The rigmarole continues for Ukraine’s attempts to recover over $5 billion siphoned off from the country’s largest bank, PrivatBank, from its former owners.
The National Bank of Ukraine filed a lawsuit to a Geneva tribunal claiming Hr 6.64 billion ($238 million) from Ukrainian oligarch and Swiss resident Ihor Kolomoisky, according to a statement released on Dec.19.
The central bank claimed that Kolomoisky, one of ex-owners of PrivatBank, had served as a guarantor in five refinancing loan agreements before the bank was nationalized in December 2016.
“Since all efforts of the NBU to settle all issues regarding the discharge of Ihor Kolomoisky’s debt under refinancing loans out-of-court failed, the regulator regrettably was forced to file a claim,” the statement read, citing the head of litigation at the NBU legal department, Viktor Hryhorchuk.
He noted that, in early June, the NBU filed 147 claims to the Ukrainian courts against Kolomoisky and 32 companies affiliated with him which had provided collateral for loans.
As of Dec. 18, commercial courts have ruled in 20 cases in favor of the NBU, allowing the regulator to claim the property worth Hr 1.2 billion as debt repayment.
The new lawsuit in Geneva follows PrivatBank’s ongoing legal dispute against Kolomoisky and his business partner Gennadiy Boholyubov in London in a bid to recover part of an estimated $5.5 billion stolen from the bank. Having nationalized the bank two years ago, the Ukrainian government had to fill in the gap with public funds.
Initially, PrivatBank succeeded to have the two oligarchs’ assets frozen — in total, $2.6 billion worldwide. However, in late November an English judge ruled that London was not the right jurisdiction for further proceedings. PrivatBank said it would appeal.
PrivatBank also sued an international accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers in Cyprus court, seeking $3 billion in damages for a poor audit of the bank’s financial statements in 2013-2015 and a failure to identify a massive lending fraud, which left PrivatBank with $5.5 billion shortfall.
