MOSCOW, February 26 (RIA Novosti) – The US Treasury Department has instructed financial institutions in the United States to closely monitor transactions with accounts connected with ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.
The Treasury said in guidance published Tuesday that transactions possibly representing misappropriated or diverted state assets, the proceeds of bribery or other illegal payments should come under scrutiny.
“This advisory is focused on potentially suspicious transactions involving senior members of the [Yanukovych] administration or those acting for or on their behalf, and is not intended to call into question the maintenance of normal relationships between financial institutions in the United States and Ukraine,” the Treasury said.
Yanukovych fled the Ukrainian capital Saturday, only one day after a tentative deal mediated by the EU and Russia was reached to call early elections and form an interim government.
After his departure from the capital, Kiev, crowds of people descended on his residence outside the city to discover a palatial building that Yanukovych’s detractors say only hints at the scale of graft over which he presided.
As Saturday’s deal fell apart and members of Yanukovych’s Party of Regions resigned en masse, parliament voted to impeach the president and installed a new acting head of state in his place.
Acting president and parliament speaker Oleksandr Turchynov said Yanukovych tried to board a charter plane in Ukraine's eastern region of Donetsk over the weekend, but was prevented from doing so by customs officers.
He gave no details on Yanukovych’s destination, as the flight did not undergo the registration procedure.
Yanukovych’s current whereabouts remain unknown.
