KIEV, April 28. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Oschadbank has begun confiscating the frozen financial assets belonging to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich and his associates with their subsequent transfer to the country’s state budget, the press service of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) reported on Friday.
"According to the ruling of the court of the last resort, the assets of Yanukovich and his team - $1.5 bln - have been arrested and are to be transferred to the state budget. Ukraine’s Prosecutor-General Yury Lutsenko and NSDC Secretary Alexander Turchinov have just visited Oschadbank with this (court) decision," the Ukrainskaya Pravda newspaper reported citing the NSDC.
According to the council, "these funds are being transferred to state budget accounts."
Yanukovich’s defense attorneys earlier filed a lawsuit demanding to refute media reports, which said that the former Ukrainian president had accounts in the state-run Oschadbank with the frozen $1.5 bln.
Earlier reports said that, in addition to the blocked Ukrainian bank accounts, the ex-president’s Swiss assets had been frozen as well. In December 2016, some media reports said that 70 million francs ($69.3 mln) that belonged to Yanukovich and his son Alexander had been blocked. Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that the accounts belonging to Yanukovich’s entourage had been frozen explaining that the move is applicable to the former Ukrainian president and some individuals from his entourage.
For its part, Joseph Hage Aaronson LLP, a top London law firm, which represents the interests of the Yanukovich family, denied reports that the Ukrainian ex-president has bank accounts in Switzerland.
In late January 2015, Ukraine’s State Financial Monitoring Service blocked $1.42 bln on the accounts of non-resident companies allegedly linked to Yanukovich and his entourage.