Journalists of the Skhemy (Schemes): Corruption in Details TV program published the investigation of Metzger, pro-Russian forces in Donbas, SkyMall and $60 million: Schemes investigation into Ukreximbank, during which there was a conflict between the bank’s board chairman Yevhen Metzger and the Schemes camera crew.
The full text and video of the investigation were published on the Radio Liberty website on October 7 evening.
“The Schemes staff managed to find out that the state-run Ukreximbank issued a $6 million loan to the firms of a businessman whose company operates in the temporarily occupied part of Donetsk region (ORDO), where the Donbas militants operate with the support of Russia and pays taxes to the occupation authorities. Moreover, as a guarantee of the return of this money, the bank took on bail an object, the value and reliability of which was questionable – after all, for years there was a struggle for it in several jurisdictions,” the investigation says.
As Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty earlier reported, on October 4, the camera crew of the Skhemy TV program was attacked during an interview with Metzger, allegedly because of one of the questions they did not like. According to the head of Skhemy Natalia Sedletska, the bank employees took away two cameras, took away the cards on which the recording was carried out, and deleted the recorded video. According to journalists, all this time the camera crew remained locked in the office of the head of the bank’s board in his presence. An hour later, the equipment was returned to the camera crew, but the video of the entire interview and the attack itself was removed.
Ukreximbank rejected the accusations of violating the law and, in turn, accused them of provocation and an attempt to seize banking secrets. According to the financial institution, the actions of the journalists contained signs of both illegal seizure of bank secrets and violation of the Code of Ethics of a Ukrainian journalist in terms of using illegal methods of obtaining information.
On October 6, the Supervisory Board of Ukreximbank dismissed the bank’s board chairman Metzger for the period of investigation into the incident and appointed Serhiy Yermakov, a member of the board, as acting head of the board.
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