Igor Kolomoysky, suspected of money laundering and fraud, was detained for two month with bail set at some $14 million
Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoysky, whose backing is widely believed to have helped Vladimir Zelensky secure the country’s presidency, was detained pending trial for allegedly siphoning off millions of dollars out of Ukraine.
Kolomoysky was brought to Kiev’s Shevchenko district court on Saturday, after the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) accused the billionaire of legalizing and transferring abroad more than 500 million Ukrainian hryvnia ($13.5 million) through the “infrastructure of banking institutions controlled by him.”
The pretrial detention hearing was held behind closed doors, per Kolomoysky’s request, who reportedly did not want the media to share photos of him in the courtroom. Yet several Ukrainian media still captured photos and videos from the proceeding.
The court eventually set the bail at 509 million hryvnia, a figure comparable to what the SBU accuses Kolomoysky of laundering.
The oligarch’s legal team said it seeks to appeal the ruling, but claimed they do not plan to post bail immediately.
Kolomoysky burst onto the political scene in 2014, when he was appointed governor of the southeastern Dnepropetrovsk Region following a Western-backed coup in Kiev. He was dismissed a year later over a conflict with then-Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko.
The oligarch is also widely considered to have played a major role in the rise to power of President Vladimir Zelensky, whose comedy show was hosted by a Kolomoysky-controlled media holding.
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