Ukraine Ex-PM Detained Again

Ukrainian former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, who was released from a California prison, is now in the custody of U.S. immigration authorities. Lazarenko's lawyer Daniel Horowitz told the "Kommersant-Ukraine" daily that the ex-prime minister was detained immediately after his release from the Terminal Island prison after serving an eight-year sentence for fraud. Lazarenko does not have a valid U.S. visa or political refugee status. U.S. officials must now decide whether to grant Lazarenko legal status or deport him to Ukraine. Prime minister from 1996 to 1997 under President Leonid Kuchma, Lazarenko amassed a personal fortune while advising on the privatization of the country's lucrative natural-gas sector. After falling out of favor with the president and amid a probe of his business dealings, Lazarenko fled to the United States in 1999. He was found guilty of money laundering through U.S. banks, wire fraud, and extortion in 2004. In the same year, he was ranked by the watchdog group Transparency International as the eighth most corrupt official in the world.

http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine-ex-pm-lazarenko-held-by-us-immigration/24758789.html