The district administrative court of Kyiv has confirmed the lawfulness of decisions made by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) to annul the bank license of KSG Bank (Kyiv) and liquidate the financial institution.

The NBU said on its website on Tuesday that the court issued the ruling on January 19, 2017.

The NBU recalled that on August 30, 2016 it decided to remove the bank license of KSG Bank and liquidate it for systemic violation of law on prevention of money laundering, in particular, for risky activities in the financial monitoring area.

In autumn 2016 one of the shareholders in the bank – Serhiy Kasyanov – filed a lawsuit to court seeking to declare unlawful the decision of the NBU's board. The claimant also asked court to oblige the central bank to resume operations of KSG Bank.

KSG Bank was founded in 1993. Serhiy Kasyanov and Kseniya Kasyanova (holding 33.46% each in the bank) and Oleksandr Shepelev are the key shareholders in the bank.

In 2012 a criminal case was opened against former MP Shepelev. He was accused of being involved in embezzlement of funds of Rodovid Bank (Kyiv, over UAH 220 million) and of participating in embezzlement of refinancing funds of UAH 315.3 million issued by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).

Shepelev was put on the international wanted list and was detained in Hungary early July 2013. Hungary subsequently extradited him to Ukraine. However he managed to escape while in hospital and fled Ukraine for the second time.

Along with his implication in bankruptcy of Rodovid Bank, Shepelev is accused of two murders (banker Serhiy Kirychenko in 2003 and Interior Ministry's colonel Roman Yerokhin in 2006) and an attempted murder of Serhiy Diadechko in 2012. On March 20, 2015 Shepelev was detained in Russia.