# Dmytro Firtash **Dmytro Firtash** is a Ukrainian gas and chemicals oligarch who has been fighting U.S. extradition from Vienna since 2014 — and who in 2019 hired lawyers from [[Rudy Giuliani]]'s circle while Giuliani was hunting for Biden material in Ukraine. ## Gas middleman Firtash co-owned RosUkrEnergo, the Swiss-registered intermediary in Russian gas sales to Ukraine, and formed Group DF in 2007. A 2008 U.S. diplomatic cable records Firtash telling Ambassador William Taylor that he had needed [[Semyon Mogilevich]]'s permission to do business in 1990s Ukraine. ## The extradition fight Firtash was arrested in Vienna on March 13, 2014 and released on €125 million bail, reportedly the largest in Austrian history. A Chicago indictment unsealed in April 2014 alleged about $18.5 million in bribes to Indian officials over titanium licenses. Austrian courts went back and forth for a decade: extradition refused as "politically motivated" in 2015, approved in 2017 and by the Supreme Court and justice minister in 2019, reopened in 2023, and refused again in November 2024 on grounds of immunity under international law. On December 10, 2025 the Vienna Higher Regional Court rejected the prosecution's appeal as filed too late, making the refusal final. He remains in Vienna. ## The Giuliani connection In July 2019 Firtash hired [[Joe diGenova]] and [[Victoria Toensing]], with Lev Parnas as go-between, while Giuliani was pursuing claims about the Bidens that led to the [[Trump-Ukraine Scandal]]. ## Ukraine's case Ukraine's security council sanctioned him on June 18, 2021 over titanium supplied to Russian defense industry, and the SBU later accused him of embezzling about UAH 18 billion through regional gas distributors *[date of the notice uncertain]*. ## RWKB angle Firtash is the clearest case of an oligarch's legal defense and U.S. partisan opposition research running through the same lawyers. See [[Russian Organized Crime]]. ## See Also - [[Semyon Mogilevich]] - [[Trump-Ukraine Scandal]]