Ukrainian oligarch Dimitri Firtash successfully fought efforts to bring him to face justice in a Chicago courtroom for most of President Barack Obama’s second term.
But now an Austrian court has ordered the billionaire — who has ties to both the Kremlin and to President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort — be extradited to the U.S. to face racketeering charges.
Taken into custody in Vienna by Austrian police following the court’s ruling Tuesday, Firtash is also wanted by Spanish authorities. But the odds of him finally standing before a federal judge in Chicago have gone up considerably.
And Firtash has assembled a formidable all-star American legal team to defend him.
Former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb, Clinton White House counsel Lanny Davis and former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff have all been hired by Firtash, who denies allegations that he bribed Indian politicians while masterminding an international racket that sought to sell titanium to Chicago-based Boeing.
Though none of the legal eagles has appeared in a Chicago court on Firtash’s behalf since he was indicted in his absence in 2013, Webb told the Tribune on Tuesday that he has been representing the oligarch “for two and a half years” while Firtash fights efforts to bring him to the U.S.
Webb said he was “very disappointed” that an Austrian appellate court on Tuesday overturned a lower court’s previous ruling that the Obama-era U.S. Department of Justice had been politically motivated and was seeking to punish allies of Russian leader Vladimir Putin when it indicted Firtash in the wake of the Russian annexation of Crimea.
Firtash, who had been free in Austria on a bond of $174 million, was taken into custody and must now be brought to Chicago to stand trial unless Austrian Justice Minister Wolfgang Brandstetter intervenes on his behalf, the Austrian court ruled Tuesday. It was unclear what impact the case brought by Spanish authorities will have on the efforts to bring him to the U.S.
The oligarch’s business dealings with Manafort are detailed in court filings in a separate, civil case in New York and add an intriguing wrinkle to a case that already had the potential for wide-ranging repercussions. Manafort’s ties to Russia are under federal investigation, according to The New York Times.
Asked Tuesday whether the Trump administration might be less interested in prosecuting Firtash than the Obama administration was, Webb told the Tribune that he didn’t “want to get out over my skis — it’s not my place to comment on that.”
But he added, “Mr. Firtash had a huge victory in the Austrian trial court where a judge previously found that the case was politically motivated. I’m very disappointed that has been overturned.”
Chicago U.S. Attorney’s office spokesman Joseph Fitzpatrick declined to comment on the case, or to say when Firtash might appear in Chicago, but thanked “the government of Austria for its close cooperation.” Messages sent to the White House and to Manafort were not returned.
Associated Press contributed.
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