Ukraine's new government looks for missing $20billion

I wonder if they have Nigerians in their government. Same amount that the Federal Government of Nigeria magically misplaced.

Via Dailymail

Documents recovered from an ornamental lake at the extravagant home of Ukraine's fugitive president are being dried out in a sauna in a bid to uncover some of the billions of dollars purported to have gone missing under his kleptocratic regime.


When Viktor Yanukovich fled his sprawling luxury estate in Mezhyhirya, an hours drive from Kiev,  hundreds of papers were hurriedly thrown into the water to destroy evidence.
But many were in plastic folders, meaning some documents were still legible and they are now being closely analysed. 

The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project told MailOnline: 'There are some important stories in the documents that show exactly how the government of Ukraine has been operating. 
'I think prosecutors will also find plenty of materials and will investigate money laundering and misuse of government funds.'

The people of the country, who earn on average earn between £2,400 and £4,200 a year, flocked to see Viktor Yanukovich's hastily vacated property last weekend.

A statement published on yanukovychleaks.org reads: 'Volunteer divers found nearly 200 folders of documents at a lake at the residence of former president of Ukraine. They had been thrown in the lake to destroy them as people were escaping the compound.
'A group of journalists and activists has undertaken to rescue, systematize and investigate the enormous wealth of information about the former owners of the residence.
'The recovered documents are being published on this website to make them available to journalists and citizens around the world.
'The investigations based on these documents will also be published here and in Ukrainian media.'
The gates of the secretive and sprawling home were opened to the public after the former president escaped from the capital city and the parliament voted to impeach him.
Sculptures worth millions, statues, a white Steinway piano, gold-plated taps, towel rails and other fixtures, chandeliers everywhere, valuable paintings and elegant glass and tableware. He even had personalised bottles of fine brandy featuring a photo of his smiling face.
The property also boasts a golf course, helicopter pad, cinema room and a garage filled with classic sports cars worth millions, while in the exotic gardens Australian and African ostriches stretched their legs.

Palatial: Ordinary Ukrainians were amazed to discover the riches their ousted president had amassed since coming to power

Magnificent: Two men (pictured) peer over the gate into Viktor Pshonka's estate where a treasure trove of luxury awaits. He fled leaving it intact and it is now the object of public fascination at scale of the buildings and their lavish interiors

Tickling ivories: A Maidan (Independence Square) self-defence activist plays a piano as they guard the Mezhyhirya

The car and motorcycle collection of ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. It is believed to be worth millions

Graeco-Roman statues - a Goddess covering her modesty with her hair, lovers intertwined - decorated the lawns. Ornate ponds - half frozen on Saturday - nonetheless bubbled with water being pumped through them. Love-seats and colonnaded meeting places dot the estate.
There is a Russian bath-house and on a hilltop, looking down on the Dnipro river through trees, is a plaza for a barbecue. A replica of a ship also sits on a lake.
Most of the visitors shook their heads in wonderment at the ambitions of a president who had always proclaimed that he was on the side of the poor people of Ukraine.
Today a Swiss prosecutor opened a money laundering investigation into Viktor Yanukovich and his son Oleksander, the prosecutor's office in Geneva said in a statement on Friday.
'A penal investigation for severe money laundering is currently being conducted in Geneva against Viktor Yanukovich and his son Oleksander,' the prosecutor's office said in the statement, adding it had opened the probe on Thursday.

New prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told parliament that the former government had left the country with $75bn of debts

It said prosecutor Yves Bertossa and the police had searched the office of a company owned by Oleksander Yanukovich on Thursday morning and seized some documents.
Oleksandr, who has amassed a fortune measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars in the past three years, opened a branch of his company, MAKO, in Geneva in 2011.
This morning Swiss police raided the Geneva offices of Yanukovich firm.
Switzerland said on Thursday it would order banks to freeze any funds in Swiss banks found to be linked any Yanukovich funds.
Yesterday Ukraine's interim authorities officially formed a new government and Ukraine's parliament set about taking measures to recover some of the billions of dollars they say went missing under his regime.
The parliament approved Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a key member of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko's party, as prime minister.
He told parliament that the former government had left the country with $75bn of debts.

Vladimir Putin granted shelter to Ukraine's fugitive president Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych has a news conference scheduled today

'Over $20bn of gold reserve were embezzled. They took $37bn of loans that disappeared,' Yatsenyuk said. 
'Around $70bn was moved to offshore accounts from Ukraine's financial system in the last three years,' he claimed.
Today it was announced the Ukraine's central bank will limit foreign currency withdrawals from banking deposits to 15,000 hryvnia ($1,500) per day, to tame hryvnia volatility.
In a bid to shore up Ukraine's fledgling administration, the International Monetary Fund has said it is 'ready to respond' to Ukraine's bid for financial assistance.
The European Union is also considering emergency loans for a country that is the chief conduit of Russian natural gas to western Europe.
Ukraine's finance ministry has said it needs $35 billion over the next two years to avoid default.