Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Valeriya Gontareva, presenting her report in the Verkhovna Rada, has recalled a large debt of famous Ukrainian businessmen on refinancing loans to the NBU.
“Let’s look in details at these unpaid UAH 45.2 billion in the past three years… I will give you a list of insolvent banks that are the largest debtors on refinancing loans and names of their ex-owners, as these are very famous oligarchs in our country… The absolute leader is Oleh Bakhmatiuk with loans of two his banks – Financial Initiative and VAB – UAH 10.2 billion, Bank Nadra of Dmytro Firtash owes UAH 9.8 billion, Mykola Lahun owes UAH 8 billion on Delta Bank’s loans, Kostiantyn Zhevaho and his Bank Finance and Credit owes UAH 6.3 billion to the NBU, Leonid Klimov who is now member of parliament and even a member of the parliamentary committee for financial policy and bank operations owns UAH 3.4 billion and all the rest – UAH 7.5 billion,” she said.
Gontareva recalled that bankruptcy of a bank does not mean that their former owners are fully exempted from paying debts of their banks. The NBU sent 12 applications to law enforcement agencies about the commitment of crimes by shareholders of these banks and initiated 44 litigations in courts.
“The national funds are to be returned, and that’s final!” she said.
She also reminded that the refinancing loans that were not returned to the central bank were mainly issued sine 2008 without proper collateral, which were non-liquid assets with values set several times higher than their market value.
