Kolomoiskyi and Boholiubov lose appeal: must return $3 billion to PrivatBank
PrivatBank has won in court against its former owners, Ihor Kolomoiskyi and Hennadii Boholiubov, who tried to challenge a court ruling issued against them in July 2025.
This is stated in a statement by the financial institution, Censor.NET reports.
Ruling in favour of PrivatBank remains in force
The decision to recover more than US$3 billion from Kolomoiskyi and Boholiubov in favour of PrivatBank in damages, interest and legal costs remains in force.
"PrivatBank welcomes the Court of Appeal’s decision, which upheld the original ruling by the High Court of England and Wales that Kolomoiskyi and Boholiubov committed a large-scale fraud against the Bank and must compensate it for the losses caused. In particular, the Court of Appeal rejected the former owners’ arguments that they had returned the misappropriated funds using proceeds obtained as a result of further fraudulent actions against the Bank," the statement said.
In 2017, the bank obtained a worldwide freezing order over the defendants’ assets.
PrivatBank will now seek enforcement of the judgment on the merits against such assets in order to obtain compensation for the bank and, accordingly, for its shareholder, the Government of Ukraine.
PrivatBank Supervisory Board Chair Nils Melngailis called today "a landmark day in PrivatBank’s fight for justice in the interests of the Ukrainian state and its people."
"We are determined to recover the significant funds that were stolen so that they can be returned and used for the benefit of the people of Ukraine. We are grateful for the unwavering support of our stakeholders and international partners, without whom this landmark victory would not have been possible," Melngailis said.
Richard Lewis, a partner at the law firm Hogan Lovells, which represents the Bank in the court proceedings, noted: "The Court of Appeal clearly had little difficulty rejecting the Defendants’ arguments that, despite having committed a large-scale fraud against the Bank, they should be able to avoid liability for that fraud by misappropriating additional funds and using them to conceal their earlier fraud. We intend to recover the Bank’s misappropriated funds through enforcement of the court judgment."
