HACC arrests ex-board chairman of PrivatBank Dubilet in absentia

The investigating judge of the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) chose a custody status in the form of detention (in absentia) for former board chairman of PrivatBank Oleksandr Dubilet, who is suspected of embezzling the bank's funds in anticipation of its nationalization and causing damage to the bank in the amount of $314.9 million.

"On December 22, 2021, at the request of a NABU [the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine] detective, approved by the SAPO [Ukraine's Special Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office] prosecutor, the investigating judge of HACC chose a custody status in the form of detention for the former board chairman of PrivatBank," HACC said in Telegram on Wednesday.

As established in the course of the investigation, in December 2016, the day before PrivatBank was declared insolvent, Dubilet together with other persons, on the basis of false documents, paid the bank's funds in the amount of more than UAH 136.89 million to the insurance company associated with the bank, the press service of the court reported.

In addition, the ex-head of the bank is suspected of embezzling the bank's funds on the eve of its nationalization in the amount of $314.9 million by illegally writing off the obligations of nonresident companies at the expense of PrivatBank's funds, organizing an illegal and unjustified documentary replacement of the debtor with a company controlled and related to PrivatBank with the aim of further impossibility of collecting funds in favor of the bank and concealing the committed crime.

As reported, on October 28, 2021, the investigating judge HACC granted the petition of prosecutors and detectives and allowed a special pretrial investigation (in absentia) regarding the former head of the bank's board.

On December 18, 2016, the government of Ukraine, referring to the proposal of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and former shareholders of PrivatBank, the largest of which at that time were Ihor Kolomoisky and Hennadiy Boholiubov, decided to nationalize this largest financial institution on the Ukrainian market and injected over UAH 155 billion into its capital.

According to the NBU, as of October 1, 2021, PrivatBank ranked first in terms of total assets (UAH 550.328 billion) among 71 banks operating in the country.