Kyiv’s Pechersky District Court has ordered the arrest of assets belonging to a number of companies connected to the former owners of PrivatBank, billionaire oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky and his business partner Gennadiy Boholyubov.
The latest arrest was ordered by the court at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office under a criminal case on the embezzlement of over Hr 19 billion in refinancing funds issued to PrivatBank by the National Bank of Ukraine, or NBU.
According to the court’s decision, which was published on March 29, the assets of 10 Privat companies connected to the former owners of PrivatBank are to be frozen. The assets are to act as a guarantee for the repayment of PrivatBank’s debts for refinancing.
“The arrest of the property will give an opportunity to reimburse losses caused as a result of a criminal offense,” the court statement reads.
The court hearing took place on March 22, in Kyiv. The list of companies affected and the statement can be seen here.
On April 1, the District Administrative Court of Kyiv finished its hearing on Kolomoisky`s lawsuit against the NBU, the Deposit Guarantee Fund, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, and the National Securities and Stock Market Commission regarding the nationalization of PrivatBank.
According to a statement published on the court’s website, the next hearing will be held on April 18, 2019.
“Ihor Kolomoisky, in particular, asks the court to declare the NBU board’s decision regarding the classification of PrivatBank as insolvent to be illegal and asks to cancel it,” the statement reads.
The statement published by Kyiv`s Pechersky District Court, also reads that PrivatBank officials gave $18-73 million in loans to 42 companies controlled by the Privat business group for “the purchase of products.”
“However, the goods were never supplied,” the statement reads. “(Moreover), the funds were not returned within the time stipulated by the agreements.”
As the bank teetered on the edge of collapse in December 2016, the Finance Ministry was forced to step in and nationalize PrivatBank, the largest bank in Ukraine, in order to prevent the destabilization of the entire financial market.
The NBU, the country’s central bank, has also filed a lawsuit at a Geneva tribunal claiming Hr 6.64 billion ($246 million) from Kolomoisky, stating that the oligarch had been the guarantor of five refinancing loans before PrivatBank was nationalized.
