Officers of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) have detained one of the key suspects in the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) embezzlement case committed under the eye of businessman Serhiy Kurchenko in Sumy region.

"During the pretrial investigation… law enforcers established that this person bought a shell company under an order of Kurchenko. Via several financial deals in 2012 and 2013 using this commercial structure the members of the criminal group headed by Kurchenko embezzled almost UAH 800 million of the National Bank of Ukraine," the press service of the SBU reported.

The pretrial investigation was opened under Part 1 of Article 255 (creation of a criminal group), Part 4 of Article 28 and Part 2 of Article 205 (sham business), Part 5 of Article 191 (misappropriation, embezzlement or conversion of property by abuse of official post committed in respect of an especially gross amount) and Part 2 of Article 366 (official forgery) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

As reported, Kyiv's Holosiyivsky District Court on July 14, 2016 remanded two ex-officials of the NBU, former deputy head of the NBU Oleksiy Tkachenko and former director of the NBU's banking oversight department Roman Yakovlev, to 60-day pretrial confinement, setting bail at UAH 20 million and UAH 10 million for the suspects.

They are suspected of violating Part 1, Article 255, Part 4, Article 28 and Part 5, Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The two suspects embezzled NBU funds in the amount of UAH 787.396 million. The money had been provided to PSC Real Bank as a bailout loan. The document also says that Tkachenko and Yakovlev acted "as part of a criminal organization" with businessman Serhiy Kurchenko, former NBU governor Ihor Sorkin and former governor of Real Bank's board Volodymyr Agafonov.