Austrian court rules Ukrainian oligarch won't be extradited to Chicago

CHICAGO (WLS) -- There is a judicial scramble underway to keep the corruption case alive of a mega-millionaire and foreign fugitive for nearly a decade.

There are all kinds of finales, but Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash considers a court ruling in Austria to be his grand finale. Nearly 10 years after he was arrested overseas by the FBI, Firtash has been fighting U.S. Justice Department efforts to bring him to Chicago in handcuffs and prosecute the wealthy industrialist for an alleged scheme to pay bribes in an aviation deal.

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"I am positive the truth is on our side and I'm sure we will be able to defend ourselves," Firtash told the I-Team in a June 2022 interview.

It's a defense a decade in the making, that oligarch Dmitry Firtash may never even have to use in a courtroom in Chicago.

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Firtash's legendary Chicago attorney and former federal prosecutor, Dan Webb, tells the I-Team the case "is over...and it failed" following a judicial decision in Vienna that Firtash may not be extradited to Chicago as U.S. prosecutors have been pressing.

"There's always room for an appeal. Now, you typically lose appeals. You don't win appeals on average, which certainly looks good for him, but there is one more avenue of relief for the government," said former federal prosecutor and chief ABC7 legal analyst Gil Soffer.

He points to I-Team reporting for years in which U.S. officials claimed Firtash was part of an alleged scheme to bribe government officials in India; at least $18.5 million in corrupt payments linked to a titanium deal with then Chicago-based Boeing, the aviation giant. Boeing is not charged with wrongdoing, and Firtash has maintained he has never even been to Chicago.

READ MORE | Dmitry Firtash, Ukrainian oligarch wanted in Chicago, now wanted for embezzling $485M from homeland

An unusually pointed statement from prosecutors Friday says, "We disagree with the Austrian court's conclusion that Mr. Firtash cannot be extradited to the U.S. solely on the basis that he is allegedly in possession of diplomatic credentials from Belarus, particularly since those credentials would have been provided to him after he was arrested in Austria in 2014. We anticipate that the court's decision and its erroneous recognition of diplomatic immunity will be appealed."

"They want white collar, future white collar defendants to know that DOJ will pursue them to the ends of justice and to the ends of the earth," Soffer told the I-Team.

Firtash attorney Dan Webb believes the finale is final and there will be no extradition to Chicago.

The government disagrees and prepares to fight another day.