The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine has not notified Ukrainian businessman Dmytro Firtash of suspicion in any crime, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has said.

"We have serious cases related to the enterprises of Firtash. As of now, no procedural suspicion has been announced to him," he told journalists in Kyiv on Monday.

At the same time, a criminal case involving the businessman is being investigated, Lutsenko said.

"We have been working actively in some direction: siphoning assets from the enterprises he controls in order to evade tax, and most likely - embezzlement of state funds. We opened the case a few months ago, and have been working actively," he said.

Chairman of Group DF Dmytro Firtash was arrested in Austria on March 12, 2014 at the request of U.S. authorities. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the accused attempted to pay a bribe worth $18.5 million to receive a permit for mining operations in India. In case of the extradition, he is facing up to 50 years in prison and the seizure of all assets.

The Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters ruled on Firtash's extradition-related arrest but then decided to release him on EUR 125 million bail on condition he would not leave Austria. On April 30, 2015, the same court ruled not to extradite Firtash to the United States. The court said it was impossible to exclude political motives of the extradition request.

In September, the Austrian prosecutors appealed against the ruling.

On, February 21, 2017, the Higher Regional Court in Vienna granted the prosecution's request to extradite Ukrainian businessman Dmytro Firtash to the U.S. at the request of U.S. authorities.

According to the ruling, the Federal Minister of Justice takes the final decision on extradition.

Firtash earlier announced plans to return to Ukraine but he is still in Austria.

In 2015, Ukraine's Interior Ministry opened a criminal case on charges of a secret deal between NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy and OstChem, which inflicted UAH 5.7 billion in losses to the state.

According to Ukraine's Interior Ministry, Ukraine had opened criminal proceedings under Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (misappropriation, embezzlement or enrichment by abuse of power, committed in an especially large scale or by an organized group).

Late in May 2015, Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov announced that Firtash had been invited for an interview about Ostchem's corrupt schemes and embezzlement of state asserts.

Late in November 2015, Avakov announced that Firtash would be detained if he returned to Ukraine as requested by the U.S. Department of Justice.