Dmytro Firtash could be extradited to the United States by early July

A Ukrainian oligarch and former partner of Paul Manafort, who has been fighting extradition for five years to the United States, may be back in the United States in early July, according to a letter from his lawyer to a federal judge in Chicago tabled Thursday.

Dmytro Firtash was indicted in 2014 for what federal prosecutors in the Northern District of Illinois alleged to be his role in bribing Indian officials in order to obtain a lucrative mining contract to sell titanium to Boeing. He was arrested in Vienna in March 2014, released on bail of $ 174 million and has been challenging since his extradition to the United States.

Lawyer Dan Webb, who represents Firtash, said in his letter to the judge that the Austrian Supreme Court should rule at a public hearing on June 25 on whether Firtash will be handed over to US authorities .

Webb said that his client's Austrian lawyers believe that if the Austrian Supreme Court upheld the extradition decision of a lower court of appeal, Firtash could be sent back to the US seven to ten days after the June hearing.

Webb writes: "Although it is impossible to predict with certainty, the Austrian lawyers of Mr Firtash therefore consider that, in the present circumstances, Mr Firtash could be extradited as soon as possible. the first week of July ".

Webb also stated that in light of these developments, he is asking the judge of the case to rule on Firtash's motion to quash the indictment, which states that the federal prosecutors in Chicago are not competent.

Federal prosecutors said in a report filed in 2017 that Firtash and his co-defendant in the so-called corruption ploy, Andras Knopp, "have been identified by US law enforcement agencies as two partners of the most high level of Russian organized crime ".

A letter dated 2018 from Senator Roger Wicker to the Attorney General at the time, Jeff Sessions, alleged that Firtash had acted as a "direct Kremlin agent" to reduce transfers. of natural gas between the Russian company GazProm and Ukraine. NBC News has obtained the letter via a dispute with the Freedom of Information Act.

Spokespeople and lawyers for Firtash, Webb and Lanny Davis said the allegations in Wicker's letter were "categorically and unequivocally wrong".

"Every person is a lie," Davis said. "There are no facts to support them."

In 2008, according to court records, Firtash allegedly collaborated with the firm Paul Manafort, future chairman of Donald Trump's campaign, in an abandoned plan to redevelop the Drake Hotel in New York for $ 850 million. Firtash planned to invest more than $ 100 million, according to the archives.