Ukraine's former prime minister went on trial on Monday in San Francisco, charged with illegally laundering US$114 million in a rare case against a former foreign leader on US soil.
Pavlo Lazarenko, who served as prime minister of the former Soviet republic of Ukraine from 1996 to 1997, is accused of defrauding and extorting his country of hundreds of millions of dollars and laundering US$114 million through US banks.
He has previously been convicted in absentia for money laundering in Switzerland and charged with murder in Ukraine.
As he walked down the San Francisco federal courthouse hallway with his adult son, Lazarenko told reporters that he was confident of winning an acquittal.
"Absolutely. Not only because I want to believe, but because I've read all the evidence from beginning to end and I'm absolutely convinced I am not guilty," he said in Russian.
Asked if he was prepared for trial after years of legal wrangling, the silver haired, burly former Communist party official said: "I don't think it would be right to say one is ever prepared for something like this. But the opening remarks of my lawyer will show there is no reason to bring a case against me."
Lazarenko moved his family to San Francisco during the 1990s when he was prime minister. He was arrested on his arrival in the US in February 1999.
Prosecutor Martha Boersch portrayed Lazarenko as someone who used his political power to shake down people for money, boost his own businesses and amass great wealth in the chaotic transition years after the fall of the Soviet Union.
"He totally abused his official position to put money in his own pockets," said Boersch. "From 1992 to 1999 he corruptly took hundreds of millions of dollars from his own country."
Lazarenko's defense attorney Doran Weinberg told jurors that his client had indeed become very wealthy in the 1990s but said intelligence and savvy led to the gains.
"With his drive, his intelligence, he created an extraordinary record of success, both in business and public administration," he said.
Weinberg said the charges against Lazarenko stemmed from his political opposition to Ukrainian Prime Minister Leonid Kuchma.
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