Ukrainian Oligarch Fights Extradition To U.S.
Billionaire Ukrainian industrialist Dmytro Firtash rejected accusations of bribery and money-laundering as an Austrian court opened deliberations on April 30 on whether to extradite him to the United States to face corruption charges.
Firtash told the court in Vienna that allegations that he had conspired to bribe Indian government officials were "absolutely untrue."
A U.S. grand jury in 2013 indicted Firtash, along with a member of India's parliament and four others, on suspicion of bribing Indian government officials to gain access to minerals used to make titanium-based products.
Firtash, 49, was arrested in Vienna a year ago at the request of U.S. authorities, who have been investigating him since 2006.
He was released from detention in March 2014 after posting bail of 125 million euros ($140 million).
Firtash's legal team argued that the criminal case was politically motivated.
Firtash's gas-trading and chemicals businesses flourished under Ukraine's ousted pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych.
It was unclear when the judge would rule.
Based on reporting by Reuters and Interfax
This just in from Reuters:
AUSTRIAN COURT REJECTS U.S. REQUEST TO EXTRADITE UKRAINIAN INDUSTRIALIST FIRTASH TO FACE CORRUPTION CHARGES
That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Thursday, April 30, 2015. Thanks for reading.
Kyiv is seeking billions from Gazprom:
Ukraine is seeking more than $16 billion from Russian energy company Gazprom in its appeal to an arbitration court in Stockholm over a long-running gas-pricing dispute between Kyiv and Moscow.
Ukraine's state gas company Naftogaz and Gazprom are bound by a 10-year gas agreement signed in 2009, but Kyiv is challenging the price of Russian gas and billions of dollars in debts that Russia says it has accumulated.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, in a post on Facebook on May 1, said, "The transit contract is not fair for Ukraine and more than $10 billion should be paid to Naftogaz from Gazprom to compensate for losses."
He added, "the overall sum we are seeking from Gazprom in terms of the gas-supply contract and the transit contract is already over $16 million." (Reuters and Interfax)