Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau conducts investigation into Oschadbank over misappropriation of funds
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) is conducting a pre-trial investigation in regards to the possible embezzlement of property by the head of Oschadbank management board and his subordinates by writing off $ 20.98 million from Cyprus's Opal Core Ltd. The funds were declared as State property with the purpose of their further confiscation. The criminal scheme was described in the statement of the Solomensky District Court of Kyiv from December 6, 2017, published on December 19th in the Unified State Register of Court decisions.
According to other materials in the register, criminal proceedings began on November 7, 2017. Several companies, whose accounts have fallen under special confiscation, in particular, Akemi Management Limited and Wonderbliss Ltd., are suing the NABU because of the bureau’s refusal to recognize them as plaintiffs in this case.
In addition, as it follows from the definition of the Solomensky district court from December 8th, published on December 26th, Opal Core is trying to get the NABU to open proceedings on its application against the Prosecutor General of Ukraine. It accuses him of "misappropriating the company's funds because of the groundless execution of the Kramatorsk city court verdict of the Donetsk region from March 28, 2017" (on special confiscation). The court ordered the consideration of this case on January 3, 2018.
The register contains a number of cases initiated by other companies whose funds were written off, in particular, Foxtron Networks Limited and Loricom Holding Group Ltd.
On April 28, 2017, the press service of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine reported that Oschadbank allowed $1.5 billion belonging to former Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych and his entourage to be confiscated, as decided by the Kramatorsk City Court in the Donetsk region. The deadline for filing an appeal had already expired at that time.
On the same day, Prosecutor General Yury Lutsenko stated that the Kramatorsk City Court had decided to confiscate funds belonging to Yanukovych and his entourage, based on the testimony of a member of this criminal group, who eventually received a suspended sentence.
In the Unified State Register of Court decisions, referring to a NABU detective, it indicated that on April 28, 2017, $1.117.274 billion was credited in foreign currency to a State Treasury of Ukraine account opened in Oschadbank. $1.854.093 billion was credited to an account in the national currency in the State Treasury itself based on the Kramatorsk City Court’s verdict.
Then in the State Register of Court Decisions, there was information that the NABU detectives carried out a pre-trial investigation on the possible complicity of the head of State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine, Ihor Cherkassky, in embezzling $1.5 billion of Yanukovych’s funds seized by a court decision as part of a preliminary legal qualification under part 5 of article 27 (aiding and abetting crime) and part 5 of article 191 (embezzlement in especially large amounts) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. No one was informed of this suspicion, but as a result the court granted temporary access to the documents of the State Financial Monitoring Service.