Page 9 - UKRRptAug18

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.
2.4 NBU may settle with PrivatBank’s former owners
Ukraine'slargestlender P rivatbank ,nationalisedinlate2016,may consider an out-of-court settlement with the bank’s former main shareholders , oligarchs Ihor Kolomoisky and Hennadiy Bogolyubov, Engin Akchakocha, head of the PrivatBank’s supervisory board, said on June 10.
Akchakocha said that "every option is on the table" when asked if he would consider an out-of-court settlement with the bank’s former main shareholders, although he said he did not want to comment directly on the legal cases, Reuters reported the same day. "Resolving a problem peacefully is easier and better than trying to resolve it through a fight."
"It all needs appropriate willpower and goodwill," he added when asked about the prospect of the former owners helping tackle PrivatBank’s bad loans. "As of today, we are not in communication with the former shareholders of the bank on resolving these issues on a voluntary basis," he said, but he added that he did not rule out such a route.
Lawyers for Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov could not immediately be reached for comment, according to Reuters.
Earlier, in a separate court process, the High Court of Justice in England ruled to establish a weekly limit of GBP20,000 on personal expenses of Ukrainian oligarch Kolomoisky. In December, the same court ruled to freeze worldwide assets of the former owners, including six companies controlled by Kolomoisky and his partner Hennadiy Bogolyubov, worth more than $2.5bn.
At the same time, the oligarchs have challenged its takeover by the state, as well as the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU)'s demands to restructure and repay debts to related parties. Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov have filed more than 400 lawsuits against the NBU, PrivatBank and the country's Finance Ministry.
According to Kolomoisky, the London court is the jurisdiction "where the parties will have to openly show everything, tell how it was and what was not". "I think we will get to this trial in the court, but it will not be soon and most likely
9 UKRAINE Country Report August 2018 www.intellinews.com