Igoromka

One of the richest and accurately one of the most famous people of Ukraine is an arrested businessman and politician Igor Kolomoisky. This is what it is important to know about it

The court in Kyiv sent to the pre -trial detention center for two months businessman Igor Kolomoisky, the founder of the nationalized Privatbank and one of the richest people in Ukraine according to Forbes magazine. Kolomoisky is suspected of fraud and legalization of property acquired by criminal means. According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the businessman, using the infrastructure of the banks controlled by him, legalized more than 500 million hryvnias (over 13 million dollars).

The court invited the businessman to make a deposit in the same amount - almost 510 million hryvnias. His defenders said that they have not yet been considering such an opportunity, and plan to appeal the arrest. Kolomoisky’s lawyer Alexander Lysak, in a conversation with reporters, called the process “indicative”. The New Gazeta Europe has collected everything that is known about this criminal case.

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60-year-old businessman Igor Kolomoisky was born in Ukraine. He is the owner of the Privat industrial and financial group, the founder of the largest Bank of Ukraine Privatbank (currently owned by the state) and shareholder of the largest Ukrainian oil producing company Ukrnafta. In 2014-2015 he was the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Forbes in 2021 estimated the state of Kolomoisky at $ 1.8 billion. Then he ranked fourth in the list of the richest people in Ukraine. According to the magazine, after the alienation of oil assets in favor of the state, its condition decreased half - to $ 850 million.

What is the oligarch suspect

A pre -trial investigation in the businessman’s case is conducted by the Ukrainian Economic Security Bureau (BEB) of Ukraine with prompt support of the SBU. On the morning of September 2, the special service gave Kolomoisky a message about suspicion of committing crimes under criminal articles on fraud (Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and the legalization of property received by criminal means (Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

According to the investigation, the businessman in seven years, from 2013 to 2020, legalized more than half a billion hryvnias "by withdrawing them abroad, using the infrastructure of controlled banking institutions." The office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine specified that, according to the investigation, Kolomoisky illegally took possession of and legalized more than 570 million hryvnias.

The Ukrainian edition of Forbes reported with reference to sources familiar with the case materials that suspicion is associated with one episode of withdrawal of funds from Privatbank. Namely: one of the oil companies included in the financial and industrial group Privat Kolomoisky was lended to his own Privatbank. The guarantor for the obligations of his legal entity in his bank was the oligarch himself, who had personal accounts in it.

Later, the obligation was transferred to other creditors in favor of other creditors, the businessman’s personal guarantee disappeared, and the bank did not return the issued loan. Law enforcement officers considered it a deliberate transaction.

The interlocutors of the magazine did not specify which company was talking about. In this episode, specific managers of the institution do not appear. “We are talking about Kolomoisky’s conspiracy with“ unidentified persons ”among the bank's management,” said one of the sources of Forbes.

This is not the only criminal case in which Kolomoisky appears. Back in 2017, shortly after the nationalization of Privatbank, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) began to investigate its top managers. A criminal case associated with financial frauds worth 40 billion hryvnias in the Ukrnaft oil company, a co -owner of which is Kolomoisky, also previously opened a criminal case. Earlier, NABU was suspected by the top management of Ukrnafta of the withdrawal of 13.3 billion hryvnias from the company in favor of the Privat group. In February, the SBU came to the businessman with the next searches on this case, but he was not among the likely suspects.

How the court went

The Shevchenkovsky court of Kyiv sent Igor Kolomoisky under arrest for 60 days, until the end of October, with the possibility of a bail in the amount of almost 510 million hryvnias. The defense of the businessman said that they did not plan to contribute the bail and are going to appeal the arrest after they receive the full text of the court decision. The meeting was held closed at the request of the oligarch. He refused to comment on the results of the court.

This is the second largest bail in the history of Ukraine, the publication "Grati" drew attention. Only the ex-head of the Ukrainian tax service of Roman Nasirov was asked more-523 million hryvnias. Then Nasirov made a guarantee in exchange for a preventive measure not related to deprivation of liberty, but only after the amount was reduced by five times.

