FBI raids offices at downtown One Cleveland Center building tied to Ukrainian oligarch

[JonLP24]

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The FBI on Tuesday raided the Cleveland offices of a company with ties to a Ukrainian oligarch that owns several downtown buildings.

FBI spokeswoman Vicki Anderson said agents searched the offices of Optima Management Group in One Cleveland Center at East 9th Street and St. Clair Avenue. A spokesman for the IRS also said his agency’s investigator’s were present.

Optima is a conglomerate of companies across the United States that has interests in real estate in Cleveland, including One Cleveland Center, the 55 Public Square building and the Westin Cleveland Downtown. Its offices are visible from an entrance and windows on the side of One Cleveland Center, and on Tuesday multiple agents were seen carrying and moving computers, boxes and other items both inside the office and later as they loaded materials into a van.

(Snip)

Federal authorities in Cleveland have been conducting a wide-ranging probe involving Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky that has been ongoing for quite some time. Kolomoisky is a principal of the Privat Group, a large Ukrainian business company, and principals of the company are also part of Optima.

https://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/2020/08/fbi-raids-offices-at-downtown-one-cleveland-center-building-tied-to-ukrainian-oligarch.html?outputType=amp

[zaj]

1. Is he Putin backed or is Putin attacking?

[OnDoutside]

2. Good point.

[Mike 03]

6. He was initially an anti-Russian Ukrainian who began having second thoughts

about that position in 2019, from his perspective because of a lack of Western backing for Ukraine.

Will Ukraine Turn Back to Russia? This Billionaire Thinks So

Igor Kolomoisky isn’t the nation’s puppet master, but he’s right about the damage insufficient Western support could inflict.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-11-14/ukrainian-billionaire-warns-ukraine-may-turn-to-putin

[marble falls]

3. He's an oliogarch. There are no good oligarachs.

[zaj]

7. There are strong allies

The order if the steps we take for change matters.

If the worst destroy the best and weaken the "resistance", we are hosed.

[Patterson]

4. Why would Barr allow this?

[zaj]

8. Because Putin ordered it?

[Mike 03]

5. Hmmm. Complicated character.

Kolomoisky was one of the engineers of Ukraine’s decisive break with Russia in 2014. He funded the volunteer battalions that fought off the early onslaught of Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, helping to contain the spread of secession before the long-underfunded regular army was strong enough to be of any use. In the process, he lost his financial business in Russia and gained the Dnipropetrovsk regional governorship in Ukraine, which former President Petro Poroshenko soon took away, seeking to dismantle what he saw as Kolomoisky’s personal army. So what the oligarch is saying now could be seen as a turnabout, except Kolomoisky doesn’t think in such terms: Whatever he says or does, he’s looking out for his business interests first.

Will Ukraine Turn Back to Russia? This Billionaire Thinks So

Igor Kolomoisky isn’t the nation’s puppet master, but he’s right about the damage insufficient Western support could inflict.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-11-14/ukrainian-billionaire-warns-ukraine-may-turn-to-putin

[Blue_true]

9. Sounds like a person that Putin would want silenced, one way or another. nt

[lostnfound]

11. Or Barr is going to squeeze him for fake stories on Biden

[Blue_true]

13. That too. nt

[Hortensis]

12. It's believed he allied with Putin in 2019. Putin extends his

power by these alliances with power figures in his own and other nations. Both sides become empowered and, as allies, presumably safe from each other.

I wouldn't know if this one had big legal problems in Ukraine, and it may not apply at all here. But I have read that some of these alliances come about because Putin could help make their troubles go away.

[Roland99]

10. Where's Hunter?

Probably something inane