Consortium News
US Tax Dollars and Ukraine’s Finance Minister
Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko.
Special Report:
Though touted as the face of reform inside Ukraine’s post-coup regime,
Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko enriched herself at the expense of a
U.S.-taxpayer-financed investment fund – and USAID now says it’s missing
some of the audit records detailing Jaresko’s dealings, reports Robert
Parry.
By Robert Parry
The U.S. government is missing – or withholding – audit documents about the finances and possible accounting irregularities at a $150 million U.S.-taxpayer-financed investment fund when it was run by Ukraine’s Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko, who has become the face of “reform” for the U.S.-backed regime in Kiev and who now oversees billions of dollars in Western financial aid.
Before taking Ukrainian citizenship and becoming Finance Minister in December 2014, Jaresko was a former U.S. diplomat who served as chief executive officer of the Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF), which was created by Congress in the 1990s with $150 million and placed under the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to help jumpstart an investment economy in Ukraine.
By Robert Parry
The U.S. government is missing – or withholding – audit documents about the finances and possible accounting irregularities at a $150 million U.S.-taxpayer-financed investment fund when it was run by Ukraine’s Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko, who has become the face of “reform” for the U.S.-backed regime in Kiev and who now oversees billions of dollars in Western financial aid.
Before taking Ukrainian citizenship and becoming Finance Minister in December 2014, Jaresko was a former U.S. diplomat who served as chief executive officer of the Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF), which was created by Congress in the 1990s with $150 million and placed under the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to help jumpstart an investment economy in Ukraine.
After
Jaresko’s appointment as Finance Minister — and her resignation from
WNISEF — I reviewed WNISEF’s available public records and detected a
pattern of insider dealings and enrichment benefiting Jaresko and
various colleagues. That prompted me in February to file a Freedom of
Information Act request for USAID’s audits of the investment fund.
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