Ukrainian Billionaire Arrested At French Ski Resort In Embezzlement Investigation

A Ukrainian businessman was arrested Tuesday at a high-end ski resort in the French Alps and accused of embezzling over $100 million.

French police arrested Kostiantyn Zhevago on an international warrant at the Courchevel ski resort near the Italian border. Zhevago's first court appearance is scheduled for Wednesday in Chambery, Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigations said in a statement. It's the first step toward extradition to Ukraine.

The Associated Press reports the prosecutor's office is awaiting additional documents from Ukraine to support his extradition request.

Zhevago, 48, was the primary beneficiary of Ukraine's now-shuttered Finance & Credit Bank and a former chief executive for the mining company Ferrexpo, which has an operating base in central Ukraine.

Forbes put Zhevago on its 2022 list of billionaires and estimated his net worth to be $1.3 billion, primarily tied to owning a majority stake in Ferrexpo. In 2021 his net worth was listed at $2.3 billion.

Zhevago was a member of Ukraine's parliament from 1998 to 2019, when he stepped down during the state prosecutor's investigation of Finance & Credit Bank for money laundering and embezzlement. The bank went bankrupt in 2015.

Zhevago and other former managers of Finance & Credit Bank are accused of embezzling over $100 million from the bank and harming "the interests of the state and the bank's depositors," according to the Ukraine investigations bureau.