PrivatBank’s former first deputy CEO Volodymyr Yatsenko sneakily passed ownership of his businesses to his common-law wife and daughter shortly after being arrested and charged with embezzlement on Feb. 22, according to an investigation by Slidstvo.Info.
Yatsenko stands accused of stealing over Hr 136 million (about $5 million) from the bank. This is a tiny portion of the $5.5 billion that PrivatBank’s former owners, oligarchs Igor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Bogoliybov, allegedly laundered before the bank was nationalized in 2016.
Around midday on Feb. 22, law enforcement officials spectacularly grounded the Kolomoisky-chartered plane in which Yatsenko was trying to fly to Vienna, Austria. Yatsenko went straight to the airport and boarded the plane immediately after the charges against him were approved.
Detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) arrested Yatsenko in Kyiv Boryspil International Airport.
Read more: PrivatBank’s former top managers charged with embezzlement. Is Kolomoisky next?
Later that day, while under arrest, Yatsenko managed to reregister multiple holdings to his family members to protect the businesses from being confiscated, Slidstvo.Info reported.
Yatsenko allegedly hired a notary to transfer ownership. This may have happened during his eight-hour bail hearing at the High Anti-Corruption Court. Yatsenko’s five lawyers tried to persuade the court to release their client, alleging he was too cash-poor to make bail. The bail was eventually set at Hr 52 million ($1.9 million), which Yatsenko paid on the same day. He must now remain in Dnipro Oblast and wear an electronic tag.
At one point, Yatsenko’s lawyers asked the judge for a break, saying their client’s notary had arrived. They did not explain why they needed the notary’s service.
On the evening of Feb. 22, Yatsenko transferred his 17% share of IT company Fintech Band LLC, worth Hr 171,800 ($6,000), to his common-law wife Evgeniya Kryvenko. Fintech developed software for Monobank, a popular online banking tool.
Yatsenko also gave Kryvenko his 16% share of Estate City Ltd., worth Hr Hr 488,400 ($17,442) and his 1% share of AC DC Processing LLC, worth Hr 162,000 ($5,785).
On the following day, Feb. 23, Yatsenko transferred his agricultural business holdings to his daughter, Anna Yatsenko.
She became the owner of Ulianivka-Ahro LLC, which owns 23 real estate assets, 500 plots of land and 17 cars. She also gained 90% of Mashivka-Ahro-Alians LLC, which owns 28 real estate assets, almost 2,500 plots of land and 64 vehicles — her share is worth Hr 32.5 million ($1.1 million).
Yatsenko owns property in Vienna and has lived in both Austria and Ukraine since 2017, according to the NABU. He also has a helicopter, a boat and an impressive car fleet. Yatsenko’s real estate holdings took three pages to list, the prosecutors said at the bail hearing.
Ukraine’s law enforcement did not arrest much of Yatsenko’s property before he started registering it to his relatives. The NABU told Slidstvo.Info that it “had other priorities.”
However, the detectives did arrest some of Yatsenko’s assets, including eight houses, two apartments, 20 plots of land, six cars and a boat.
