In April 2014, the DOJ announced the unsealing of a criminal indictment charging six individuals “with participating in an alleged international racketeering conspiracy involving bribes of state and central government officials in India to allow the mining of titanium minerals.” (See here for the prior post).
According to the indictment, Dmitry Firtash, a Ukrainian businessman who was arrested in March 2014 in Austria (see here for the DOJ’s prior release), was the leader of a criminal enterprise, through his group of companies Group DF, that included: Andras Knopp (a Hungarian businessman); Suren Gevorgyan (of Ukraine); Gajendra Lal (an Indian national and permanent resident of the U.S.); Periyasamy Sunderalingam (of Sri Lanka); K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao (a Member of the Parliament in India who was an official of the state government of Andra Pradesh and a close advisor to the now-deceased chief minister of the State of Andhra Pradesh, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy).
According to the indictment, the illegal activities of the enterprise included, but were not limited to: “utilizing United States financial institutions to engage in the international transmission of dollars for the purpose of bribing Indian public officials in connection with obtaining approval of the necessary licenses for [a mining project within Andhra Pradesh], which project was forecast to generate more than $500 million in revenues per year …”
According to the indictment:
“Licenses were required for the project before mining could begin. These licenses required the approval of both the State Government of Andhra Pradesh and the Central Government prior to their issuance. The approval and issuance of such licenses were discretionary, non-routine governmental actions.”
The indictment charges all defendants with racketeering conspiracy; money laundering conspiracy; and two counts of interstate travel in aid of racketeering.
In addition, all defendants except Rao (the alleged Indian “foreign official”) were charged with conspiracy to violate the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions.
Prior to the April 2014 unsealed indictment, Firtash was arrested in Austria and thereafter paid $174 million to post bail. Responding to the U.S. criminal charges, as noted in this prior post, Firtash released a video which insisted he is an innocent party caught at the center of a “battlefield for the two biggest global players of Russia and the USA.”
As highlighted in this 2015 post, an Austrian judge denied a U.S. extradition request and called the DOJ’s case against Firtash “politically motivated” and lacking “sufficient proof.”
As highlighted in this prior post, in 2017 Firtash filed a motion to dismiss the indictment. In summary fashion it stated:
“Defendant Dmitry Firtash (“Firtash”) moves to dismiss the Indictment pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 12(b) because the Indictment fails to set forth facts that satisfy the legal requirements of venue in the Northern District of Illinois or jurisdiction in the United States. Firtash is a 51-year-old Ukrainian citizen. He is not now, and has never been, a citizen of the United States of America. Firtash has never applied for the visa required to enter the United States and has never set foot in the country. The Indictment fails to allege a single illicit act by Firtash that either occurred in the United States or affected the United States. The charges in the Indictment are based on allegations that bribes were paid to Indian officials in connection with a “mining” project that was planned to take place entirely within India by foreign companies with no connection to the United States. United States law and international legal principles establish no basis for the prosecution of this case in the United States. This Court should dismiss the indictment for three reasons. First, there is no venue in the Northern District of Illinois and a trial in this district would violate the U.S. Constitution. Second, none of the laws that Firtash is charged with violating properly apply beyond the territory of the United States nor are they domestic as alleged. Third, the prosecution is a violation of Firtash’s due process rights because the United States has no legitimate interest in prosecuting the charged conduct.
[…]
The allegations in the Indictment fail because they lack the required nexus, either geographically or from the perspective of a cognizable United States interest, to the charged conduct. This Court should dismiss the Indictment.”
As highlighted in this prior post, in mid-2019 U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer denied the motion to dismiss.
Over the past six years, there has been no meaningful case activity. The most recent substantive entry on the court docket is from June 30, 2022 and it states: “Case reassigned to the Fugitive Calendar for all further proceedings …”.
As reported here:
“An Austrian court has definitively blocked a US extradition request against former gas tycoon Dmitry Firtash after more than a decade of court hearings that included a record €125 million bail payment.
The Vienna Higher Regional Court said a lower-court verdict that blocked Firtash’s transfer was final after prosecutors had failed to meet a deadline on submitting an appeal …”.
