PrivatBank says its former owners laundered nearly $ 800 million in US

PrivatBank, after checking additional bank documents, filed a lawsuit against Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennady Bogolyubov in Delaware on July 21. It claims that both former owners of the financial institution laundered $ 660 million through the Optima group of American companies and another $ 100 million through other companies in the United States, Radio Liberty reports.

The new document says, in particular, that, according to PrivatBank, Kolomoisky and Bogolyuv laundered another $ 86 million in excess of the initial claim in the period 2008-2010, transferring these funds to two offshore accounts of one of the divisions of the Moscow investment Bank "Renaissance Capital".

According to the lawsuit, both bought up hundreds of millions of dollars in US assets, in particular real estate and steel companies, thanks to fictitious loans issued by PrivatBank to various companies controlled by the oligarchs themselves.

"Further, the bank claims, these funds were laundered in the United States through an intricate scheme of fraud," the newspaper states.

As you know, PrivatBank filed its initial lawsuit in Delaware in May 2019, accusing the former owners of laundering $ 623 million in the United States. The case continues to be pending.

PrivatBank is at the center of disputes between the National Bank of Ukraine and Kolomoisky, one of the most influential Ukrainian oligarchs.

The NBU accuses Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov of using him as their personal piggy bank, and claims that more than 90 percent of the loans issued by the bank during their time in their property went to persons and structures associated with them.