Media reports says Dmytro Firtash held on European arrest warrant issued by Spain minutes after Austrian court grants US extradition request
Powerful in Ukraine, stranded in Austria for the past three years, and wanted by US authorities on bribery charges, Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash is no stranger to intrigue.
On Tuesday, a Vienna court ordered his extradition to the United States – and he was taken into custody on a European arrest warrant by Austrian police just hours later.
The prosecutor’s office said the arrest was not to do with the US warrant, but due to supplementary information received from Spanish authorities, raising the possibility the oligarch may be extradited to Spain rather than the US.
Firtash denies the bribery charges and has always argued they are politically motivated – Washington’s way of removing him from the Ukrainian political playing field at a sensitive time.
The Guardian reports the case has taken on an extra dimension of geopolitical interest because the businessman is a one-time partner of Paul Manafort, formerly Donald Trump’s campaign manager.
Manafort resigned from the Trump campaign in August. He is reportedly one of a number of Trump associates to come under scrutiny for ties to Russia or Ukraine. Although he has no formal role in the new administration, Manafort is known to still take a keen interest in Ukrainian affairs, according to The Guardian.
In addition to his work for Yanukovych, Manafort reportedly also worked with Ukrainian oligarchs, including Firtash.
Firtash, who brokered gas deals with the Kremlin over many years, was arrested just weeks after the 2014 Maidan revolution in Ukraine ousted former president Viktor Yanukovych from power. He was released after putting up €125 million bail, and has been marooned in Vienna ever since.
Following Firtash’s arrest, Tajikistan’s Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption charged him on March 15 with the illegal privatization of the clothing factory Guliston in 2002.
The Tajik anticorruption agency argued that the ex-Minister of Industry Zayd Saidov had been involved in the fraudulent privatization of Guliston and TojikAzot, the fertilizer factory located in the Tajik southern city of Sarband.
In March 2014, the anticorruption agency announced an investigation into a 2002 deal between Dmitry Firtash and the Tajik government to create TojikAzot. The anticorruption agency accused Firtash of illegal privatization of the company in 2002 and misappropriation of funds.
TojikAzot was partly state owned, with the government controlling a 20 percent stake in the enterprise. Ostark Ventures Limited (Firtash is beneficial owner of Ostark Ventures Limited) assumed the 75% ownership interest in the enterprise and Khairullo Saidov, the son of Zayd Saidov, owned 5 percent of shares in TojikAzot. The Khatlon Economic Court invalidated the transaction for the sale of TojikAzot on June 24, 2014.
