The success of returning the assets of PrivatBank (Kyiv), withdrawn prior to the nationalization of the financial institution, will depend on how well they were hidden, Head of KPMG forensic practice in Ukraine Olivia Ellison believes.

"Asset recovery processes are very complicated, they require a long period of time. Most likely, the success will depend on the speed of identifying assets and issuing court decisions on the ban on using the identified assets," she told Interfax-Ukraine.

According to Ellison, more stringent mechanisms for asset recovery are also possible.

"For example, in such cases in the UK, KPMG partners were appointed as temporary asset managers, this type of appointment may have an even greater effect than the decision to ban the use of assets," she explained.

In general, according to Ellison, the type of a funds withdrawal scheme used in PrivatBank is classic in theft, although difficult to detect.

"Although we cannot comment on the details of the Kroll report, it is worth noting that such schemes are typical for fraud cases in the banking sector, with which the KPMG forensic experience faced both in the CIS countries and globally. In our experience, the easiest way to steal funds is really in the process of lending when there is not enough supervision over it," the expert said.