UK sanctions Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash and others in anti-corruption crackdown
The U.K. has sanctioned Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash, along with Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos, and Latvian politician Aivars Lembergs, according to the U.K. government’s website statement on Nov. 21.
The statement noted that freezing their assets is part of a crackdown on global corruption and "dirty money."
Firtash allegedly "extracted hundreds of millions of pounds from Ukraine" and invested significant amounts of the gains in U.K. properties.
His wife, Lada Firtash, was also sanctioned as she “profited from his corruption and holds UK assets on his behalf.”
Foreign Secretary David Lammy emphasized the sanctions as a step toward holding corrupt elites accountable for exploiting public resources.
Firtash, formerly a close associate of pro-Russian ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, accumulated much of his wealth by buying Russian gas and selling it in his home country.
U.S. prosecutors charged Firtash with racketeering and bribery in 2014 and he was briefly arrested in Austria before posting bail. The Ukrainian tycoon has so far avoided extradition from Austria's capital, where he resides.
