Kyivskyi District Court in the City of Odesa has refused to consider a lawsuit filed by Mr Ihor Kolomoiskyi with the purpose of preventing cooperation between the National Bank of Ukraine, the Finance Ministry and PrivatBank with international companies (legal advisors and consultancies). These companies were involved in an investigation into the financial activities of PrivatBank’s former owners and provided legal support in relation to the bank’s nationalization.
- The court ruled that by filing the lawsuit, Kolomoiskyi abused his due-process rights and intended to draw out the legal proceedings:
- First, by filing a lawsuit to Kyivskyi District Court in the City of Odesa against ARS, a television broadcaster, to protect his honor, dignity, and business reputation, Kolomoiskyi attempted to artificially change the territorial jurisdiction of the legal action taken against other co-defendants that are registered in the City of Kyiv and outside Ukraine.
- Second, the main and derived claims of the bank’s former shareholder have different subjects of dispute, which shows that they are not related.
- Third, this lawsuit duplicates an already existing lawsuit – a civil action with identical claims against the NBU, PrivatBank and the Finance Ministry, which was brought by Kolomoiskyi and has been considered by Solomianskyi District Court in the City of Kyiv since December 2017.
“The NBU is pleased with the court’s just ruling, which proves that there is the rule of law in Ukraine, and which prevents people from abusing their due-process rights. This ruling proves that everyone is equal in the eyes of the law,” said Viktor Hryhorchuk, the head of the NBU’s Litigation Office, commenting on the court’s ruling. “We believe that it is unacceptable to create barriers to investigating the events that led to PrivatBank’s multi-billion capital shortages and unjustified expenses for the state.”
In early 2018, Kroll, the international company that conducted a forensic audit of PrivatBank, confirmed that the bank had been involved in large-scale and coordinated fraud activities for at least ten years prior to its nationalization, generating losses of not less than USD 5.5 billion.