Media: Former top managers of PrivatBank have left Ukraine to avoid investigation into the bank’s artificially created insolvency
Former top managers of PrivatBank and members of its credit committee have long left Ukraine, while 11 persons involved in the PrivatBank case are on the international wanted list, reports in Zerkalo Nedeli ('Mirror Weekly').
The publication writes that the case filed to bring PrivatBank to insolvency may reach a dead end.
"How long has it been since the top management of the bank, like the members of the credit committee, appeared in public; and when was the last time they were seen in Ukraine? According to ZN.UA, they have not been in Ukraine for a long time, nor do they plan to appear here," says the article.
"And what's with the members of the credit committee going to the questioning at the Office of the Prosecutor General? By the way, it's also unclear if it was all six,according to the publication, that were taken by the former owner of PrivatBank from a Ukrainian “colony” to a British “colony”. Who will bear the real responsibility for what happened?" writes the author.
Later, a former shareholder of PrivatBank, Ihor Kolomoyskyi, denied that former top managers of the bank and members of its credit committee had left Ukraine.
As reported, the head of the board of PrivatBank, Oleksandr Shlapak, has stated that the Prosecutor General's Office opened criminal cases under articles 218 and 220, in connection with the bank's inducement to insolvency.
Shlapak clarified that the criminal cases were for providing the loans to 36 companies for 133 billion UAH ($7.22 billion USD), which were issued in October through November of 2016 and through which loans were repaid to 193 other borrowers of the bank, more than half of which had a rate of 12-12.5% per annum, pegged to the dollar exchange rate and real liens.
The Chairman of the Board added that the rate for new loans was 10.5% per annum, and that the bank's credit committee had approved a rate of 34% per annum; meanwhile, the bank raised funds for the National Bank to 22%, for individuals to 19%, and for legal entities to 14.2%.