MADRID: A Spanish court has ordered a former top UN official wanted on suspicion of fraud which cost the agency millions of dollars to be remanded in custody, according to a ruling made public Thursday.
An internal UN court ruled last year that Vitaly Vanshelboim, a Ukrainian, secretly collected $3 million in gifts, including a new Mercedes, from a British businessman while he invested more than $58 million of the body’s money in the man’s companies.
At the time he was the deputy head of the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), a little-known agency that acts as a kind of general contractor for other arms of the organization.
Vanshelboim was put on leave in 2021 while the UN investigated the allegations and was sacked in early 2023. He moved to Spain three years ago.
A New York court in January issued an international arrest warrant for Vanshelboim for alleged bribery, money laundering and electronic fraud.
Spain’s top criminal court on Wednesday ordered he be remanded in custody because he poses a flight risk, according to a ruling made public on Thursday.
While Vanshelboim has family and economic ties in Spain, “such ties cannot be considered sufficiently strong to counter the aforementioned risk, given that he has only been living here for three years,” the court said.
The UN has said it lost the bulk of the more than $58 million in UNOPS funds which Vanshelboim entrusted to the British businessman.
The scandal led to an overhaul of the agency and embarrassed the UN.