“The High Court of England ordered the former owners of “Privatbank” Igor Kolomoiskyi and Gennadiy Bogolyubov to pay the bank more than 3 billion dollars as compensation for damages and legal costs”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
Kolomoiskyi and Bogolyubov appealed to the court with a request to grant permission to appeal the rendered decision and to stop its execution pending consideration of such an appeal. However, both motions were rejected by the court. Therefore, all the above amounts must be paid by November 24, 2025, and in case of non-payment by that date, interest will be accrued thereafter.
“Privatbank” notes that if these sums are not paid voluntarily, the banking institution will immediately begin the collection process and seek enforcement of the court decision at the expense of the assets of the former owners in order to receive compensation.
In July, Privatbank announced an “undeniable victory” in the English court over the former owners.
The bank filed a lawsuit against Kolomoiskyi and Bogolyubov in December 2017, a year after the bank’s nationalization. Privatbank’s lawsuit alleged that the former owners transferred $1.9 billion between 2013 and 2014 through “fictitious” loans and forged trade documents to the accounts of companies controlled by them in Great Britain.
“Privatbank” is the largest bank in Ukraine. Before nationalization in 2016, its beneficial owners were Ihor Kolomoiskyi (49.98%) and his business partner Gennadiy Bogolyubov (41.58%), who directly or indirectly owned more than 91.5 percent of the shares. Another 8.5 percent belonged to minorities, including the management led by the then chairman of the board Oleksandr Dubilet.
In December 2016, the government of Ukraine, at the suggestion of the National Bank and the shareholders of Privatbank, the largest of which at that time were Ihor Kolomoiskyi and Gennadiy Bogolyubov, decided to nationalize this financial institution, the largest in the Ukrainian market.
The bank became state property, and the state spent more than 155 billion hryvnias on its recapitalization.
According to the NBU, prior to the nationalization of Privatbank, losses of at least 5.5 billion dollars were incurred. Kolomoisky called the data published by the National Bank of Ukraine “delusional”.
In recent years, the Ukrainian authorities have been opposing the former shareholders of “Privatbank” in Ukrainian and foreign courts.