London court ruling reveals how 110 billion hryvnia was withdrawn from PrivatBank, - Zhelezniak. VIDEO
"When PrivatBank was owned by Ihor Kolomoiskyi and Hennadii Boholiubov, it issued billions of dollars in loans in violation of the law, which allowed the former shareholders to withdraw UAH 100 billion from their accounts.
This was stated in a video by MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak of the Voice party, Censor.NET reports.
The London court's 500-page decision on the PrivatBank case provides details of the "re-lending" scheme.
What is the essence of the scheme
Zhelezniak said that around 2013, PrivatBank started issuing loans secured by property to companies associated with Kolomoiskyi, Boholiubov and their people.
"In other words, the owners of Privat actually withdrew cash in a fairly large amount through these loans to companies related to them. As of 31 December 2019, the bank had issued about UAH 110 billion in this way," he explained.
The essence of the scheme, the MP said, was that the loan was first issued to one related company. Then the bank issued a loan to other similarly related companies, which used the money to pay off their previous debt.
"In short, a classic pyramid scheme implemented by the bank. The value of the property that secured these loans was greatly overstated. This was the essence of the scheme," he added.
Examples
"The case of the company's shares, which were considered as collateral, and as collateral for two borrowers at once. In the presentation to the bank's credit committee, 100% of this company was valued at UAH 7.35 billion for one borrower. And for the other, on the same day, and apparently at the same meeting, it was valued at UAH 9.26 billion. And two days later, the same committee for the third borrower was already valued at UAH 14 billion," Zhelezniak said.
In another case, at the end of March 2016, PrivatBank's valuation of shares pledged as collateral for a loan increased from UAH 37.6 billion to more than UAH 44 billion in almost one day.
The MP suggests that this was done to create the impression that the bank's capital was more reliable than it actually was.
The London court's decision also provides an answer to the story of the "scandalous PrivatBank petrol stations".
"PrivatBank used to own petrol stations, and even later they were nationalised and tried to sell them. Last year, these petrol stations were sold to Privat for a little less than UAH 700 million. To make it clear, they were borrowed for UAH 6.3 billion during Kolomoisky's time," he added.
The court also revealed that the real value of the oil storage facilities, which PrivatBank received as collateral for UAH 5.9 billion, was slightly more than UAH 500 million. The transshipment capacity of these oil storage facilities was estimated at 2 million tonnes of oil products per year, although the description stated 5 million tonnes.
What the court decided
On 30 July 2025, PrivatBank won a lawsuit against Kolomoiskyi and Boholiubov. The bank claimed damages for the withdrawn assets. The court found Kolomoiskyi and Boholiubov guilty of misappropriating almost $2 billion of the bank's funds.
The amount of damages has not yet been determined. According to Zhelezniak, it is likely to be determined at the next hearing in October 2025.
