The business court of Dnipropetrovsk region has scheduled a preparatory hearing under a claim of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) against ex-shareholder of PrivatBank Ihor Kolomoisky, the NBU has said on its website.

In June 2018, the NBU filed four claims against Kolomoisky with the business court of Dnipropetrovsk region to recover from him as a financial guarantor of PrivatBank the refinancing loan debt, respectively, in the amount of UAH 1.8 billion, UAH 1.27 billion, UAH 1.29 billion, and UAH 0.5 billion. These are obligations under the surety agreements for debts that arose as of the end of December 2015.

Regarding the recovery of debts from Kolomoisky, which began to accumulate as early as 2016, the NBU filed a lawsuit on December 18, 2018 with the court of the lower instance of the Republic and the State of Geneva (Switzerland). The business court of Dnipropetrovsk region refused to open proceedings under the claims of the NBU on the grounds that the defender's residence was Geneva (Switzerland) and not Dnipro. In July-August 2018, the Dnipropetrovsk business court of appeals upheld all decisions of the court of lower instance. Disagreeing with the decisions of the courts, the NBU filed cassation complaints, pointing out the incorrect application of the rules of procedural law, since in the surety agreements concluded between Kolomoisky and the NBU it is stated that outside Ukraine, the case of recovery of debt from the guarantor will be considered in the courts of Ukraine. In addition, according to the rules of local jurisdiction, this lawsuit must be heard by the business court of Dnipropetrovsk region, that is, at the last known registered residence or stay of Kolomoisky in Ukraine.

In March 2019, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court granted the cassation complaints of the NBU and overturned the decision of the courts of lower instances, sending the case to the business court of Dnipropetrovsk region to decide on the opening of proceedings. After the return of the cases from the Supreme Court, the business court of Dnipropetrovsk region opened proceedings under all claims of the NBU.

"It took more than a year for the Ukrainian justice to get obvious conclusions and eventually open proceedings under the claims for recovery of public funds. The National Bank expects the court's hearing of the cases on merits as early as August 2019 and will continue to apply the legal measures required to collect debt on refinancing loans," the press service of the NBU said, citing Head of the department of claim-related work of the Legal Department of the National Bank Viktor Hryhorchuk.