Joe Biden Asks Poroshenko To Accelerate Nationalization Of PrivatBank

Former vice president of the United States Joseph Biden asked former president Petro Poroshenko to accelerate the nationalization of PrivatBank.

This is evidenced by tapes of a conversation that took place between Biden and Poroshenko on November 16, 2016, which Member of Parliament Andrii Derkach (independent) made public on Tuesday.

“So, anything you can do to push PrivatBank to closure so that the IMF loan comes forward, I would respectfully suggest is critically important to your economic as well as physical security. I know it is difficult. I know that Kolomoiskyi is a pain in the ass and a problem for everybody, but it is really critical that you guys should figure this one out. And you’ve been good. 

You’ve publicly spoken out on that… I just want you to give… the governor of the National Bank… some spine and let her know that you are going to be standing there when she sets the date and moves forward," Biden said.

In response, Poroshenko said he expected to receive an audit report from the Ernst&Young audit firm on November 22, 2016.

"…After [November] 22, when I have an audit report, when have a vote on the budget in the parliament, where Kolomoiskyi has a significant number of members of the parliament and the prime minister asked me to vote on the budget first and then launch the process," Poroshenko said.

Derkach presented the tapes of the conversations between Biden and Poroshenko at a press conference. He told the press conference that he obtained the tapes from investigative journalists.

According to the journalists, Poroshenko personally the recorded these conversations.

Derkach said that the tapes were sent to him specifically because he and his fellow parliamentarians and journalists were gathering evidence of corruption among senior Ukrainian government officials.

According to him, the tapes were recorded from late 2015 to 2016.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the Cabinet of Ministers officially confirmed the decision to nationalize PrivatBank on December 18, 2016.

Former president Poroshenko proposed appointing Yurii Lutsenko to replace Viktor Shokin as Ukraine’s prosecutor general in exchange for disbursement of an International Monetary Fund loan tranche of USD 1 billion during a conversation with former United States vice president Biden.