Court turns down Kolomoisky's lawsuit demanding ban on consultants' investigation into activities of former owners of PrivatBank
The Kyivsky district court in Odesa has dismissed without hearing on the merits a lawsuit filed by Ihor Kolomoisky, with which he tried to block cooperation among the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), the Finance Ministry, and PrivatBank with Ukrainian and international companies involved in the financial investigation into the activities of former co-owners of the bank.
A statement on the NBU's website reads that, following a session on October 18, the court decided that Kolomoisky had filed a lawsuit misusing his procedural rights and attempting to delay the court proceedings.
The National Bank considers the court's decision to be fair, establishing the rule of law, and preventing the misuse of procedural norms.
"The law has to be one and for all, and this decision is a testament to that. We believe it is not acceptable to create obstacles to the investigation into the events that led to a multi-billion loss of capital at PrivatBank, which resulted in unjustified additional expenditures for the nation," Viktor Hryhorchuk, head of the NBU's claims & lawsuits department, was quoted as saying in the statement.
As was reported earlier, following a suggestion by the NBU and former shareholders of PrivatBank, among whom the biggest were Ihor Kolomoisky and Hennadiy Boholiubov at that time, on December 18, 2016 the Ukrainian government decided to nationalize that largest banking institution on the Ukrainian market.
In early 2018, the international company Kroll that had conducted a forensic audit of PrivatBank confirmed that the bank had been involved in large-scale and well-coordinated fraud activities that led to a financial loss of at least $5.5 billion for the period of at least ten years prior to its nationalization.
According to the information from the NBU, as of July 1, 2018, PrivatBank ranked first in terms of net worth (UAH 265.936 billion) among 83 banks operating in Ukraine.