SAPO, NABU complete probe into embezzlement of over UAH 9.2B from PrivatBank

SAPO announced this on Facebook, according to Ukrinform.

The case involves the bank’s former ultimate beneficial owner and five former employees of the institution.

On July 23, the prosecutor formally concluded the pre-trial phase. At the prosecutor’s instruction, NABU detectives have begun granting the defense team access to case materials for review.

According to the investigation, between January and March 2015, a former PrivatBank owner devised a criminal scheme to embezzle bank funds in order to finance a controlled offshore company and increase his ownership stake in the bank’s charter capital.

To carry out this plan, the individual enlisted five bank officials, including the CEO, the deputy head of the interbank dealing department who also acted as a trustee of a non-resident company linked to PrivatBank, the deputy chair of the management board and treasury director, the head of the treasury’s interbank operations support department, and the deputy head of the department for Loro accounts of non-resident correspondent banks at the bank’s headquarters.

The criminal scheme involved fabricating documents to create a fake obligation for PrivatBank to pay over UAH 9.2 billion to an affiliated company for the alleged repurchase of the bank’s own bonds at an inflated price.

Of that amount, over UAH 446 million was laundered by transferring the funds — disguised as securities transactions — to the personal account of PrivatBank’s former beneficial owner. This was done through a chain of financial operations involving affiliated companies. He later injected these funds into the bank’s capital to meet the requirements of PrivatBank’s Financial Recovery Program. The remaining funds were used by the perpetrators at their own discretion.

Depending on each individual’s role, the suspects’ actions have been classified under the following articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: Article 191 – misappropriation, embezzlement, or possession of property through abuse of office, Article 209 – legalization (laundering) of criminally obtained assets, and Article 366 – official forgery.

In September 2023, NABU detectives, with the approval of the SAPO head, notified former PrivatBank owner Ihor Kolomoisky and five members of his organized group of suspicion in the embezzlement of over UAH 9.2 billion from the bank.