A month ago, the state of Delaware resumed consideration of a court case on money laundering in the United States of America by people like Ihor Kolomoyskyi and Hennadii Boholiubov. Consideration of this case was suspended for three years, apparently in the hope that during this time the related court cases would at least make some progress. Well…
As of now, Ihor Kolomoiskyi and Hennadii Boholiubov are confidently increasing their chances of avoiding responsibility for what is probably the largest financial fraud in history. Considering that the first is in the pre-trial detention center of the Security Service of Ukraine, and the second is on the run, this is an impressive result. It would be absolutely impossible if the state, of course, in the person of individual gifted representatives, did not make mistakes time and time again. The conclusions from these mistakes are so conspicuously not drawn by political figures that even if you don’t want to, you have to wonder if this demonstrative incompetence is really not accidental.
The good thing is that the strategy for protecting odious accomplices is becoming more and more understandable and at least partially predictable. The bad thing is that the trump cards in their hands are not decreasing. The worst thing is that the state does not particularly care about who should present epaulets to whom.
Attention deficit
There are as many as three reference inserts in this text, because we are aware that both the nationalization itself and the related judicial epic have long since disappeared from the focus of people and the media. This has mostly benefited the “main suspects in this case.” After all, the less attention is paid to the numerous court battles, the more they, the judges, and the rest of the interested parties can afford. Thus, now they remind about themselves only when absolutely necessary and exclusively for the sake of specific messages. We recently experienced one of these surges of activity.
Hennadii Boholiubov, who is trying his best to pretend that this whole story does not concern him at all, once again shared a generous portion of wisdom from the tear-off calendar on the Menorah YouTube channel. I don’t know who told Hennadii Borysovych to run to the Menorah in any stressful situation, but a little more and, having googled his name, people far from the stories in which PrivatBank is involved will most likely think that he is some kind of preacher or cult leader. Definitely not a fraudster, not a fugitive, and even more so not someone’s accomplice.
It is worth noting that soon after taking up the baton, Ihor Kolomoiskyi generously poured out his poison in an interview with the pocket Ukrainian Independent Information Agency of News. He said that in the summer of 2022 he received an offer to “voluntarily” give up his shares in the public joint-stock company “Ukrnafta” and the transnational financial and industrial oil company “Ukrtatnafta”: “…in exchange for settlements in legal cases on PrivatBank’s claims against me, including those cases that are being considered in international courts.” He emphasized that this offer was made to him by Rostyslav Shurma, and allegedly “it looked like an offer from the president and head of the office of Andrii Yermak.” After the refusal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to Ihor Kolomoiskyi, secretly deprived him of Ukrainian citizenship and took away the shares of the public joint-stock company "Ukrnafta" and the transnational financial and industrial oil company “Ukrtatnafta”. After that, he sent Ihor Kolomoiskyi himself in prison to limit his ability to appeal the seizure of assets.
Here, of course, the journalist wondered why Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made such a generous offer at the beginning, if in the end he managed without it?
I'm just kidding, there were no clarifying questions, because this is the Ukrainian Independent Information Agency of News.
Pretending to be a victim
Anyway, this version sounds like a position (and certainly better than that of the preacher Hennadii Boholiubov). In fact, Ihor Kolomoiskyi from the pre-trial detention center of the Security Service of Ukraine accuses President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the raider seizure of his assets, fabricated accusations and blackmail.
In this case, of course, the political leaders on Bankova Street presented evidence... I'm just kidding, they didn't present any evidence at all. It is worth remembering that we are talking about Bankova Street...
According to ZN.UA, Hennadii Boholiubov also planned to publicize information about the offer of a bribe of $ 100 million in exchange for "non-initiation" of criminal proceedings against him in Ukraine and on this basis to request political asylum. In this way, we no longer have two accused of fraud, but two victims of money extortion and raiding.
And most importantly, we see mentions of PrivatBank less and less, but more and more often of the public joint-stock company "Ukrnafta".
