LONDON, June 12 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s PrivatBank accused its former house owners in a London courtroom on Monday of utilizing “absolute energy” to siphon off practically $2 billion from the nation’s largest lender.
The case is being carefully watched by politicians and traders as a check of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s willingness to pursue reforms and sort out the corruption which has blighted Ukraine for years, amid its ongoing struggle with Russia.
PrivatBank’s lawsuit accuses Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Bogolyubov of orchestrating sham loans and provide agreements between 2013 and 2014 to defraud it on an “epic scale”.
Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov each deny any wrongdoing. They are saying there was no misappropriation from PrivatBank, which they argue has no proof that they had any information of, or involvement in, the alleged fraud.
PrivatBank, which is searching for about $4.2 billion together with curiosity, has pursued Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov within the English courts since 2017, the 12 months after it was nationalised in late 2016 as a part of a clean-up of Ukraine’s finance system.
The financial institution’s lawyer Andrew Hunter mentioned in courtroom filings that its lawsuit “issues fraud on an epic scale, coated up by cash laundering on an unlimited scale”.
Zelenskiy, who rose to prominence as a comic and enjoying performed the function of president on present aired on a Kolomoisky-owned TV station, has denied having private ties to the businessman.
Kolomoisky seems to have fallen foul of a crackdown launched by Zelenskiy on people who wield outsized political affect.
‘ABSOLUTE POWER’
The London trial of PrivatBank’s case was as a result of begin final 12 months however was delayed due to Russia’s invasion, as Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov had been unable to offer proof.
They’ve since determined not to take action, which PrivatBank says was as a result of they haven’t any reply to the allegations.
Kolomoisky’s lawyer Mark Howard mentioned in courtroom filings that PrivatBank’s case should fail as a result of the loans on the centre of the lawsuit have been nearly completely repaid.
Bogolyubov’s lawyer Clare Montgomery mentioned in courtroom filings that “no funds had been the truth is misappropriated from the financial institution”.
Hunter, PrivatBank’s lawyer, mentioned Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov’s case was that they had been “the oligarch equal of absentee landlords”, however mentioned that they had truly “absolute energy on the financial institution” till it was nationalised.
Reporting by Sam Tobin; Modifying by Emelia Sithole-Matarise, Marc Jones and Alexander Smith
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