A recent lawsuit filed in London against Valeria Gontareva and Petro Poroshenko may benefit the oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, reports Novoye Vremya. Gontareva, who was governor of the National Bank between 2014 and 2017, and Poroshenko, the former president, are named defendants in a new High Court suit filed by Igor Surkis, a businessman with close ties to Kolomoisky.
While all details are not yet clear, the suit is related to an alleged sales negotiation over the 1+1 television channel, owned by Kolomoisky. The connection to Gontareva is unclear, but it appears that Igor Surkis is using her current residency in the U.K. (she is a research fellow at the London School of Economics) and five separate limited liability partnerships to which he is connected in order to use British jurisdiction. However, it seems unlikely that the U.K. High Court would accept British jurisdiction over any suit related to the ownership of 1+1 in Ukraine.
Gontareva expressed confusion over the lawsuit: “I would also like to receive the documents and understand how they did it and what I have to do with it,” she told Novoye Vremya. “Neither I nor the (National Bank of Ukraine) have anything to do with it!” she said.
In London, Kolomoisky, a friend and business partner of Surkis, faces a High Court trial over alleged bank fraud. It will probably happen in mid-2021, according to multiple legal experts who spoke with the Kyiv Post. Kolomoisky and business partner Hennadiy Boholyubov owned PrivatBank when it was nationalized in 2016. Forensic auditors found a $5.5 billion gap in its balance sheet. The bank’s new management, backed by the Ukrainian government, has brought huge civil cases against Kolomoisky and Boholyubov in the U.S., Britain, and Israel. Kolomoisky and his alleged allies have countered with their own lawsuits, including 800 suits or criminal cases in Ukraine.
In related news, police and prosecutors issued a notice of suspicion against ex-officials of Bank Mykhailivsky on Feb. 18, according to Interfax. A police spokesperson and the Prosecutor General’s Office also said that prosecutors had notified the former acting board chairman and six Mykhailivsky officials of their suspected “abuse of office” over the alleged withdrawal of more than Hr 283 million ($11.6 million) from the bank, and the resulting losses to the Deposit Guarantee Fund. Investigators say the bank officials concluded a fraudulent loan agreement to transfer the money to other legal entities.
Businessman Viktor Polishchuk, Bank Mykhaylivsky’s former owner, is one suspect in the case. His alleged lending fraud led to the bank going bust in 2016, leaving its depositors in the dust. Polishchuk sold his share in the bank days before it folded. Alongside the businessman’s other alleged schemes, this cost Ukraine just under $1 billion, according to the NBU. In a 2016 interview with the Kyiv Post, the businessman denied all wrongdoing.
VS Energy, a controversial company with strong ties to Russian Senator Alexander Babakov, wants to buy PINbank, Interfax-Ukraine reports. The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has started considering the acquisition of over 50% of shares in JSC First Investment Bank (PINbank). Evgeniy Giner, president of one of Moscow’s biggest soccer clubs, currently holds the majority stake of 88.89%. He is a close affiliate of Babakov, who is widely regarded as one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest henchmen and a former supporter of the ousted and Kremlin-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich.
State Duma member Babakov and businessman Giner are the alleged beneficiaries of VS Energy in Ukraine. Although their holdings are tied together by multiple proxies and are shrouded in a layer of secrecy, a Kyiv Post investigation from March 2019 revealed that Babakov can be tied to an extensive business empire throughout Ukraine that reaches into hospitality, metallurgy and the agrarian sectors. He also appears to hold a stake in more than a dozen Ukrainian regional energy supply companies.
Consumer confidence among Ukrainians has reverted to where it stood in July 2019, a study cited by Interfax-Ukraine reports. Ukrainians’ consumer sentiment in January 2020 worsened by 3.1 points, to 89 points on a 200-point scale, according to the Info Sapiens research agency. People aged 60 years and older show the most pessimistic attitudes, the agency said.
Experts from the International Monetary Fund will visit Kyiv, according to its Ukrainian office. The IMF is discussing a new aid program with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Goesta Ljungman, resident representative of the IMF in Ukraine, said that a team of several IMF experts would visit the Ukrainian capital to discuss policies aimed at achieving strong growth and stability.
