CHICAGO – U.S. prosecutors have accused an influential Ukrainian oligarch and five others in an international racketeering conspiracy that allegedly involved bribes of officials in India to allow the mining of titanium minerals.
A Wednesday statement from the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago says Dmytro Firtash and the other defendants conspired to pay more than $18 million in bribes to secure licenses to mine minerals in eastern India.
Firtash was arrested last month in Vienna on an American warrant. But U.S. authorities didn't reveal details of the allegations at the time. He was later released on a more than $172 million bail on assurances he wouldn't leave Austria.
Firtash supported ex-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and is a significant figure in the sale of Russian natural gas to Ukraine.
He earlier denied wrongdoing.
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