The main investigation bureau of the National Police of Ukraine on January 18, 2017 issued a notice of suspicion against former board chairman of Odesa-based Imexbank Yuriy Hramatik, a Ukrainian citizen, in a criminal case involving the embezzlement of bank assets, the Deposit Guarantee Fund has announced.

"Pretrial investigators have established that Imexbank board's ex-chairman gave instructions to issue blank credits to commercial entities, mainly to those that were affiliated with the bank. In addition, liquid provisions on issued credits were replaced by illiquid ones, resulting in the embezzlement of bank assets," the Fund said.

The main investigation bureau of the National Police together with the Fund's investigation office proved the involvement of Hramatik in this criminal act. He is suspected of violating Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (large-scale embezzlement or illegally acquiring property by abuse of office).

The Fund is working to establish how much money was misappropriated.

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) from January 26, 2015 declared Imexbank insolvent. According to the Fund, bank depositors received UAH 4.161 billion in reimbursement from the Fund as of the start of 2017.

As earlier reported the Fund from September 5, 2016 appointed Andriy Matvienko as bank liquidator. The position was held earlier by Serhiy Hadzhiev. The Fund on May 27, 2015, began the procedure of the bank's liquidation.

Imexbank was founded in 1994. As of January 1, 2015, Leonid Klimov was its largest stakeholder with 36.7917%.

The bank was ranked 22nd with total assets worth UAH 11.379 billion among 158 Ukrainian banks as of January 1, 2015, according to the NBU.