Ukraine’s most scandalous judge, Pavlo Vovk, has helped billionaire oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky win a lawsuit, according to new audio recordings published on April 15 by the Slidstvo.info investigative journalism project.
In 2016, when he still owned PrivatBank, Kolomoisky entered into a loan guarantee agreement with the National Bank of Ukraine, assuming responsibility for PrivatBank’s $9.2 billion in debt to the central bank.
In 2019, the oligarch filed a lawsuit to invalidate the guarantee. Vadym Bosy, a judge of the Kyiv District Administrative Court, ruled in Kolomoisky’s favor. Bosy declined to comment to Slidstvo.info.
“The last name is Benya’s (Kolomoisky’s nickname),” Vovk said in the tapes. “The judge in charge of the case is Vadym Bosy. He’s just arrived here and is asking what he should do. Do you want to ask the bearded guy (a reference to Kolomoisky) or not?”
“(Bosy) is asking who is interested in this,” Vovk said. “It’s not even fully appropriate for me to ask. The last name is scary.”
Vovk’s court has made other decisions in Kolomoisky’s favor.
In 2019 the court ruled that PrivatBank’s nationalization was illegal. At the same time, it ruled in favor of Triantal Investment Ltd, a firm co-owned by Kolomoisky, and annulled the conversion of the company’s assets by the National Bank of Ukraine.
The Kyiv District Administrative Court, which is headed by Vovk, and Kolomoisky did not respond to requests for comment.
Vovk has been charged with graft and obstruction of justice. He and the court’s other judges are seen by civil society as the top exemplars of judicial corruption and impunity in Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky on April 13 submitted a parliamentary bill to eliminate Vovk’s court. However, Vovk and other judges of his court may be transferred to another court.
In previous audio recordings published by National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), Vovk discusses numerous corrupt deals, gives illegal orders and quips that no one should doubt the court’s “political prostitution.” One of the court’s judges was recorded as saying that he supports “any lawlessness in the judiciary.”
In July 2020 Vovk and other judges of his court were charged with organized crime, abuse of power, bribery and unlawful interference with government officials.
Vovk has consistently ignored the NABU’s summonses and hid from the bureau when it tried to bring him to bail hearings by force.
Iryna Venediktova, a Zelensky loyalist, refused to authorize an arrest warrant for Vovk, saying that she did not see any trial prospects for the judge.
Andriy Bitsyuk, a judge at the High Anti-Corruption Court, on March 17 refused to extend the corruption investigation against Vovk, effectively shutting down the case.
On April 6, the NABU arrested Vovk’s brother Yury Zontov, an employee of the Foreign Intelligence Service. He was charged with receiving a $100,000 bribe as an intermediary for Vovk.
