Carr and Brian Grow, two Reuters journalists, it is stated that Lazarenko "was once ranked the eighth-most corrupt official in the world by watchdog group Transparency International" and that "Court records submitted in Lazarenko's criminal case and documents from a separate civil lawsuit, as well as interviews with lawyers familiar with the matter, indicate Lazarenko controls a shelf company incorporated in Cheyenne that owns an estimated $72 million in real estate in Ukraine through other companies". Lazarenko's shelf corporation is reportedly named Capital Investments Group. He acquired the majority of his illegal funds through his activities in the gas and energy sector of Ukraine, both as Vice Prime Minister for Energy Affairs and as Prime Minister. He was reported by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to have been guilty of money laundering in the United States, and has routinely been on Transparency International's lists of most corrupt officials. In the 2004 Global Corruption Report, Lazarenko made it into the list of the World's Most Corrupt Leaders. He was listed eighth, and was said to have amassed between $114 million to $200 million. Fall from power By mid-1997, Lazarenko had fallen out of favour with Kuchma, who suspected him of making plans to run for president in the 1999 Ukrainian presidential election. Kuchma later regretted Lazarenko's appointment as his "gravest mistake". Lazarenko, who had no previous record of serious illness, was unexpectedly hospitalised in late June 1997. It has been alleged that he spent the two weeks of the leave for the sickness in vain attempts to mend fences with Kuchma. Technically, under the Ukrainian labour code law, a hospitalized individual may not be terminated from his position. However, when his dismissal became imminent, Lazarenko resigned on 2 July 1997, on his own initiative. In the 1998 Ukrainian parliamentary election, he was once again elected to the Verkhovna Rada from electoral district No. 40 of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast as part of Hromada party. In the Verkhovna Rada, Lazarenko became a leader of the Hromada parliamentary faction. Hromada frequently sided with Socialist Party of Ukraine of Oleksandr Moroz. Flight from Ukraine and criminal charges In December 1998, Lazarenko was arrested in Basel, Switzerland as he entered the country on a Panamanian passport. Lazarenko was charged with money laundering, and indicted. However, he was released on bail shortly afterwards, and fled Europe to the United States in 1999, fearing retribution from Kuchma after his fall