Ukraine says London court freezes top tycoon assets

Kiev, Dec 21 (AFP) Ukraine today welcomed a decision by aLondon court to freeze the assets of billionaire IgorKolomoyskiy following a high-profile ...

Kiev, Dec 21 (AFP) Ukraine today welcomed a decision by aLondon court to freeze the assets of billionaire IgorKolomoyskiy following a high-profile case that led to thestate's takeover of the country's largest bank.

Kolomoyskiy, the ex-Soviet country's second-richest manworth USD 1.3 billion according to Forbes' 2016 ratings, wasthe owner of Ukraine's largest lender PrivatBank.

The lender was nationalised last December afterauthorities blamed Kolomoyskiy and other PrivatBank owners forissuing bad loans to cronies and having insufficient capitalto stay afloat.

"The ministry of finance of Ukraine welcomes the EnglishHigh Court order on worldwide asset freezing againstKolomoyskiy and (Gennadiy) Bogolyubov, as well as against sixcompanies they are believed to own or control," the ministrysaid in statement today.

"The state has already spent almost 140 billion hryvnyas(around USD 5 billion) on recapitalisation of PrivatBank tocover the losses caused by the extraction of money from thebank and poorly secured loans given out beforenationalisation," it said.

"These 140 billion hryvnyas are the money of eachUkrainian citizen, each Ukrainian taxpayer and these fundsmust be returned to the state budget."Late yesterday, PrivatBank, which holds more than a thirdof Ukraine's deposits and whose takeover by the state waswelcomed by the West, said it had begun legal proceedings inthe High Court in London against former owners Kolomoyskiy andBogolyubov.

"The freezing order was granted on the basis of detailedevidence put to the court that Kolomoyskiy and Bogolyubov haveextracted almost USD 2 billion from the bank through aparticular series of dishonest transactions," the lender said.

PrivatBank added that through the legal proceedings itwas seeking to recover over USD 2.5 billion.

Kolomoyskiy, who has fought to challenge thenationalisation, stressed the ruling was a temporary measure.

"This is a temporary arrest for the time of the trial,"he told local media. (AFP)KIS.

This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com