Pavlo Lazarenko was prime minister of Ukraine in the 1990s when, American officials claim, he extorted millions in kickbacks. His rise through Ukrainian politics was meteoric and he is accused of cutting sweetheart deals for cronies and failing to report the wealth he obtained from Ukraine’s most lucrative business sectors.
Facing arrest, he fled to New York in 1999 and moved to a 20-room California mansion.
In 2009, he was convicted in federal court of money laundering, served time in prison and is now seeking to remain in the United States. The government is trying to seize $250 million in Mr. Lazarenko’s offshore accounts. But a stiff legal fight from Mr. Lazarenko has kept the case tied up for a decade.
Mr. Lazarenko’s son and several businesses, including Russia’s Gazprom, have also made claims on the money. Mr. Lazarenko was once ranked the eighth most-corrupt official in the world by the watchdog group Transparency International.