FBI agents raid Cleveland offices at building connected to Ukrainian oligarch
Igor Kolomoisky and his associates have been accused of laundering “hundreds of millions of dollars into the US
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FBI agents on Tuesday raided the Cleveland offices of a building with connections to a Ukrainian oligarch, according to reports.
Agents could be removing material from the office Optima Management Group in One Cleveland Center, Fox 8 reported.
Igor Kolomoisky, billionaire and governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region speaks during an interview in Dnipropetrovsk May 24, 2014. (Reuters)
Optima is a conglomerate of U.S. companies with real estate interests in Cleveland Center, including the building One Cleveland Center.
The company is tied to Ukrainian billionaire Igor Kolomoisky, who formerly owned PrivatBank in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian bank filed a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court last year, alleging that Kolomoisky, his associates, and the Optima group affiliates in Cleveland used PrivatBank “as their own personal piggy bank.”
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The lawsuit accused PrivatBank of issuing fraudulent loans and using Optima’s properties in Cleveland “to launder hundreds of millions of dollars” into the United States, Fox 8 reported.
An IRS spokesman told cleveland.com that agents were present during Tuesday’s raid. FBI spokeswoman Vicki Anderson told the outlet that search warrants were also executed at an office in Miami in connection with the investigation.
No one has been charged or taken into custody and the investigation is ongoing, Anderson said.
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Kolomoisky’s attorney could not be reached for comment.