In an interview for HB, the former NBU governor Valeriya Gontareva commented on the decision of the British High Court to toss  the lawsuit brought against her and Petro Poroshenko by Ihor and Grygory Surkis.

The brothers known as business associates of Ihor Kolomoysky claimed  she and the former Ukrainian president  used PrivatBank bail-in to deprive their English companies of millions in funds.

After a London court judge ruled allegations against her were ‘thin’, Gontareva said Surkis brothers will face consequences.

‘Now when the whole world knows about their so-called deposits, I think that law enforcement agencies in other countries will look into this real money-laundering story’.

 

 The backstory on PrivatBank investigation by Kroll

 

The case made headlines last year after Chicago Morning Star revealed some documents of a  Kroll’s independent investigation that discovered a scheme that saw Ihor Kolomoysky together with Igor and Grigory Surkis withdrawing funds from Privatbank during the bank nationalization.

 

Kroll investigators found that  in 2008-2010 a number of companies associated with Privatbank received loans from Privatbank Cyprus, totaling USD 361 million that were ‘immediately channeled through a web of transactions between related party company accounts which appeared to have no obvious commercial purpose’.

The funds were later deposited in Privatbank and eventually ending up on the accounts of six companies affiliated with Surkis brothers.

A 2016-2017 Kroll’s independent investigation of the Privatbank activities revealed a  large-scale fraud scheme for at least ten years prior to the bank nationalization, leaving a $5.5bn hole in the bank’s balance sheet.