Ukraine’s top legal official said his office would review a probe into the owner of a natural-gas company linked to former Vice President Joe Biden’s son.
Ruslan Ryaboshapka, Ukraine’s general prosecutor, said during a press conference that the review is part of a wider audit of at least 15 high-profile past investigations that were closed or dismissed by his predecessors.
But Ryaboshapka said the decision to review the cases was not specifically related to the time Hunter Biden spent on the board of Burisma, Ukraine’s largest private natural-gas firm, or allegations from the Trump administration that Joe Biden improperly applied pressure on Ukraine to have an investigation into Burisma halted.
Ukraine’s previous general prosecutor closed a money-laundering and tax-irregularity probe into Burisma’s owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, in 2016. The case did not focus on Hunter Biden. Ryaboshapka said the audit has been planned since he took office one month ago.
Ryaboshapha’s deputy, told USA TODAY after the news conference that an affidavit by the previous prosecuter highlighted in recent days by Giuliani’s office that claims he was fired in 2016 because he was leading a “wide-ranging corruption investigation” into Burisma had no merit.