Ukraine's prosecutor-general says a former deputy chief of the state oil company Naftogaz fatally shot himself moments before investigators entered his home in the west-central region of Vinnytsya.
Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko said on December 21 that authorities believe Hennadiy Yuryev, who was being investigated on suspicion of embezzlement, killed himself to avoid arrest.
Yuryev was a deputy head of Naftogaz from 2010 to 2014, when Viktor Yanukovych was Ukraine's president.
Yuryev and several other former Naftogaz managers have been under investigation on suspicion of embezzling some $450 million.
Autopsy results confirming the suicide have not been announced yet.
According to Lutsenko, Yuryev managed to avoid arrest shortly after protests pushed Yanukovych from power in February 2014 by faking his death and secretly moving to Vinnytsya.
