Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Pavlo Lazarenko
It may have lacked the military and foreign policy bravado that came with the ouster of Panama’s leader nearly 20 years ago, but Pavlo Lazarenko’s sentencing in U.S. court last week was nonetheless noteworthy. The former prime minister of Ukraine became the first former world leader to be tried and sentenced in federal court since Manuel Noriega’s capture and imprisonment. While the Noriega episode included a full-scale invasion of his country by American Marines, Lazarenko’s ordeal wasn’t nearly as headline grabbing.
After serving as prime minister in 1996 and 1997, Lazarenko fled to the U.S. in 1999 to enjoy the millions of dollars he stole and then laundered into San Francisco banks. The U.S. Department of Justice, however, caught on to Lazarenko’s scheme, and federal agents arrested him in 2000. He spent the rest of the decade either in jail or under house arrest (at his $6.7 million home in Novato, CA).
In 2004, Lazarenko was convicted of 14 money laundering and fraud counts, and sentenced to nine years in prison. His appeal resulted in a partial overturning of the conviction and his sentence reduced to about eight years, which was decided last Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco.
His defense attorney estimates Lazarenko will only serve another one to three years behind bars, due to time served and assuming he behaves himself in prison. Lazarenko also will have to pay a $9 million fine and forfeit nearly $26 million to the U.S. government.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
SF Last Stop In Ukrainian Money Laundering Case (SF Appeal)
Ukrainian Ex-Prime Minister's Sentence Reduced (by Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle)
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