Turning the story about the withdrawal of $ 5.5 billion from the bank by Ihor Kolomoiskyi and Hennadii Boholiubov into a story about the raider seizure of shares of the public joint-stock company "Ukrnafta" from Kolomoiskyi and Boholiubov is not an easy task. But the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy coped with it, nationalizing the public joint-stock company "Ukrnafta" by the decision of the Commander-in-Chief's Headquarters. Lawyers would have launched a heated discussion at this point about how successfully the tools were chosen to seize property in favor of the state. We are not lawyers, and it is enough for us that the chosen tools are debatable. Not to mention that nationalization (spherical in a vacuum) is a paid seizure, that is, one that involves compensation. Even PrivatBank was bought out, albeit for one hryvnia, in order to comply with the procedure. Probably, it would have been possible to find at least one competent and effective bureaucrat since 2019, who would advise the team of creative directors and producers at the right moment on how to do everything so as not to harm.
Now we have Ihor Kolomoisky's position on the "illegal and unauthorized" seizure of shares of the public joint-stock company "Ukrnafta" in favor of the state. Somewhere such a situation has already occurred, it seems, it happened with the nationalization of some bank... Literally the other day, the last trial on the legitimacy of that nationalization ended, we hope. After eight years and for much better initial positions.
Will the case on the "nationalization of the public joint-stock company "Ukrnafta" be submitted to the courts? Perhaps it will be so.
Probably, it will even precede the conclusion of the case, because of which Ihor Kolomoiskyi ended up in the pre-trial detention center and in which the accusations are so unfounded that the victim will be determined during court hearings, as well as the amount of damage caused. Moreover, Ihor Kolomoiskyi personally, better than his own defense attorneys, will present the state prosecution on all counts. The state was not going to get down to work and strain itself.
Pretending to attack
At the end of November, the Supreme Court of Ukraine considered the cassation appeal of the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant (NFP) against the only sensible court decision in a whole series of similar and meaningless lawsuits. The court upheld the appeal of the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant, overturned the decision of the Northern Economic Court of Appeal and sent the case for retrial (see document). There is no stop word in this game that can end it. This case can be returned for retrial indefinitely.
Currently, three more “frozen” similar court cases are starting for consideration (№910/12918/20, №910/12499/20, №910/12917/20). They were waiting for at least some clarity in the consideration of other similar ones and, apparently, their turn has finally come.
First, there is the decision of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, which did not see anything suspicious in the fact that the courts are required to provide “certificates” of the absence of creditor debts.
Secondly, there is the already mentioned decision of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, which sent the case for review to the appeal, that is, to the same instance where the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant was refused to issue such a “certificate”.
Thirdly, and worst of all, one of the previous such certificates was already mentioned at a recent hearing in Delaware. The representative of the defendants directly stated that “the Ukrainian court has already confirmed the legality of the use of loans”, and in return he also asked to prohibit a retrial of the case. The bank representative once again told the sad story that the courts in Ukraine do not consider the entire case, but only some of its pieces.
We have long understood everything about the courts in Ukraine, but in countries with a stable rule of law, such arguments do not sound so convincing. It is worth noting that well-argued and unbiased decisions, which do not exist, would sound much more convincing there.
Of course, it is quite likely that foreign courts will continue to postpone decisions in cases, waiting for at least some clarity to come here in Ukraine. The High Court in London has not yet announced its decision, although the verdict was expected in the summer. But as of now, it is obvious that waiting is a winning strategy for Ihor Kolomoiskyi and Hennadii Boholiubov, not Ukraine. They will not be the first to give up.
The expectation that the Western impartial judicial system will do all the work for us is clearly not justified. They are equally waiting for the decisions of our justice, which does not see obvious things.
Moreover, through the efforts of the authorities, the former owners are also confidently turning into victims of raiding and political persecution. The charges brought with difficulty, and only against Ihor Kolomoiskyi, have not developed into a normal trial in a year and a half. Unfortunately, we have not advanced very far from the situation in 2021, when in the West the former owners are accused of the largest fraud in history, and in Ukraine the law enforcement system has not even introduced sanctions against them. By the way, they have not yet been introduced. The decline in public attention makes the caution of judges not so acute, both generously adding opportunities to the former owners and prolonging the Ukrainian judicial epic for an indefinite period. A little more and it will all end with Ukraine compensating respected investors (and if the story about the deprivation of Ihor Kolomoiskyi's citizenship is true, then also foreign investors) for the losses caused.