NBU conducts inspections of Sense Bank over possible interference with financial monitoring system

The National Bank of Ukraine is conducting unscheduled inspections of Sense Bank to determine whether officials interfered with its automated system during transactions involving the posting of UAH 150 million in bail for former Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko.

The NBU reported this on Facebook in response to a question from Yaroslav Zhelezniak, head of the Verkhovna Rada Temporary Investigative Commission, according to Censor.NET.

NBU to inspect Sense Bank

The inspections are intended to establish the circumstances of possible interference with the bank’s automated system, determine whether the bank’s management issued relevant instructions to employees, and assess the bank’s compliance with financial monitoring legislation when processing transactions related to the posting of bail.

"Based on the results of these procedures, further supervisory decisions will be made in accordance with the conclusions drawn, the facts established and the NBU’s powers," the statement said.

At the same time, the NBU stressed that it would be premature to conclude that the financial monitoring system was not functioning before the inspections were completed. According to the regulator, "the individuals involved in the case themselves admit that strengthened regulatory measures and financial monitoring controls forced them to seek workarounds, including interfering with and disabling the bank’s automated systems."

"The inspections must establish who exactly managed to bypass it, when and by what illegal means," the NBU added.

The National Bank also stressed that it does not have access to banks’ automated systems, does not influence their operation in any way and does not determine whether they can or cannot be disabled.

"The NBU also does not analyse financial transactions when they are initiated by a client and does not authorise or prohibit them. Monitoring clients’ transactions, analysing them, and identifying and suspending suspicious transactions are the responsibility of banks," the statement said.

Earlier, it was reported that the government had instructed Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance to step up the sale of state-owned Sense Bank amid NABU’s Operation Forest Gump.

Operation "Forrest Gump"

It was previously reported that NABU and SAPO were conducting a special operation aimed at exposing a criminal group involving MPs and senior Presidential Office officials.
According to media reports, NABU and SAPO were conducting searches involving Deputy Head of the Office of the President Iryna Mudra as part of the announced operation.
NABU detectives also conducted searches involving Hladyshchenko, chair of the Sense Bank supervisory board.
Vadym Stolar, an MP from the court-banned Opposition Platform – For Life party, confirmed that NABU and SAPO were searching his property as part of Operation "Forrest Gump."
NABU later said the case involved UAH 150 million in cash, which, according to the investigation, was channelled through a series of shell-company accounts and brought into legal circulation to post bail for one of the defendants in the Midas case.
Former deputy head of the Presidential Office Iryna Mudra later confirmed that searches had been conducted at her home on August 19, that she had been served with a notice of suspicion and a motion seeking a preventive measure, but that she had not been detained. She is preparing for a court hearing.
On 20 August, NABU released new recordings of conversations involving figures in the Forest Gump case—the second part of the investigation, titled Themis. The case concerns a scheme to seize real estate and other assets through unauthorised interference with the Ministry of Justice’s information (automated) networks.
On 20 August, a prosecutor from the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) named all the individuals mentioned in connection with NABU’s Forest Gump and Themis operations.