Birth and family

Pavlo Lazarenko was born in the village of Karpivka (located near Kryvyi Rih) on 23 January 1953 into a family of peasant farmers. His father, Ivan Tryfonovych Lazarenko, was born in 1926 in the village of Hnidyn, near Kyiv. Following Ivan's birth, the family moved to what is now Kherson Oblast, where they worked as farmers. In 1932, the family Lazarenko family moved again to Karpivka, where Pavlo would be born. Pavlo's grandfather, Tryfon Lazarenko, joined the Red Army in 1944 and was killed during World War II. After the war, Ivan established a 560 ha (1,400 acres) farm in Karpivka, where Pavlo was born.

Early career

In 1970, Pavlo got a job as a driver in the kolkhoz "Zoria Komunizma" (Dawn of Communism), in Shyroke Raion. From May 1971 to June 1973, Lazarenko served in the Soviet Army, on the border with Afghanistan.

After his military service, from 1973 to 1978 Lazarenko studied at the Dnipropetrovsk State Agrarian University [uk] in the Agronomic Department. After graduating, Lazarenko was recognised as an agronomist. From 1978 to 1983, he worked variously as agronomist, chief agronomist, and head of kolkhoz administration in the Kalinin kolkhoz in Novomoskovsk Raion.

In 1984, Lazarenko was appointed a head of agricultural department of Tsarychanka Raion. From 1985 to 1987 he worked as a Communist Party functionary in Tsarychanka Raion, and from 1987 to 1990, Lazarenko worked for the Communist Party of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in agricultural production and food industry sectors. In February 1990, he was elected as head of Agro-Industrial Complex of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.

Conflict with the Donetsk Clan and murders of opponents

Lazarenko was involved in a prolonged and bitter struggle for economic domination with the emerging Donetsk Clan, an industrial and political group based in Donetsk and led by Viktor Yanukovych.

Lazarenko has been linked to the deaths of several of his political opponents, though he has repeatedly denied his involvement in any assassinations. On 3 November 1996, Yevhen Shcherban, a prominent member of the Verkhovna Rada and natural gas executive, was murdered at Donetsk Airport, a few months after the assassination attempt on Lazarenko, which some media sources accused Shcherban of having a role in.^[5][6][7]

Following his departure from the office of Prime Minister, Lazarenko also allegedly ordered the assassination of Vadym Hetman, an independent People's Deputy who had been active in economic reform efforts.^[8]

Privatisation

While in charge of the Cabinet, Lazarenko reportedly exercised control over many lucrative business projects and speculatively charged 50 percent of profits for his patronage. At that time, he maintained a close business relationship with Yulia Tymoshenko, then the CEO of United Energy Systems of Ukraine, a monopoly that imported Russian natural gas. Forbes described Lazarenko and Tymoshenko as "the Ukrainian Bonnie and Clyde" for their theft of money in the oil and gas sector.^[9][10]

He may have also plotted against Oleksandr Volkov, a close associate of President Kuchma. Reportedly, Volkov became aware of the planned assassination and made a phone call to Lazarenko threatening appropriate revenge.^[11]

Corruption

According to a report by the United Nations, approximately $200,000,000 was looted by Lazarenko from the government of Ukraine during his tenure in office.^[12][13]

Lazarenko is reported to have abused his official authority as Prime Minister of Ukraine to extort nearly 50% of businessman Peter Kiritchenko's $60 million in profits. Lazarenko then ordered him to assist in laundering the proceeds to accounts in Poland, Switzerland, Antigua, and eventually in the United States, where a shell company was used to conceal his property purchases. Kiritchenko pleaded guilty to one count of receipt of stolen property and agreed to testify against Lazarenko.^[14]

In 1998, he made unlawful transfers of $2.3 million from one Dugsbery account at WestAmerica Bank, which can be traced back to Mr. Lazarenko's Lady Lake bank account in the Bahamas, to an account at Bank Boston Robertson Stevens. Both the funds in this account and those in a San Francisco EuroFed can be traced back to Lazarenko's CARPO-53 account, where he deposited funds from the Naukovy fraud and from his extortion of Mr. Kiritchenko's funds. In total, Lazarenko was found to have laundered over $15 million from his Swiss bank account which ultimately ended up in Kiritchenko's EuroFed accounts in San Francisco. A Geneva court in June 2000 tried and convicted Lazarenko in absentia for laundering $6.6 million in illicit proceeds.^[15]

In a special investigative report conducted by Kelly Carr and Brian Grow, two Reuters journalists, it is stated that Lazarenko "was once ranked the eighth-most corrupt official in the world by watchdog group Transparency International" and that "Court records submitted in Lazarenko's criminal case and documents from a separate civil lawsuit, as well as interviews with lawyers familiar with the matter, indicate Lazarenko controls a shelf company incorporated in Cheyenne that owns an estimated $72 million in real estate in Ukraine through other companies".^[16] Lazarenko's shelf corporation is reportedly named Capital Investments Group.

He acquired the majority of his illegal funds through his activities in the gas and energy sector of Ukraine, both as Vice Prime Minister for Energy Affairs and as Prime Minister. He was reported by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to have been guilty of money laundering in the United States, and has routinely been on Transparency International's lists of most corrupt officials.^[14]

In the 2004 Global Corruption Report, Lazarenko made it into the list of the World's Most Corrupt Leaders. He was listed eighth, and was said to have amassed between $114 million to $200 million.^[17][18]

Investigative journalism

Pavlo Lazarenko's activity was investigated by many Ukrainian journalists. Among them the most notable success was achieved by the following ones:

• Vadym Klymentyev, deputy editor of the Dnipropetrovsk newspaper Our City (Nashe Misto),^[36] editor in chief of Dnipropetrovsk municipal newspaper "Zoria".
• Mykola Kravchuk, editor in chief of Dnipropetrovsk newspaper Our City (Nashe Misto).^[36] In 2000 Nikolay Kravchuk, being an editor of an editorial in opposition to Lazarenko, was splashed in the face with acid by an unknown person. Then journalists accused Pavel Lazarenko of the attack.^[37]
• Borys Filatov, journalist, lawyer, author and host of the television program "The provincial chronicles", which went on air of Dnipropetrovsk 9th channel; in 2010 the TV show called "The provincial forecasts" went on the air of Dnipropetrovsk regional state TV and radio company (51 channel).
• Borys Braginsky, a political journalist, first deputy chairman of the Dnipropetrovsk regional organization of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine.^[38]
• Serhiy Leshchenko, a political journalist, deputy editor of the online publication "Ukrainian Truth"^[39]
• Serhiy Rakhmanin, editor of the Ukrainian policy department of the newspaper Mirror Weekly,^[40] a member of the All-Ukrainian commission on journalistic ethics, author and host of "No slogans" program (joint project of "Public Radio" and radio "Continent").

In 2008, according to the results of collective investigative journalism, the book "The Phenomenon of Lazarenko. Villain or Genius?" edited by Vadym Klymentyev was published. It was dedicated to the analysis of the politicians' life course.^[41][42]

According to the results of investigations of journalist Borys Filatov two documentaries, that revealed the essence of the charges against Mr. Lazarenko in the U.S., were filmed.^[43]