Yet another court ruled in favor of billionaire oligarch Igor Kolomoisky as he fights for PrivatBank, Ukraine’s largest bank, on April 20.
PrivatBank was nationalized when it was found to have an over $5.5 billion hole in its ledger, allegedly moved out by Kolomoisky and his business partner Gennadiy Bogolyubov, via fraudulent schemes. The $5.5 billion gap was filled with Ukrainian taxpayers’ money after the bank was nationalized.
Kolomoisky denies the accusations of wrongdoing.
Kyiv’s Pechersk Court canceled Kolomoisky’s Hr 9 billion guarantee of five refinancing loans that PrivatBank received from the National Bank of Ukraine from 2008 to 2014 when the bank was under Kolomoisky’s ownership.
Kolomoisky signed the guarantee in 2015 before PrivatBank was nationalized in 2016.
NBU said it would appeal the court ruling.
“The decision creates legal uncertainty and risks for financial stability in Ukraine in the future,” said Viktor Grygorchuk, an executive at the national bank’s legal department. “This decision also makes it more difficult to protect the state’s interests in court proceedings in other jurisdictions in order to get compensated for the losses caused by the bank’s former owners.”
Kolomoisky has been accused of backing presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelenskiy, although they deny being political allies.
Meanwhile, the Kyiv District Administrative Court ruled that the nationalization of PrivatBank was illegal on April 18. NBU said that it would appeal.
The following day, the Kyiv District Administrative Court ruled in favor of Triantal Investment Ltd, a firm co-owned by Kolomoisky, and annulled the conversion of the company’s assets by the NBU.
