |
| First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine | |
| In office 5 September 1995 – 28 May 1996 | |
| Prime Minister | Yevhen Marchuk |
| Preceded by | Viktor Pynzenyk |
| Succeeded by | Vasyl Durdynets |
| Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast | |
| In office March 1992 – June 1994 | |
| President | Leonid Kravchuk |
| Preceded by | Mykola Zadoya |
| Succeeded by | Mykola Derkach |
| Chairman of theDnipropetrovsk Oblast Council | |
| In office 26 June 1994 – 14 May 1998 | |
| Preceded by | Viktor Bogatyr |
| Succeeded by | Eduard Dubinin |
| People's Deputy of Ukraine | |
| In office 15 May 1990 – 18 June 1992 | |
| Constituency | Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, No. 107 |
| In office 24 July 1994 – 7 February 2002 | |
| Constituency |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1953-01-23)23 January 1953 (age 72) |
| Political party | Hromada(1994–2002) |
| Other political affiliations | CPSU(1985–1991) |
| Spouse | Tamara[1] |
| Children | 6[1] |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Soviet Union |
| Branch/service |  Soviet Army |
| Years of service | 1971–1973 |
Pavlo Ivanovych Lazarenko (Ukrainian:Павло Іванович Лазаренко; born 23 January 1953) is aUkrainian convicted criminal, international fugitive, and a former politician who served asPrime Minister of Ukraine from 1996 to 1997.
Born in 1953 to a peasant family in southern Ukraine, Lazarenko was active in agricultural activities before joining politics in the late 1980s. OriginallyGovernor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Lazarenko was in 1995 madeFirst Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine for energy affairs, placing him in charge of acquiring energy from foreign countries. Less than a year later, he was appointed by PresidentLeonid Kuchma as prime minister, serving for just over a year before being replaced byValeriy Pustovoitenko on 2 July 1997.
Lazarenko's time as prime minister and subsequent trials have established him as one of the most corrupt, authoritarian, and unpopular politicians in Ukrainian history. According to United Nations reports, Lazarenko stole around $200 million from the Ukrainian government. Following his 1999 flight from Ukraine, Lazarenko fled to theUnited States, where he was subsequently tried forextortion,money laundering, andwire fraud, and sentenced. Since 1999, he has been living in exile in the United States due to criminal charges against him in Ukraine.
Pavlo Lazarenko was born in the village ofKarpivka (located nearKryvyi Rih) on 23 January 1953 into a family of peasant farmers. His father, Ivan Tryfonovych Lazarenko, was born in 1926 in the village ofHnidyn, nearKyiv. Following Ivan's birth, the family moved to what is nowKherson Oblast, where they worked as farmers. In 1932, the family Lazarenko family moved again to Karpivka, where Pavlo would be born. Pavlo's grandfather, Tryfon Lazarenko, joined theRed Army in 1944 and was killed duringWorld War II. After the war, Ivan established a 560 ha (1,400 acres) farm in Karpivka, where Pavlo was born.
In 1970, Pavlo got a job as a driver in thekolkhoz "Zoria Komunizma" (Dawn of Communism), inShyroke Raion. From May 1971 to June 1973, Lazarenko served in theSoviet Army, on the border withAfghanistan.
After his military service, from 1973 to 1978 Lazarenko studied at theDnipropetrovsk State Agrarian University [uk] in the Agronomic Department. After graduating, Lazarenko was recognised as an agronomist. From 1978 to 1983, he worked variously as agronomist, chief agronomist, and head of kolkhoz administration in the Kalinin kolkhoz inNovomoskovsk Raion.
In 1984, Lazarenko was appointed a head of agricultural department ofTsarychanka Raion. From 1985 to 1987 he worked as a Communist Party functionary in Tsarychanka Raion, and from 1987 to 1990, Lazarenko worked for the Communist Party ofDnipropetrovsk Oblast in agricultural production and food industry sectors. In February 1990, he was elected as head of Agro-Industrial Complex ofDnipropetrovsk Oblast.
In August 1991, shortly following theDeclaration of Independence of Ukraine, Lazarenko was chosen as First Deputy Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
In March 1992,President of UkraineLeonid Kravchuk appointed Lazarenko as Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.[2] Lazarenko's candidacy was nominated by the council of working groups conference of the Dnipropetrovsk State Agrarian University, whose decision was supported by over 200 groups.Leonid Kuchma, then a People's Deputy, at that time proposedValeriy Pustovoitenko, who would also later become prime minister.
Lazarenko remained as Governor until June 1994. Although he sided with incumbent Kravchuk in the1994 Ukrainian presidential election, he managed to establish close ties with the election winner, Leonid Kuchma.
