ABH Holdings SA (ABHH, Luxembourg), the former owner of the nationalized Sens Bank (Kyiv, formerly Alfa-Bank), rejects as deliberately false the accusations of the National Police of Ukraine against the holding’s minority shareholder Mikhail Fridman of allegedly organizing a criminal tax evasion scheme through Sens Bank.
“Friedman has never been involved in the management or governance of Sens Bank and has never participated in the structuring and implementation of any transactions or operations of the bank, including those related to taxation,” ABHH claims.
The holding believes that such allegations, in particular those concerning ABHH itself, are false and were made with the sole purpose of preventing the holding from achieving a fair and honest resolution of the situation that arose after the illegal, in its opinion, expropriation of Sens Bank.
ABHH reminded that in June of this year it informed the Ukrainian government of its intention to initiate international proceedings and proposed negotiations to resolve the dispute peacefully, but the reaction was to impose sanctions against the holding.
“In July of this year, the holding made another attempt to approach the Ukrainian government with a request for negotiations. The Ukrainian authorities responded by nationalizing Sens Bank and introducing a number of illegal measures against the holding’s minority shareholders, which have now been supplemented by information about a possible criminal case against Mikhail Fridman,” the statement said.
The statement emphasizes that the holding confirms its intention to continue efforts to protect its rights and considers the current actions of the Ukrainian authorities to be an attempt to obstruct the process of international justice.
Several schemes were used to withdraw the funds: payment of royalties for the use of trademarks and payment of funds under fictitious agreements concluded with offshore companies. As part of this criminal proceeding, a total of nine people were notified of suspicion, and assets worth over UAH 14.4 billion were seized. Alfa-Bank is currently nationalized and owned by the state.
Earlier on Friday, the National Police issued a statement that its Strategic Investigations Department, the Bureau of Economic Security and the Prosecutor General’s Office had established criminal schemes by Friedman and other beneficial owners from the international sanctions list to withdraw more than UAH 700 million through controlled Ukrainian and Cypriot companies and Alfa-Bank.
It was indicated that one of these schemes was the withdrawal of funds under the guise of paying royalties for the use of trademarks previously owned by the parent bank in the Russian Federation. Over three years, the Ukrainian bank paid UAH 1.4 million, but in 2021, the trademarks were re-registered to a Cypriot non-resident controlled by a Russian oligarch, after which the fee increased to $16.4 million, and in less than a year of using these marks, the bank transferred more than UAH 261 million to the Cypriot company.
The offenders also allegedly used a scheme to pay out funds under fictitious agreements concluded with offshore companies. The essence of such transactions was that the offshore company, the parent company of Alfa-Bank, bought corporate rights and transferred more than UAH 460 million to the phantom company. However, as law enforcement officers found out, this company had no property and conducted no business activities.
The National Police stated that more than 300 investigative actions were carried out to establish the connections, affiliation and control of the companies, both offshore and Ukrainian, used in the schemes, to the Russian oligarch: searches, interrogations of dozens of witnesses, various studies and examinations, analysis of a large amount of information, etc.
“Based on the evidence collected, the Russian oligarch, the beneficial owner of Alfa-Bank and the organizer of the criminal scheme, was served a notice of suspicion. He is charged with committing criminal offenses committed as part of an organized group by prior conspiracy under several articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine,” the National Police said.
It was clarified that a total of eight other people were served suspicion notices in the criminal proceedings: the former chairman and acting chairman of the bank’s board, three owners of offshore companies, and the case against three directors of fictitious companies is already being considered in court.
In addition, more than UAH 14.4 billion worth of assets were seized: securities held on the bank’s accounts, trademarks, and about 900 real estate properties.
Alfa-Bank has been nationalized and is now owned by the state, and the seized assets have been transferred to the commercial management of the ARMA, the release said.
