Demanded $5 million to have proceedings dropped: SSU has exposed lawyer in Kyiv. VIDEO&PHOTOS
A lawyer has been arrested in Kyiv for demanding $5 million in exchange for helping to have criminal proceedings dropped.
This was reported by the SSU press office, as reported by Censor.NET.
Details
The defence lawyer offered to ‘sort things out’ with the law enforcement agencies on behalf of a suspect in a case involving fraud, forgery of documents and money laundering.
"For US$5 million, the lawyer promised the suspect, who is currently abroad, to use his own connections and influence to halt the criminal prosecution.
The lawyer also guaranteed that his ‘client’ would not be held to account in future, would not be placed on an international wanted list, and that no information about him would be passed on to Interpol," the report states.
In return for this payment, he also promised to prevent the suspect’s bank accounts and assets from being frozen.
The lawyer was detained on the premises of a bank in the Pechersk district of the capital whilst receiving an ‘advance’ of 3.8 million US dollars.
"To disguise the transfer of funds, the suspect had arranged in advance for a similar amount of cash to be made available at the financial institution. His plan was to exchange the money for other banknotes immediately after receiving it, thereby making it more difficult to document the crime," the Security Service stated.
He has now been notified that he is suspected of abuse of influence. The man faces up to eight years’ imprisonment with confiscation of property.
Investigations are ongoing to establish all the circumstances of the offence, as well as to identify other individuals who may be involved.
