(Bloomberg) -- Ukrainian authorities suspect businessman Igor Kolomoisky of organizing an attempted contract killing more than two decades ago, according to media reports, adding a new layer of potential criminal liability to the jailed tycoon who once backed Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

A “well-known businessman” received a note of suspicion for hiring a gang to kill the head of a legal firm in 2003 as punishment for failing to overturn shareholder decisions at an unnamed joint stock company, the Prosecutor General’s office said on Telegram on Wednesday. Gang members stabbed the man, who survived the attack, according to the statement. The prosecutor’s office didn’t name the suspect, attaching a blurred photo of a bearded man. 

The Ukrainian national police referred to the man as a “Ukrainian oligarch” who has been under arrest since September 2023 on suspicion of fraud. Those dates coincide with Kolomoisky’s detention.

The Ukrainska Pravda news website identified the suspect as Kolomoisky, citing unidentified people with knowledge of the matter. The businessman didn’t immediately respond to a text message request for comment. The prosecutor’s press office didn’t immediately respond to phone calls. 

Kolomoisky, who supported Zelenskiy during an election campaign in 2019, is suspected of the embezzlement and has been in a detention center since September. Zelenskiy vowed to break the oligarchs’ hold on the economy during his presidential campaign. 

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