17:36 17.01.2013

London court arrests property of ex head of VAB Bank's supervisory board Maksymov under bank's claim, says source

2 min read

The higher court in London has issued a ruling to arrest the property of a minority shareholder and former head of the supervisory board of VAB Bank, Serhiy Maksymov, to secure a claim of the Ukrainian financial institution, a well-informed source on the market has told Interfax-Ukraine.

He said that this concerns property of the businessman he has in Ukraine and abroad, in particular, the building of a river station, the office of Office Line Company in Kyiv, and pharmaceutical companies in Donetsk.

The source added that the financial institution is trying to collect around UAH 1 billion from Maksymov for loan debts of companies that the bank claims are affiliated with the businessman.

VAB Bank confirmed the information on the claim filed at the court, and the ruling issued.

Interfax-Ukraine has not managed to obtain information from Maksymov.

As reported, in early October 2011, Ukrainian businessman Oleh Bakhmatiuk declared the signing of an option agreement to buy a majority stake in the bank. In November 2011, Ukraine's Antimonopoly Committee allowed Quickcom Limited to get control over VAB Bank.

Later new managers of VAB Bank said that over $255 million (UAH 2 billion) was withdrawn from the bank in 2005-2010 by representatives of Maksymov to offshore structures Webbing Ltd., Retail Ltd. (both based in British Virgin Islands) and Castleberg Universal Inc (Panama) via bank-beneficiary Ukio Bancas (Lithuania).

The bank said that documentary proof of the illegal actions were sent to the National Bank of Ukraine, Prosecutor General's Office and Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

In connection with the charges, Maksymov was taken into custody in late 2011, but on June 6, 2012 he was released from the pre-trial detention center. He denied all accusations against him and put forward counter-claims saying that the bank allegedly mainly credits companies of the new co-owner – Bakhmatiuk. Maksymov told reporters that he would challenge the additional issue of shares by the bank in which he was not allowed to take part due to his detention, and after which his share in the bank was reduced.

VAB Bank has been working on the financial market of Ukraine since 1992. According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of October 1, 2012 in terms of total assets (UAH 12.761 billion) VAB Bank ranked 18th among the 175 banks operating in the country.

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