Aug. 6 (UPI) -- The Justice Department on Thursday moved to seize property from the owners of one of the largest banks in Ukraine for alleged money laundering.
The Department of Justice filed two civil forfeiture complaints against the owners of PrivatBank, Ihor Kollomoisky and Gennadiy Boholiubov, alleging they obtained fraudulent loans and lines of credit from 2008 through 2016 and laundered the illegally obtained funds through a series of shell companies' bank accounts before transferring the money to the United States.
The complaints seek the seizure of an office park in Dallas and an office tower in Louisville, Ky., which the Justice Department estimates are worth a combined $70 million.
According to the complaint, Mordechai Korf and Uriel Laber, accomplices of Kollomoisky and Boholiubov, created a web of entities -- usually under some variation of the name "Optima" -- to launder the funds.
The pair then allegedly purchased millions of dollars of real estate throughout the country, including the two properties designated for seizure.
In 2016, the scheme was discovered and the Ukrainian government seized control of PrivatBank.
