U.S., U.K. Spearhead Effort to Help Ukraine Recover Stolen Assets
Tens of Billions of Dollars of Assets Were Allegedly Stolen During Regime of Former President
LONDON—The U.S. and U.K. pledged on Tuesday to help Ukraine recover billions of dollars of assets allegedly stolen during former President Victor Yanukovych's administration but acknowledged the painstaking work could take years.
The investigation into misappropriated assets represents part of a wider effort by the U.S. and European Union to support the new Ukrainian government following Russia's military intervention in the country. Britain and the U.S. have sent officials to Kiev since Mr. Yanukovych fled Ukraine in February to assist the country's new government with asset recovery.
The U.K. government is hosting a two-day meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, dubbed the Ukraine Forum on Asset Recovery, to discuss how to coordinate international work to recover the allegedly stolen assets. The forum is bringing together government officials, legal experts, prosecutors, financial intelligence analysts and regulators from about 35 countries.
The British Home Office wasn't immediately able to confirm whether Russian authorities had been asked to assist in the effort.
At a joint news conference in London with Ukraine's acting prosecutor general, Oleh Makhnitskyi, British Home Secretary Theresa May and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said they were determined to recover what had been stolen.
"This is not something that is going to be easy but it is not necessarily impossible," Mr. Holder said. "The great American boxer Joe Louis once said 'You can run but you can't hide,' and I think that is the attitude that we take here."
Mr. Makhnitskyi said the investigation would focus on the recent years under Mr. Yanukovych when he said a Mafioso style scheme had been established with corruption at various levels of government and official institutions.
Initial intelligence indicated the stolen assets totaled "tens of billions of dollars", he said. Ukrainian society was already demanding results on this front from the new government, he said.
Mrs. May declined to put a figure on the stolen Ukrainian assets, but Mr. Holder said it was safe to say, "we are talking about billions of American dollars."
"That shows the magnitude of the problem…and if one thinks about the issues that Ukraine is facing, the repatriation of those amounts of money can go a long way to dealing with the issues that are presently confronting the Ukrainian people," Mr. Holder said.