KIEV, Ukraine -- The Minister of Finance of Ukraine Fedir Yaroshenko stated in a press briefing today that the Ministry's investigation of the recently conducted international audit had revealed the embezzlement of 3 billion UAH (USD $375 million) by Yulia Tymoshenko's government.
The Minister also said that the Ministry's auditing report on public spending in 2008-2009 had already been submitted to the General Prosecutor's Office and to the Ukrainian Parliament.
The main violations according to the above mentioned report are the breaches of public procurement procedure for sugar, vaccines, and expensive foreign cars. There were violations even when selling carbon credits to other countries.
The Minister also added that according to an internal audit carried out by the Main Control and Revision Office of Ukraine (MCROU, Public Spending Inspection) released on 22 October 2010, the total amount of Yulia Tymoshenko's government violations in spending of Ukraine's public funds in 2008-2009 reached 53 bln UAH ($6.6 billion USD).
The audit was conducted by three US-based companies, Trout Cacheris PLLC, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer&Feld LLP and Kroll Inc. and was released on October 14. The fees that the Ukrainian government paid to international auditors amounted to USD $2.9 million.
As a result of the audit, the present Ukrainian government filed two lawsuits in the UK and US courts with the aim to recover the funds misspent by Yulia Tymoshenko's government from various companies which had been found involved in the money laundering schemes.
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