MOSCOW, September 16. /TASS/. The Shevchenkovsky District Court of Kiev increased the amount of bail for businessman Igor Kolomoisky more than seven times to $105.3 mln due to new charges, the Ukrainian publication Obshchestvennoye. Novosti reported.
According to the publication, the judge set bail for Kolomoisky at $105.3 million, although previously its amount was about $13.8 million.
On Friday, Sergey Leshchenko, an adviser to the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said that Ukrainian law-enforcement agencies brought new charges against tycoon Igor Kolomoysky.
In his words, the businessman is suspected of forging transaction documents, masterminding an effort to seize property in particularly large quantities by an organized group, as well as of acquiring and managing unlawfully obtained property.
Kolomoysky has been informed about the new charges at a pretrial detention facility, in the presence of his lawyer.
On September 2, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) confirmed that Kolomoysky was charged with fraud and legalization of criminally-obtained property. According to the investigation, between 2013 and 2020, Kolomoysky laundered over $13 million by moving these funds off-shore, using banks under his control.
Later that day, a judge arrested him for two months with a bail option of about $13.8 million.
Then the lawyers noted that they did not plan to bail and would challenge the decision on appeal. The hearing of the appeal against the arrest was supposed to take place on September 6, but the court postponed the hearing for more than two weeks - until September 25.
When Kolomoisky was charged, his entourage and experts linked this to the upcoming trip of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to the United States and his desire to create the appearance of fighting corruption. In particular, Oleg Soskin, ex-adviser to former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, noted that Zelensky "needs to show to US President Joe Biden and everyone else that he is fighting corruption, against the oligarchy." It is noteworthy that the consideration of the appeal was postponed for such a period that the meeting will take place only after the end of Zelensky’s visit to the United States, scheduled for September 19-21.