At the recommendation of thePrime Minister of UkraineYevhen Marchuk, Kuchma appointed Lazarenko theFirst Vice Prime Minister for Energy Affairs on 5 September 1995.[3] As the government official in energy affairs, he was charged with a task of negotiating gas supplies withRussia andTurkmenistan.[3] Already next year in 1996, Ukraine reported no debts to the RussianGazprom for the first since its independence.[3] In 1996 Lazarenko became Doctor of Economic Sciences.
On 28 May 1996, Kuchma confirmed Lazarenko as thePrime Minister of Ukraine within the powers stipulated by the existing "Constitutional Agreement". On 10 July 1996, less than two weeks after adopting a newConstitution of Ukraine, theVerkhovna Rada approved the appointment of Lazarenko as prime minister.
On 16 July 1996, Lazarenko survived an attempt on his life when a bomb exploded near his blocked car en route fromKyiv toBoryspil airport.[4]
Lazarenko was involved in a prolonged and bitter struggle for economic domination with the emergingDonetsk Clan, an industrial and political group based inDonetsk and led byViktor Yanukovych.
Lazarenko has been linked to the deaths of several of his political opponents, though he has repeatedly denied his involvement in any assassinations. On 3 November 1996,Yevhen Shcherban, a prominent member of the Verkhovna Rada and natural gas executive, was murdered at Donetsk Airport, a few months after the assassination attempt on Lazarenko, which some media sources accused Shcherban of having a role in.[5][6][7]
Following his departure from the office of prime minister, Lazarenko also allegedly ordered the assassination ofVadym Hetman, an independent People's Deputy who had been active in economic reform efforts.[8]
While in charge of the Cabinet, Lazarenko reportedly exercised control over many lucrative business projects and speculatively charged 50 percent of profits for his patronage. At that time, he maintained a close business relationship withYulia Tymoshenko, then the CEO ofUnited Energy Systems of Ukraine, a monopoly that imported Russian natural gas.Forbes described Lazarenko and Tymoshenko as "the Ukrainian Bonnie and Clyde" for their theft of money in the oil and gas sector.[9][10]
He may have also plotted against Oleksandr Volkov, a close associate of President Kuchma. Reportedly, Volkov became aware of the planned assassination and made a phone call to Lazarenko threatening appropriate revenge.[11]
According to a report by theUnited Nations, approximately $200,000,000 was looted by Lazarenko from the government of Ukraine during his tenure in office.[12][13]
Lazarenko is reported to have abused his official authority as Prime Minister of Ukraine to extort nearly 50% of businessman Peter Kiritchenko's $60 million in profits. Lazarenko then ordered him to assist in laundering the proceeds to accounts in Poland, Switzerland, Antigua, and eventually in the United States, where a shell company was used to conceal his property purchases. Kiritchenko pleaded guilty to one count of receipt of stolen property and agreed to testify against Lazarenko.[14]
In 1998, he made unlawful transfers of $2.3 million from one Dugsbery account at WestAmerica Bank, which can be traced back to Mr. Lazarenko's Lady Lake bank account in the Bahamas, to an account at Bank Boston Robertson Stevens. Both the funds in this account and those in a San Francisco EuroFed can be traced back to Lazarenko's CARPO-53 account, where he deposited funds from the Naukovy fraud and from his extortion of Mr. Kiritchenko's funds. In total, Lazarenko was found to have laundered over $15 million from his Swiss bank account which ultimately ended up in Kiritchenko's EuroFed accounts in San Francisco. A Geneva court in June 2000 tried and convicted Lazarenkoin absentia for laundering $6.6 million in illicit proceeds.[15]
In a special investigative report conducted byKelly Carr andBrian Grow, twoReuters journalists, it is stated that Lazarenko "was once ranked the eighth-most corrupt official in the world by watchdog groupTransparency International" and that "Court records submitted in Lazarenko's criminal case and documents from a separate civil lawsuit, as well as interviews with lawyers familiar with the matter, indicate Lazarenko controls ashelf company incorporated inCheyenne that owns an estimated $72 million in real estate in Ukraine through other companies".[16] Lazarenko's shelf corporation is reportedly named Capital Investments Group.
