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it will happen under another government in Ukraine," he added, underlining that he personally is "very optimistic" about litigation over PrivatBank.
According to the NBU, the terms of the voluntary restructuring of the loans of former owners of PrivatBank expired in July 2017, however, the former owners have failed to fulfil their obligations.
Earlier, the nation's Finance Ministry published a letter signed by Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov, in which the businessmen commit to carrying out a restructuring programme by mid-2017. If they could successfully restructure 75% of the portfolio, the NBU said it would consider the possibility of extending the restructuring for the remaining 25% until late 2017.
However, a senior NBU official recently told bne IntelliNews o n conditions of remaining anonymous that the regulator's position in courts is weak due to the fact that the letter signed by the billionaires has no legal force under Ukrainian legislation.
The fact that Ukrainian businessmen Ihor and Hryhoriy Surkis recently won a legal battle against the bail-in of their deposits of UAH1.1bn (around $40mn) during the nationalisation of PrivatBank adds to the regulator's woes. The funds were deposited at PrivatBank by members of the Surkis family, whom the NBU recognised as alleged related parties of the bank, owned before its nationalisation by oligarchs Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov.
The government nationalised Privatbank in December 2016 after it failed to fulfil a three-year recapitalisation plan . The bank was found to have a UAH148bn ($5.6bn) hole in its balance sheet because of related-party financing.
In 2017, then NBU's governor Valeriya Gontareva said the post-nationalisation audit of the bank found that 100% of the corporate portfolio had been made to related parties.
2.5 IMF signs off on anti-corruption court law
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has backed Ukraine’s revised plans for an anti-corruption court, which is one of the conditions for unlocking the next installment from the stalled $17.5bn support programme agreed with Kyiv in 2015.
"The legislative framework for the high anti-corruption court, once the recently adopted amendments are signed into law, will be consistent with the authorities’ commitments under Ukraine’s IMF-supported programme," an IMF spokeswoman told Reuters.
The statement followed the adoption of amendments to the new law necessary for establishing the nation's anti-corruption court, which is a crucial condition for a new tranche from the support programme.
The original form of the law said that cases investigated by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), the country's main anti-graft agency, which are already being heard by ordinary courts will be finished in the ordinary appellate courts.
10 UKRAINE Country Report August 2018 www.intellinews.com