PGO actively works on transfer of PrivatBank case for UAH 8.3 bln to court

The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine is actively working to bring the case of UAH 8.3 billion in losses of PrivatBank (Kyiv) to court, Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said.

"We are now actively moving in the investigation to bring this case to court," Venediktova wrote in a column on the Ukrainska Pravda website on Thursday.

She recalled that the proceedings on the withdrawal of funds from PrivatBank before its nationalization had been investigated since 2017, and in January 2021 she personally entered the group of prosecutors, gave the necessary instructions and appointed expert examinations, which established losses of more than UAH 8.3 billion for two episodes of criminal activities of the bank's top managers.

"And already in February and March, five high-ranking officials received the suspicions agreed by me," the Prosecutor General said.

As reported, on February 23 of this year Venediktova announced that three former employees from the management of PrivatBank had been reconciled in the embezzlement of other people's property by abuse of office, committed by prior conspiracy by a group of persons, on an especially large scale, and of official forgery. It concerned ex-head of the bank's board Oleksandr Dubilet, ex-first deputy head Volodymyr Yatsenko and first deputy head of the board of Inderzhstrakh (Dnipro), Olena Bychykhina.

Former first deputy head of PrivatBank's board, Yatsenko, was arrested while trying to leave Ukraine, and then released on bail of UAH 52 million. Dubilet has been put on the wanted list since March 26, 2021, and on December 22, the Investigative Judge of the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) chose him a measure of restraint in the form of detention (in absentia).

Bychykhina was also put on the wanted list in May.

On December 18, 2016, the government of Ukraine, referring to the proposal of the 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 statistics of the National Bank of Ukraine, as of October 1, 2021, in terms of total assets, PrivatBank ranked 1st in the rating (UAH 550.328 billion) among 71 banks operating in the country.