Ex-shareholder of PrivatBank (Kyiv) Ihor Kolomoisky denies the US Justice Department’s accusations of misappropriation and laundering of the bank’s funds and notes that all investments in the United States were made at the expense of funds received from his own business.
“All investments in the United States were made from our own funds received in 2007-2008 from the deal with Evraz and from the income of other businesses stored in PrivatBank. Anything else is categorically rejected,” he said in comments circulated by the media.
The US Department of Justice reportedly filed two civil lawsuits in the Southern District of Florida for property forfeiture on Auust 6, alleging that commercial real estate in Louisville, Kentucky and Dallas, Texas was acquired using misappropriated funds from PrivatBank and is subject to confiscation on the basis of violations of federal money laundering laws.
According to the document, the ex-owners of Privatbank Kolomoisky and Hennadiy Boholiubov are accused of laundering part of the proceeds using a number of bank accounts of shell companies, primarily in the Cyprus branch of PrivatBank, before they transferred funds to the United States to buy assets there. The lawsuit alleges that the loans were rarely repaid, except through new loans.
