Court permits in absentia investigation into embezzlement of $113 mln by ex-MP beneficiary of Finance and Credit Bank – official

Pechersky District Court of Kyiv, at the request of the Office of the Prosecutor General, granted permission for a pretrial investigation into a former member of parliament and beneficiary of Finance and Credit Bank, the Prosecutor General’s Office said on Telegram on Tuesday.

The report does not name the suspect, but the case concerns former bank owner Kostiantyn Zhevago.

The case involves the embezzlement of bank property on an especially large scale and the legalization of proceeds from crime. According to investigators, from 2007 to 2015, the suspect organized a scheme with bank officials to withdraw $113 million, which at the time amounted to more than UAH 2.5 billion.

The fraud mechanism involved placing bank funds in correspondent accounts at foreign banking institutions as collateral for a credit line to an offshore company controlled by the suspect. Following the failure to fulfill the loan agreements, for which Finance and Credit Bank acted as guarantor, the money was debited from its correspondent accounts.

Law enforcement officers also noted that on March 19, 2026, in Paris, the oligarch received a notice of suspicion in another criminal proceeding for offenses under Part 3 of Article 27, Part 5 of Article 191, and Part 3 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Several top managers of the bank also face suspicion. This action followed a request for international legal assistance involving French authorities, Ukrainian prosecutors, and State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) investigators.

Following the delivery of the suspicion notice, the former MP was questioned as a suspect.