The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has launched four unscheduled inspections of banks in connection with the bail case for former Energy Minister Herman Haluschenko, Deputy Chairman of the regulator Dmytro Oliynyk announced during a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada’s Temporary Investigative Commission (TIC) on Economic Security.
He noted that the entire collateral amount was not processed through Sense Bank. An analysis of the movement of funds in four consecutive links from the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) account has not yet revealed the use of cash.
"We have discovered in these four links that there are other banks that have no fewer questions than Sense, and some even more," the NBU Deputy Governor stated. According to him, the Central Bank will evaluate the actions of all four banks through which the funds were transferred – Sense Bank, Idea Bank, OTP Bank, and FUIB.
Oliynyk also suggested that the cash may not have been deposited into the banking system at all, but may have been sold to companies with excess liquidity. The funds could then have passed through 80-100 legal entities, been concentrated in one company that had been inactive for about two years, and from there, distributed among the four banks for transfer to the HACC account.
At the same time, the National Bank has not yet established the use of a separate technical or technological mechanism at Sense Bank to circumvent financial monitoring procedures and cannot confirm the intentional disabling of established restrictions or control mechanisms. Inspections of the banking systems and internal investigations are ongoing.
As reported, on August 19, Yaroslav Zhelezniak, head of the Committee, citing a petition filed by a NABU detective, released information on the movement of UAH 150 million in bail for Haluschenko through Sense Bank, FUIB, OTP Bank, and Idea Bank.
According to the information he released, UAH 46 million from Giran Construct LLC and UAH 4 million from Pelet Service LLC were transferred to the HACC account through Sense Bank. Another UAH 41 million in bail was deposited through FUIB, UAH 54 million through OTP Bank, and UAH 5 million through Idea Bank.
On August 21, the NBU demanded that Sense Bank dismiss Liudmyla Snihur, director of the financial monitoring department, and announced the continuation of proceedings regarding possible interference with the bank’s operating systems. On August 25, Sense Bank suspended Snihur from her duties and blocked her access to the bank’s corporate network and systems.
