FBI Raids Offices Of U.S. Companies Belonging To Ukrainian Tycoons

The FBI has raided the offices of U.S. companies belonging to Ukrainian tycoons Ihor Kolomoyskiy and Hennadiy Boholyubov in Cleveland and Miami.

“I can confirm that we are at both locations,” FBI Special Agent Vicki Anderson-Gregg confirmed in an August 4 telephone interview with RFE/RL from Cleveland.

She said she could not discuss the details of the investigation as the case “is under seal right now.” Anderson-Gregg said that no one had been detained.

Kolomoyskiy and Boholyubov control several companies run out of Miami that own U.S. real estate and steel assets.

Media reports in April 2019 and May 2020 said that the FBI was investigating Kolomoyskiy for money laundering.

A civil case against Kolomoyskiy and Boholyubov filed in Delaware in May 2019 by Ukrainian lender PrivatBank accuses the two men of laundering $780 million into the U.S. financial system through bogus loans.

The men used the money to acquire real estate, alloy plants, and steel companies in the United States, including several Cleveland office buildings, the PrivatBank lawsuit claims.

Anderson-Gregg confirmed the FBI agents were at the Cleveland office of Optima Management, which oversees the tycoons’ local real-estate investments. She said they were at an office in Miami.

A spokesperson for Kolomoyskiy and Boholyubov’s U.S. partners, Mordechai Korf and Uriel Laber, did not immediately respond to RFE/RL’s request for comment.