Dmytro Firtash accused of bribery

The Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash, known for doing business with Gazprom, is accused by the United States justice of bribery in connection with a mining project worth $ 500 million in India.

Firtash (48) argues that the criminal case is politically motivated, says Bloomberg.

According to the U.S. prosecutors, the Ukrainian businessman was plotting, together with five other persons, for the payment of bribes worth $18.5 million for the Indian officials to facilitate the project, which would have generated sales of titanium products to several companies, including an American company from Illinois. The U.S. company involved in the case was not yet identified.

"Firtash was the coordinator of this initiative," said the prosecutor Zachary Fardon from Chicago, Illinois, in a statement. The official said the man controls the DF Firas International Group conglomerate.

Firtash is now in Austria, where he tries to block his extradition to the United States. He was arrested in March in Vienna, a few days before the referendum from Crimea, and later released on bail for the amount of €125 million. The billionaire is prosecuted in the U.S. since last year, but the charges were made ​​public only on Wednesday evening.

The U.S. prosecutors claim that the case against Firtash is not related to the crisis in Ukraine.