Officers from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine or NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutors Office detained 10 people on Oct. 23 in connection with a $20-million embezzlement case involving state-owned savings bank Oschadbank and the family of lawmaker Stanislav Berezkin.
Authorities didn’t reveal the suspects’ names, but said they included two current high-ranking Oschadbank managers, one former senior manager at the bank, beneficiaries of an agricultural holding company Creative Group and an unnamed auditor.
Investigators suspect that between 2013 and 2015, the Oschadbank managers conspired with the management of Creative Group to forge documents and receive a $20 million (Hr 160 million) loan. While the loan was given to buy sunflower seeds, it was allegedly spent to acquire valuable real estate.
One of the arrested Oschadbank employees charged in the case is Iryna Zemtsova, deputy head of the Board of Directors of Oschadbank. The court set her bail at Hr 7 million on Oct. 25.
The private company at the center of the case, Creative Group, has been in trouble since 2015, when its founder and lawmaker Stanislav Berezkin sold the holding to Armenian businessman Artur Grantz, who owns duty-free shops in Boryspil, and former banker Rysbek Toktomushev for an undisclosed price. According to the Ukrainian company register, the holding is now owned by several offshore companies with unlisted beneficiaries.
Soon after the sale, the new owners said they discovered that the company embezzled money and filed forged financial reports to get bank loans. The company sued its former owners. In March 2016, the courts froze the assets of Berezkin’s son Maksym, who was involved in managing the company.
Oschadbank told Ukrainian news website Financial Club it was Maksym Berezkin whom investigators detained on Oct. 23.
Stanislav Berezkin, a lawmaker with the 19-member Volya Narodu faction in parliament, told Strana.ua news website he was “shocked” by the arrests.
The 10 suspects, if found guilty of embezzlement and abuse of office, they face up to 12 years in prison.
Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutors Office started the procedure to strip Berezkin of his immunity as a lawmaker. For that, they will need a vote in parliament.
Meanwhile, Creative Group has been undergoing liquidation since May, when a Kyiv court acknowledged multi-billion claims from its creditors and ruled the company bankrupt.
Oschadbank, UkrEximBank, Ukrsotsbank and VTB Capital sought to return over Hr 7 billion in loans the company took.
The company tried to fight back the claims by filing a complaint on the falsification of the loan documents.
