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Ukraine’s PM says ex-president’s money should go to budget

Arseniy Yatsenyuk is asking Ukraine's Prosecutor General to confiscate the frozen $1.4 billion that belongs to ex-president Yanukovych and his allies

Arseniy Yatsenyuk EPA/ANDRIY KRAVCHENKO/POOL

Arseniy Yatsenyuk

© EPA/ANDRIY KRAVCHENKO/POOL

KIEV, May 12. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk suggested confiscating $1.4 billion that had been arrested from the family of former President Viktor Yanukovych.

"Ukraine’s government has arrested $1.4 billion that belonged to Yanukovych and his allies," the prime minister told a news briefing after negotiations with Canada’s Foreign Minister Robert Nicholson. "I am asking Prosecutor General and the courts to change that money from being arrested into being confiscated."

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The money "will be returned to the budget, from where it had been stolen," he said, "thus the government will be able to raise both social standards for the people and to finance additionally the armed forces and fighting corruption."

Ukraine’s finance monitoring authority announced earlier it blocked $1.4 billion in accounts of companies, which, the Ukrainian authorities said, are controlled by the country’s former President Viktor Yanukovych and his closest allies.

The authority said most money was blocked in accounts opened in Ukrainian banks. "The total amount of blocked funds in accounts of 44 companies of non-residents, controlled by the ‘Yanukovych family’ made $1.42 billion, including $1.37 billion in Ukraine and $49.51 million abroad," the financial authority reported.

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Ukraine crisis Viktor Yanukovych Arseniy Yatsenyuk

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