1.5 billion fraud: why is Rozhkova not responsible for the bankruptcy of Platinum Bank?
The Deposit Guarantee Fund demanded from the ex-owners and ex-management of Platinum Bank, including the first chairman of the NBU Kateryna Rozhkova, compensation for damage caused to the bank in the amount of UAH 1.5 billion. The editorial board received documents confirming the creation of the scheme for the theft of depositors' money by companies associated with the owners of the bank. All the implementers of this scheme, including Katerina Rozhkova, have a long damaged business reputation.
On September 14, the Deposit Guarantee Fund again received a court refusal to open bankruptcy proceedings for Platinum Bank. In its documents, the DGF names the ex-acting chairman of this bank, Yekaterina Rozhkova, who now holds the post of deputy chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine, involved in the bankruptcy of Platinum Bank. The DGF filed an appeal against the court's unmotivated refusal. At the same time, the DGF sent a demand (the editorial office has a copy) to 12 individuals involved in bringing Platinum Bank to bankruptcy, one of them is Katerina Rozhkova.
The editors received a copy of the fond's documents, which was carried out by an international auditing company at the request of the Deposit Guarantee Fund. The document describes in detail the scheme in accordance with which the depositors' money was smuggled out to the accounts of companies associated with shareholders. The Bank's Credit Committee, headed by Mrs. Rozhkova, has regularly extended practically free credit lines, increasing them for companies owned by the bank's shareholders. The collateral for loans was not checked by anyone, and even the declared value of collateral was sometimes ten times lower than the size of loans.
"Unlawful actions of the officials committed in the period from December 2013 to December 2016, which led to the listed credit legal relationships, which resulted in the loss of funds by the bank due to large unjustified risks in the activities of the heads and members of Platinum Bank committees, which clearly indicates improper implementation their official duties, which, in turn, led to dire consequences for the bank, depositors and other creditors of the bank and led to the liquidation of Platinum Bank and the bank's inability to settle accounts with depositors and other creditors of the bank", the document says.
According to the auditors' investigation, the main frauds were carried out through LLC Stratagema-Invest (loans in the amount of UAH 257.63 million were written off), PE Logistic Trans (UAH 187.37 million), LLC Kodos Invest (UAH 150.95 million ), FC Real Invest LLC (UAH 277.85 million), Osher LLC (UAH 300.3 million), Titan-Pivden LLC (UAH 266.16 million and UAH 37.43 million). Clients did not provide sufficient collateral, but received deferrals for the payments of the body of loans and interest on the loans, as well as a reduction in the rate to 1% in foreign currency and 2% in hryvnia, the abolition of all penalties. "It is worth noting that such decisions were made at a time when the NBU discount rate was 30% per annum, and the average rate on lending to legal entities was even higher in the banking sector. There was no economic feasibility for Platinum Bank in making such decisions and such decisions directly testify that the lending operations were unprofitable", the lawyers note. A significant part of the money was smuggled out through Carosan Trading ltd (BVI) to Finbank, which was associated with the owners of Platinum Bank.
It is noteworthy that the described risky activity of the management of Platinum Bank and members of its committees and their violation of the provisions of the Law on Banks and Banking Activities were confirmed by the NBU report on the results of the inspection of Platinum Bank for the period from April 1,2012 to January 1,2015 of the year. This was also noted in the fond's documents. However, later the NBU "forgot" about these conclusions when Katerina Rozhkova became the deputy chairman of the regulator.
The investigation is underway.
As a reminder, the NBU declared Platinum Bank insolvent on January 10,2017 due to capital loss. Later, when the provisional administration worked in the bank, information appeared about real abuse of office by former owners and managers, among whom was Yekaterina Rozhkova. Such abuses consisted in the issuance of huge loans to certain legal entities, while the collateral for these loans was either scanty, or there was none at all. The prosecutor's office opened several criminal proceedings against persons connected with the bank. The investigation established the facts of deliberate withdrawal of funds from the bank, which, in fact, led to its insolvency. One of the main persons under investigation was Yekaterina Rozhkova, who worked at Platinum Bank as deputy chairman of the board in 2013, and from 2014 to June 2015 served as the chairman of the board of this bank.
In the documents of the investigation , published by the Stopkor publication, it was said that Ekaterina Rozhkova from December 2013 to February 2014 signed loan agreements of Platinum Bank, not secured by collateral, with a number of companies in Odessa. The companies themselves, according to the police, have all the signs of fictitious companies. As a result, UAH 1.12 billion was smuggled from the bank. Rozhkova's involvement in the bankruptcy of Platinum Bank is also known thanks to the Deposit Guarantee Fund, which, after gaining control over the bank, conducted its own investigation of all transactions. And all the legal entities indicated in the police documents, according to the DGF, also participated in a large-scale scheme to devastate Platinum Bank's assets.
