Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko met with billionaire oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky in Amsterdam in late November, Lutsenko told 1+1 television on Dec. 17.
“I flew to Amsterdam for medical treatment,” Lutsenko said. “I was walking around the center of the city and accidentally bumped into Kolomoisky.”
Previously photos of Lutsenko and Kolomoisky in Amsterdam had been published by students Pavlo Karpets and Andriy Holubev.
However, Lutsenko declined to comment on the content of his conversations with Kolomoisky.
Kolomoisky did not respond to a request for comment.
Speculation was rife that Kolomoisky and Lutsenko could have discussed the prospects of criminal cases involving the tycoon.
In December 2016 the government nationalized Kolomoisky’s PrivatBank, putting the burden of the bank’s losses — worth $5.6 billion — on the country’s taxpayers.
Central bank officials and anti-corruption watchdogs accused the bank’s former owners Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Bogolyubov of massive embezzlement and bank fraud.
In July, the Prosecutor General’s office opened a criminal probe against the former executives of PrivatBank for making the bank insolvent. But no charges have been filed so far.