He acquired the majority of his illegal funds through his activities in the gas and energy sector of Ukraine, both as Vice Prime Minister for Energy Affairs and as prime minister. He was reported byRadio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to have been guilty of money laundering in the United States, and has routinely been on Transparency International's lists of most corrupt officials.[14]
In the 2004Global Corruption Report, Lazarenko made it into the list of the World's Most Corrupt Leaders. He was listed eighth, and was said to have amassed between $114 million to $200 million.[17][18]
By mid-1997, Lazarenko had fallen out of favour with Kuchma, who suspected him of making plans to run for president in the1999 Ukrainian presidential election. Kuchma later regretted Lazarenko's appointment as his "gravest mistake".[citation needed]
Lazarenko, who had no previous record of serious illness, was unexpectedly hospitalised in late June 1997. It has been alleged that he spent the two weeks of the leave for the sickness in vain attempts to mend fences with Kuchma. Technically, under the Ukrainian labour code law, a hospitalized individual may not be terminated from his position. However, when his dismissal became imminent, Lazarenko resigned on 2 July 1997, on his own initiative.[citation needed]
In the1998 Ukrainian parliamentary election, he was once again elected to the Verkhovna Rada from electoral district No. 40 ofDnipropetrovsk Oblast as part ofHromada party. In the Verkhovna Rada, Lazarenko became a leader of the Hromada parliamentary faction. Hromada frequently sided withSocialist Party of Ukraine ofOleksandr Moroz.[citation needed]
In December 1998, Lazarenko was arrested inBasel,Switzerland as he entered the country on a Panamanian passport. Lazarenko was charged with money laundering, and indicted. However, he was released on bail shortly afterwards, and fled Europe to theUnited States in 1999, fearing retribution from Kuchma after his fall from grace.[19][20]
In February 1999, shortly after arriving in the United States, Lazarenko was again arrested, this time on charges of visa irregularities. This case soon expanded to cover Lazarenko's various crimes, and he was eventually convicted of extortion, money laundering, and wire fraud in 2004, and sentenced to 9 years in federal prison on 25 August 2006.[21]
On 18 October 2006, an appeal stemming from Lazarenko's conviction (but not the appeal of the conviction) was heard by a three-judge panel of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which included formerSupreme Court JusticeSandra Day O'Connor sitting by designation.[22] Lazarenko was incarcerated at theFederal Correctional Institution inDublin, California.[23] U.S. District Court JudgeCharles Breyer cut Lazarenko's sentence from 108 to 97 months in prison on 19 November 2009. The court took into account that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had dismissed approximately half the counts he was convicted of, leaving convictions only for acts committed 17 years previously.
In November 2009,Interior Minister of UkraineYuriy Lutsenko stated that if Lazarenko returned to Ukraine he would be detained, as he was on the international wanted list.[24]
Lazarenko was imprisoned atFCI Terminal Island until 1 November 2012.[25] Following the end of his sentence, he applied for residency in the United States, citing the2011 arrest of Yulia Tymoshenko, who was coincidentally a close ally of Lazarenko as prime minister.[10][26] According to Lazarenko's defense lawyerViktor Chevhuz, theUnited States Citizenship and Immigration Services were to deal with this application by the end of 2013.[26] Chevhuz claimed that this could lead to the demand to Lazarenko to leave the country within 72 hours with the right to fly anywhere, or, "A deportation to a country from which he arrived -Greece, because there is no extradition treaty with Ukraine".[26] Chevhuz further expected Lazarenko to not return to Ukraine "as the criminal cases against him, which had been previously dropped, may be reopened".[26]
Immediately after his 1 November 2012 release, theProsecutor General's Office of Ukraine stated that as soon as Lazarenko would return to Ukraine he would be arrested for his involvement in around 50 criminal cases.[25] In 2012, Prosecutor General of UkraineViktor Pshonka announced the involvement of Lazarenko, alongside Tymoshenko, in the murder of Yevhen Shcherban andAlexander Momot in 1996, and the assassination of banker Vadym Hetman.
Lazarenko formerly owned a $6.75 million mansion inMarin County, California,[27] which was purchased with money from the Ukrainian budget. In 2013, US authorities confiscated the mansion, in connection with his 2004 money laundering conviction. Authorities have also sanctioned the seizure of aPablo Picasso lithograph he is rumoured to possess.[28]
As of July 2016, he was living with his wife and children in California, with his application for asylum still pending.[29] Lazarenko was mentioned in thePanama Papers and theSuisse secrets.[30][31]
Lazarenko was married to his wife Tamara (born 1954) and has one son and two daughters.[1] According toThe Ukrainian Weekly; at the time of his 1998 arrest in Switzerland, Lazarenko's wife and children were living in a mansion worth US$7 million inNovato, nearSan Francisco.[32] Lazarenko's son is Roman Lazarenko, born 17 April 2001.
Lazarenko is currently married to Oksana Tsykova, an attorney in Daniel Horowitz's Law Practice in the California East San Francisco Bay Area,[33] with whom he has 3 children.[34][29]
Pavlo Lazarenko's activity was investigated by many Ukrainian journalists. Among them the most notable success was achieved by the following ones:
In 2008, according to the results of collective investigative journalism, the book "The Phenomenon of Lazarenko. Villain or Genius?" edited by Vadym Klymentyev was published. It was dedicated to the analysis of the politicians' life course.[40][41]
According to the results of investigations of journalistBorys Filatov two documentaries, that revealed the essence of the charges against Mr. Lazarenko in the U.S., were filmed.[42]
Lazarenko is a recipient of theOrder of Prince Yaroslav the Wise in 1995 and two orders of Saint Volodymyr from theUkrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).
Media related toPavlo Lazarenko at Wikimedia Commons
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Ukraine 1996–1997 | Succeeded by |
