(((Presumably the current Ukrainian lawmakers are too busy punching each other, embezzling natural gas and throwing velvet coups d'etat to worry about this weird loss of national sovereignty.)))
FORMER UKRAINIAN PREMIER SENTENCED TO NINE YEARS IN U.S. PRISON. A
U.S. court on August 25 sentenced Pavlo Lazarenko, who served from
1996 to 1997 as Ukrainian prime minister, to nine years in prison and
fined him $10 million, Reuters reported. A U.S. jury convicted
Lazarenko in 2004 of 29 counts of extortion, money laundering through
U.S. banks, fraud, and transportation of stolen property. The judge
presiding over Lazarenko's case later threw out 15 counts. "The
defendant's conduct was egregious – he misused his office to
generate tens of millions for himself at the expense of the Ukrainian
people and then sought to avail himself of our banking system to
safeguard his criminal proceeds," U.S. prosecutors wrote in their
sentencing memorandum. Lazarenko's lawyers said they will appeal the
verdict. Lazarenko applied for political asylum in the United States
in 1998. He was arrested in 1999 and accused of money laundering in
2000. He has been kept under house arrest in San Francisco since
2003. A Swiss court tried Lazarenko in absentia in 2000, finding him
guilty of money laundering and sentencing him to 1 1/2 years in
prison and a $6.6 million fine. JM