In March 2017, NABU and SAP joined the investigation of the bank's case. On March 29, searches took place in the National Bank. "This is due to abuse, including in relation to the activities of Platinum Bank. The investigation is checking the version of deliberate overstatement of liquidity and understatement of economic risks that exist in certain financial institutions, including Platinum Bank", said the head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) Nazar Kholodnitsky.
To pay damages.
In April 2020, the Deposit Guarantee Fund demanded the former top managers of Platinum Bank to compensate the damage caused to the bank in the amount of UAH 1.477 million. The first three persons to whom the DGF asked were Ekaterina Rozhkova (ex-acting head of the board of Platinum Bank, and now the first deputy head of the NBU board), Konstantin Smolsky (ex-head of the board of Platinum Bank), Grigory Gurtovoy (ex-Head of the Supervisory Board).
In this letter of demand of the Fund to 12 persons involved in the fraud, in particular, it is noted: "You, together with other related persons of the bank, made unreasonable decisions to change the collateral for the loan obligations of borrowers who are directly or indirectly related to the owners of the bank, allowed excessive concentration of credit risk and unreasonably extended the terms of loans." In the same document, the DGF points to loan agreements, signed by persons to whom it submitted claims, with such companies as Logistic Trans, Kodos Invest, Osher, Stratagema Invest, Titan-Pivden and FC Real Invest. All these agreements were signed in the period December 2013 - February 2014, when Ekaterina Rozhkova worked at Platinum Bank as the land chairman of the board and acting head of the board.
According to the Deposit Guarantee Fund, the total damage caused by the actions of the former management (due to the said loan agreements) amounts to UAH 1.5 billion. The Fund also points out the fact that the Law "On Banks and Banking Activities" and the NBU Resolution No. 368 refer to members of the board and members of the bank's credit committee as to persons related to the bank . Accordingly, the Deposit Guarantee Fund filed a claim against related persons to compensate for the amount of damage in the amount of UAH 1.5 billion.
The fairest trial?
At the end of June 2020, the Deposit Guarantee Fund filed a lawsuit against the former members of the Board and Supervisory Board of Platinum Bank with the Commercial Court of Kiev for the joint recovery of UAH 1.5 billion for damage caused to the bank. The DGF substantiates the claim by the fact that the ex-officials of Platinum Bank, "due to improper performance of their official duties, which resulted in the adoption of unreasonable decisions", caused damage to the bank in the amount of UAH 14.8 billion, which consists of the amounts of outstanding and written off at a loss credit funds.
The the Deposit Guarantee Fund also reported that those decisions included decisions on lending to some companies, as well as "knowingly unprofitable active operations": extending the deadline for repayment of loan funds (which were not returned to the bank); postponement of payment of interest with a decrease in the rate for the use of credit funds; on monetary obligations of borrowers, legal entities, for significant amounts against illiquid security in the form of property rights under supply contracts, pledge of securities and security, the cost of which could not fully cover the monetary obligations of borrowers.
The auditors of the international company and the specialists of the Deposit Guarantee Fund are sure that these actions by Ekaterina Rozhkova and other members of the Board of Platinum Bank led to a lack of funds in the bank to fulfill obligations to depositors and creditors, violation of NBU standards, and bankruptcy of the bank. But already at the beginning of July, the Commercial Court of Kiev, without consideration, returned to the DGF its statement of claim for the joint recovery of UAH 1.477 billion. According to the court, the DGF did not provide grounds for combining claims in case No. 910/12955 / 20
On September 7, the Fund re-filed the claim, but on September 14, the Kiev Commercial Court again refused to open proceedings, now referring to paragraph 2 of part 5 of Article 174 of Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine, considering that the rules for combining claims were violated. The Deposit Guarantee Fund has already appealed this court decision.
Of course, the Deposit Guarantee Fund continues litigation against the ex-managers of Platinum Bank, since both these investigations and all the facts indicate the involvement of the board members of this bank in smuggling money out of the bank and bringing the bank to bankruptcy using insider lending schemes. However, the recent decision of the Kiev Pechersk court once again indicates that Themis is blind. Recall that the Pechersk District Court, by its decision of August 4, refused to satisfy the petition of the liquidator of Platinum Bank to recognize it as a victim in criminal proceedings No. 12015100000000334 on the bank's dubious operations.
