HACCU collects UAH 5 million bail from ex-deputy chairman of Privatbank’s board
11 November 22:43
The High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) has collected UAH 5 million in bail from the former deputy chairman of the board of PrivatBank. This was reported by the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, Komersant ukrainskyi reports
The reason for the decision was the failure of the accused to appear at two court hearings.
According to the Anti-Corruption Action Center, former Deputy Chairman of the Board of PrivatBank Lyudmyla Shmalchenko left Ukraine on October 30, 2022, and has not returned since.
Shmalchenko took part in the meeting via video link and emphasized that she had missed only two meetings in the entire period. And the reasons for her absences were valid.
Thus, she missed one of the meetings because her daughter was ill. She planned to participate in the other via video link, but was unable to connect for technical reasons.
The court took into account the arguments of both parties and partially granted the motion. Shmalchenko’s bail was set at UAH 5 million and increased to UAH 51 million.
The court also imposed on the defendant the relevant procedural obligations, namely to appear at every court request, not to leave the Dnipro region without permission, to report changes in her place of residence and place of work, to refrain from communicating with other defendants in the case and to deposit all her passports of a citizen of Ukraine for traveling abroad and other documents authorizing her to leave Ukraine and enter Ukraine with the relevant bodies of the State Migration Service.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for November 22.
The SAPO reminded that the former Chairman of the Board of PJSC CB Privatbank, his first deputy, deputy, as well as three heads of departments of the said bank in December 2016, the day before PJSC CB Privatbank was declared insolvent, paid about UAH 223 million at the expense of the bank in favor of companies controlled and related to PJSC CB Privatbank on the basis of false documents.
The funds were transferred in several tranches to two different companies: uAH 85.2 million to the account of one company related to the scheme participants, and another UAH 136.8 million to the account of another. Subsequently, the scheme participants withdrew these funds abroad for the purpose of legalization.
It was also established that on the eve of the bank’s nationalization, these individuals embezzled more than UAH 8.2 billion by illegally writing off the obligations of non-resident companies to AS Privatbank (Latvia) at the expense of Privatbank’s funds placed on correspondent accounts with AS Privatbank (Latvia). In addition, to further impede the recovery of funds in favor of PJSC CB Privatbank and to cover up the crime, the individuals organized an illegal and documentarily unsubstantiated replacement of the debtor with a company controlled by and related to PJSC CB Privatbank.
It should be noted that the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal of Kyiv closed the proceedings on the claim of former PrivatBank shareholders Ihor Kolomoisky and the Cyprus company Triantal Investments Ltd and confirmed the impossibility of returning PrivatBank to its former owners.
It was also reported that the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) put on the wanted list former co-owner of PrivatBank Gennadiy Boholyubov, who left the country using a pensioner’s passport from Volyn. Bogolyubov is accused of kidnapping, misappropriation, extortion of documents, stamps, seals, and illegal transportation of persons across the state border of Ukraine.
