A top member of Russian organized crime, who also happens to be an ally and contact of Paul Manafort, has been sitting in very comfortable exile in Vienna, Austria, while the Justice Department has gone silent about efforts to extradite him for a trial in the U.S. And, according to a Republican senator, that oligarch has continued to spread corruption while he waits—and pull down as much as $1.5 billion dollars in illicit cash.
Ukrainian-turned-Russian-turned-Ukrainian-turned-exile Dmytro Firtash has nothing but good things to say about former Trump campaign manager and current convicted felon Paul Manafort. Firtash credits Manafort with securing the government in Ukraine for pro-Russian forces under Viktor Yanukovych, and praises him for being “smart.” But Manafort isn’t the only one who has apparently been smart. Because Firtash has turned waiting for extradition into a big-money job.
NBC News reports that Republican Sen. Roger Wicker wrote to the Justice Department in 2018 to ask what was going on with the slow pace of the extradition. Wicker complained that Firtash, whose personal wealth has been estimated at as high as $3 billion, is not only a "direct agent of the Kremlin," but is continuing to rake in profits from some of the same crimes he’s facing in court. A 2017 Justice Department filing named Firtash as an “upper-echelon associate of Russian organized crime.”
In 2013, Firtash was indicted in Chicago on charges of bribery. The actually payoff involved Indian officials who took money to give companies owned by Firtash access to titanium. The case ended up in a U.S. court because Firtash made a deal to sell that titanium to an unnamed company headquartered in Chicago. In 2014, Firtash was arrested in Vienna and he’s been there ever since, fighting his extradition to face trial in the U.S. and making very good money in the process.
Enough money to hire plenty of U.S. attorneys, including former Michael Cohen lawyer Lanny Davis, not just to fight extradition, but also to threaten NBC News just for publishing Wicker’s letter.
Firtash made his fortune by moving from Moscow to Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union and making a magical deal that saw him pick up huge reserves of natural gas and oil for a song. Despite his relocation, the oligarch has maintained close relations with the Kremlin, including partnering with the state-controlled Gazprom. He’s also obtained some other shockingly good deals that have put him in charge of potentially billions more in metals and other mineral wealth—which isn’t bad for someone who claimed he moved to Kiev to start a restaurant.
While he’s been sitting in exile, Wicker claims in his letter, Firtash has continued to fund and encourage corruption that “undermines Ukrainian reform efforts” through intermediaries. Which Firtash’s attorneys deny. But the Republican senator and NBC aren’t at the top of Firtash’s hate list. He really, really doesn’t like Joe Biden.
In a 2018 interview with the Daily Beast, Firtash blamed “malign American influence” for damaging and embarrassing his homeland. In particular, there were two people who came in for special vitriol from the oligarch. One was Victoria Nuland, the former assistant secretary of state. Nuland worked in Ukraine to help build ties with Western Europe and encouraged Ukraine’s consideration for NATO. A 2014 phone call between Nuland and the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine was leaked on YouTube after apparently being intercepted by pro-Russian forces (or, some have suggested, directly by the Kremlin). In that conversation, Nuland discussed the pro-Russian Yanukovych, who had just escaped the country to exile in Moscow, and talked about ways the U.S. might encourage a more pro-Western candidate. Russia accused the U.S. of hand-selecting Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who subsequently became prime minister.
The other person whom Firtash singled out for his interference in Ukraine was Vice President Joe Biden. Donald Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani have recently been pushing a fake scandal around Biden’s role in the country, but that had nothing to do with Firtash’s complaint. Instead, Firtash was angry that Biden had encouraged Ukraine to “move away from Russian influence” and had praised anti-Russian protests.
In short, Firtash hates Biden and Nuland because they supported U.S. interests over those of Russia. Firtash loves Manafort because he supported Russia’s interests over those of the U.S.
But despite his love for Manafort, it still embarrassed Firtash to see other pro-Russia Ukrainian leaders pouring money into Trump’s inaugural fund and lining up to get into events. “I’m really ashamed of Ukrainians,” said the oligarch. “They went there like crazy people.”
According to Wicker, Firtash is benefiting from a scheme that requires gas companies to sell their gas to Firtash’s group of intermediaries, who then hand it over to Firtash, who in turn sells it outside of Ukraine and pockets the profits. This process continues, even though Firtash’s gas company was abolished by court order. His attorneys say the accusations are "categorically and unequivocally false."
