The National Bank sentenced oligarch Oleh Bakhmatyuk to 1.8 billion hryvnias

The Pechersk District Court of Kyiv decided to collect over 1.8 billion hryvnias in favor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) from the ex-owner of PJSC Commercial Bank "Financial Initiative" Oleh Bakhmatyuk, as a guarantor.

The press service of the NBU writes about this.

The money will be collected to pay off the debt of the institution for one of the previously granted refinancing loans, which it did not return.

In 2014, Commercial Bank "Financial Initiative" entered into an agreement with the NBU on a refinancing loan to support liquidity in the amount of two billion hryvnias. Oleh Bakhmatyuk vouched for the bankʼs proper fulfillment of its obligations by concluding a suretyship agreement with the National Bank. The bank and its owner failed to fulfill their obligations, so the NBU in 2017 appealed to the Pechersk District Court of the city of Kyiv with a statement of claim. Later, the bank repaid the debt in the amount of about 200 million hryvnias.

• The total amount owed by Oleh Bakhmatyuk, as a guarantor to the NBU, is almost 8 billion hryvnias.
• In January 2020, the National Bank began the procedure of foreclosure of the mortgaged property from the "Kyiv Poultry Farm" controlled by Oleh Bakhmatyuk in order to repay the debt of Bakhmatyukʼs bank "Financial Initiative" under the refinancing loan. The total debt of Bakhmatyukʼs two banks — "Financial Initiative" and VAB Bank — amounts to 10.6 billion hryvnias. Bakhmatyuk himself proposed to restructure this debt and pay the Deposit Guarantee Fund and the National Bank 8 billion hryvnias within five years.
• On May 29, 2020, the Appellate Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court chose detention in absentia as a preventive measure for Bakhmatyuk.