from grace. In February 1999, shortly after arriving in the United States, Lazarenko was again arrested, this time on charges of visa irregularities. This case soon expanded to cover Lazarenko's various crimes, and he was eventually convicted of extortion, money laundering, and wire fraud in 2004, and sentenced to 9 years in federal prison on 25 August 2006. On 18 October 2006, an appeal stemming from Lazarenko's conviction (but not the appeal of the conviction) was heard by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which included former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor sitting by designation. Lazarenko was incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California. U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer cut Lazarenko's sentence from 108 to 97 months in prison on 19 November 2009. The court took into account that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had dismissed approximately half the counts he was convicted of, leaving convictions only for acts committed 17 years previously. In November 2009, Interior Minister of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko stated that if Lazarenko returned to Ukraine he would be detained, as he was on the international wanted list. Lazarenko was imprisoned at FCI Terminal Island until 1 November 2012. Following the end of his sentence, he applied for residency in the United States, citing the 2011 arrest of Yulia Tymoshenko, who was coincidentally a close ally of Lazarenko as Prime Minister. According to Lazarenko's defense lawyer Viktor Chevhuz, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services were to deal with this application by the end of 2013. Chevhuz claimed that this could lead to the demand to Lazarenko to leave the country within 72 hours with the right to fly anywhere, or, "A deportation to a country from which he arrived - Greece, because there is no extradition treaty with Ukraine". Chevhuz further expected Lazarenko to not return to Ukraine "as the criminal cases against him, which had been previously dropped, may be reopened". Immediately after his 1 November 2012 release, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine stated that as soon as Lazarenko would return to Ukraine he would be arrested for his involvement in around 50 criminal cases. In 2012, Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Pshonka announced the involvement of Lazarenko, alongside Tymoshenko, in the murder of Yevhen Shcherban and Alexander Momot in 1996, and the assassination of banker Vadym Hetman. Lazarenko formerly owned