Liechtenstein ready to return CHF 13 mln arrested in Ukrainian judge's bank account

According to the prosecutor’s office, arrest of the accounts of a possibly corrupt Ukrainian official was not carried out upon the initiative of the official Kyiv.

"The arrest was imposed based on our own information," said Liechtenstein's chief public prosecutor Robert Wallner. The Liechtenstein Financial Intelligence Unit reported suspicion of dubious origin of the funds accumulated in the accounts of two Ukrainian citizens, according to Wallner.

After a preliminary inspection, the prosecutor's office initiated the arrest of the accounts and the court in Vaduz granted a petition.

The total amount of the frozen assets is CHF 13 million in the account of Panama-based company managed by one of the suspect, the prosecutor said.

The Prosecutor's Office in Liechtenstein noted that the funds can be seized and returned to Ukraine after the country presents evidence of their criminal origin.

It was established that the beneficial owner of the accounts opened in a bank in Liechtenstein was a former judge of the Higher Economic Court of Ukraine who served as vice-chairman of the court during Yanukovych’s rule.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk asked the law enforcement bodies also to expedite confiscation of $1.5 billion arrested in 2014 as part of investigation into the activities of companies close to Ukraine's ex-president Viktor Yanukovych.

Read alsoAzarov Jr.'s property arrested in SardiniaIn June 2014, the State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine and Financial Intelligence Unit identified 42 non-resident companies that were associated with ex-president Viktor Yanukovych, and blocked the accounts of 19 companies worth a total of $1.5 billion. A large part of the funds were channeled through offshores to buy Ukrainian government domestic loan bonds.