Ukrainian authorities suspect that tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky, who is currently jailed and facing charges of fraud and money laundering, was behind the attempted murder of a lawyer in a corporate dispute that occurred over 20 years ago. The police have served a notice of suspicion to Kolomoisky for ordering the premeditated murder, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. The suspect allegedly attempted to overturn an unfavourable shareholder decision at a metallurgical plant in 2003 and when the lawyer refused to help, he ordered a criminal group to attack the lawyer in Crimea.
The assailants beat the lawyer with a metal rod and stabbed him multiple times, but his wife intervened and prevented the attackers from killing him. The man survived due to prompt medical intervention and the assailants were caught and jailed. The police did not identify Kolomoisky by name but posted a photograph with a lightly blurred face, which was easily identifiable as him. The suspect had attempted to win over the lawyer through threats before ordering the attack, according to the police statement.
Serhiy Leshchenko, a former investigative journalist and lawmaker who now works as an adviser in President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, suggested that the corporate dispute mentioned in the police statement referred to the Dniprospetsstal enterprise in Zaporizhzhia. Further investigations were ongoing, with twenty-three searches conducted across four Ukrainian regions to gather additional evidence related to the case. Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine’s richest men and a former owner of PrivatBank, had his bank nationalised in 2016 as part of the country’s banking system clean up.
Following the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, Kolomoisky rose to power and amassed significant wealth, becoming one of Ukraine’s most influential oligarchs. However, he is currently under U.S. sanctions and faces numerous allegations of fraud, money laundering, and embezzlement, all of which he has denied. Kolomoisky had backed Zelenskiy in the 2019 election, but his legal troubles continue to mount as Ukrainian authorities investigate his involvement in the attempted murder from over two decades ago. Despite denying any involvement in the murder attempt or the other charges against him, Kolomoisky remains a controversial figure in Ukrainian politics and business.
