Skadden, Big New York Law Firm, Faces Questions on Work With Manafort
that none of our attorneys engaged in any activity tha
Under the government that succeeded Mr. Yanukovych, the country’s general prosecutors office — Ukraine’s version of the Justice Department — opened criminal corruption investigations into Mr. Yanukovych
and members of his government, including his justice minister, Oleksandr Lavrynovych.
As part of Mr. Mueller’s investigation, prosecutors last month issued grand jury subpoenas seeking testimony from officials from at least two lobbying and public relations firms
that worked on the team Mr. Manafort assembled to plead Mr. Yanukovych’s case in Washington — Mercury Public Affairs and the Podesta Group, according to two people with direct knowledge of the subpoenas.
The Justice Department, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation, recently asked the firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, for information
and documents related to its work on behalf of Mr. Yanukovych’s government, which crumbled after he fled to Russia under pressure.
The Justice Department’s request for information about Skadden’s Ukrainian work came after Ukrainian prosecutors asked their
American counterparts for assistance in pursuing an inquiry into alleged illegal spending by Mr. Yanukovych’s government.
The subpoenas for Mercury and Podesta — which followed an earlier round of subpoenas to the firms for documents
and information related to their Ukraine work — focused on "Manafort’s money — where it came from, how he got it, what he did with it," according to a person familiar with the inquiries.
