State bailiff seeking recovery of US$250 mln from PrivatBank in favor of Surkis family

Ukraine's largest bank, PrivatBank, on May 5, 2020, received from the state bailiff of the Pechersk Department of the Ukrainian Justice Ministry's State Executive Service four new resolutions on the opening of enforcement proceedings.

"The new rulings concern the enforced execution by PrivatBank of the decision of the Pechersk District Court of February 9, 2017, on securing a lawsuit in case №757/7499/17-ts and paying companies related to the Surkis family more than US$250 million for deposit agreements terminated in December 2016, the obligations of which were exchanged for shares of additional issue of PrivatBank during nationalization (bail in)," the bank's press service said on May 7.

"Given that the state bailiff continues to commit illegal acts in the enforcement of the decision of the Pechersk District Court of 09.02.2017, PrivatBank appealed to law enforcement agencies, the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv and the Minister of Justice to provide a legal assessment of the actions of the state bailiff," it said.

"By a strange coincidence, despite the existence of an automated case distribution system, all enforcement proceedings were opened by the same state bailiff of the Pechersk district department of the state executive service of the Ministry of Justice, who appealed to the Pechersk District Court for clarification of the 2017 ruling.

Certain actions of this particular bailiff became the basis for numerous complaints of PrivatBank, which are still ignored." On June 15, 2020, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court will continue consideration of the case No. 826/20221/16 on the claim of the Surkis family on cancellation of the NBU's decision to identify members of the Surkis family as persons related to JSC CB PrivatBank, and invalidation of agreements on exchange of their deposits for shares of additional issue of PrivatBank (bail in) and recovery of UAH 1 billion (US$37.3 million at the current forex rate) from the state PrivatBank.

The judgments of the Supreme Court's Grand Chamber in this case will directly affect the outcome of all cases related to the appeal against PrivatBank's nationalization.