After the trial of Kolomoisky, they took the insulator in Askoldov Lane of the Ukrainian capital, known as the SBU pre -trial detention center. According to the lawyer businessman Alexander Lysak in the commentary to reporters, the investigative judge does not have the right to determine the place of detention of the suspect - this is the powers of the pre -trial investigation.

“For you for thoughts: today, at eight to nine hours [in the morning], a person receives a suspicion in the city of Dnieper, at 11:40 the defender receives a message that the hearing at 14 o’clock will be held in Kyiv. Do you understand how this is possible? We stated the judge to transfer to Monday, on Tuesday. There was no haste, a person is not hiding. No, an hour or two. All the grounds for this petition about the election of content, for a moment, in custody, as a preventive measure, will be applied to one paragraph. Some of the presented protocols of interrogation of witnesses carried out on August 31 are not even signed, ”said Oleg Pushkar, another defender of Kolomoisky.

“This process is indicative. <...> A man arrived in a sports suit - which means he was ready for the fact that such a situation will be, ”said Lysak.

He also noted that the court did not even appoint an account to which the deposit could be transferred. “And the article was incorrected incorrectly, 209 the article was not even entered in the register of pre -trial investigations. It was only on charges. And if not introduced, then how legitimate is it? Secondly, there is not a single document regarding the so-called “legalization”. Therefore, we want to see the decision of the court, ”he said.

The lawyers refused to comment on information about the citizenship of Kolomoisky. As the Ukrainian edition of "Country" noted , in a video from a court in Kiev a judge calls Kolomoisky a citizen of Ukraine. At the same time, an adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Sergey Leshchenko published a photo of the case materials in which Kolomoisky appears as a citizen of Israel and Cyprus, devoid of citizenship of Ukraine.

Last year, the Ukrainian media wrote about the secret decree of President Vladimir Zelensky, which spoke about the deprivation of the citizenship of the oligarch and several other people.

Green Light from the President

On the morning of September 1, on the eve of the arrest of Kolomoisky, a large meeting with law enforcement officers dedicated to the businessman’s affairs took place in the office of the Ukrainian president, two sources told Ukrainian Forbes. Before him, it was assumed that the businessman would appear in NABU on Thursday, September 7, and he would be suspected of Privatbank. A week before, Kolomoisky visited NABU for interrogation on Ukrnafta and Bank.

But at the meeting they decided that the “first” instead of NABU would be the SBU and the BEB. A senior interlocutor of the magazine from NABU in a conversation with Forbes tied a hurry with the fact that next week the leaders of anti -corruption bodies met in the United States with American officials.

In addition, from September 5 to 7 in Ukrainian courts, several cases with the participation of Igor Kolomoisky and his long -term business partner Gennady Bogolyubov were appointed in Ukrainian courts. Businessmen planned to appeal the nationalization of Privatbank.

Elena Shcherban, lawyer and deputy head of the Ukrainian Corruption Center, told Forbes that this also happened against the background of reports on equating corruption with the Stateizer (at the end of August, the corresponding bill was registered in the Verkhovna Rada - Ed. ). “To show the effectiveness of the SBU,” she said.

“Such a sad fraction of the oligarch, but sad for him and joyful for us all. Because, of course, Kolomoisky is an evil that should be punished, ” said Sergey Leshchenko, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, who had previously published a photo from the businessman’s case, confirming the deprivation of his Ukrainian citizenship. The mayor of the Dnieper Boris Filatov expressed the same position: “He is a thief and a fraudster, absolute evil. <...> The person who destroyed the airport, stadium, football club, basketball arena, bank, house of officers and dozens of objects in the Dnieper. ”

The President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky on the day of the arrest of Kolomoisky at the end of his evening appeal also supported the actions of law enforcement agencies - however, he did not specify in connection with which event. He said : “Of course, we will protect Ukraine and return freedom to the whole earth. <...> Definitely without a long -term “as always” in relation to those who robbed Ukraine and set themselves higher than the law and any rules. ” He thanked Ukrainian law enforcement officers for "determination to bring to a fair result every business that has been inhibited for decades." “The law must work. So it is, and it will be so, ”Zelensky summed up.