The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has begun unscheduled inspections of banks that served clients who deposited collateral with the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine (HACC).
This is stated in the official statement of NBU following the results of the review of the report on the regulatorʼs supervisory actions regarding “Sense Bank” in 2022-2026.
Ukrainian banks will check compliance with financial monitoring requirements when servicing clients who deposited collateral with HACC. NBU does not disclose the names and number of banks.
Earlier, NBU separately launched an unscheduled inspection of “Sense Bank”. The regulator is investigating possible interference in the automated banking system during collateral transactions.
At the same time, the NBUʼs statement suggests that they began to check the activities of “Sense Bank” management back in May. On May 1, they initiated administrative proceedings against “Sense Bank” chairman of the board Oleksiy Stupak. They tried to find out his possible involvement in non-transparent management practices and secret protocols that were used in the bank before nationalization.
On May 7, NBU initiated administrative proceedings against the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of “Sense Bank” Mykola Hladyshenko to assess his compliance with the qualification requirements for independent directors.
In May and June, NBU also contacted NABU, SAPO, and the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office to obtain information about Hladyshenkoʼs procedural status in criminal proceedings and the data necessary to assess his independence. Law enforcement officials did not provide this information, citing the secrecy of the pre-trial investigation.
On August 19, NBU recognized Hladyshenka as not meeting the requirements for independence and demanded that the government terminate his powers.
In total, according to NBU, in 2022-2026, the regulator conducted three inspections at “Sense Bank”, six inspections in the field of financial monitoring, and three inspections regarding sanctions and currency legislation. Based on the results of supervisory measures, NBU sent 21 notifications to law enforcement agencies, the State Tax Service, and the State Financial Monitoring Service.
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Operation Forrest Gump
On August 19, NABU and SAPO announced that they had uncovered a criminal scheme that organized the legalization of 150 million hryvnias to pay bail for one of the defendants in the Midas case, former Minister of Energy Herman Galushchenko.
According to the investigation, in early June, the participants in the scheme gained actual control over Sense Bank and began using it to launder money. They were informed of suspicion under Part 3 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — legalization of money obtained by criminal means.
On the first day of the court session, the SAPO prosecutor named all the defendants in this case, including:
- former Deputy Head of the Presidentʼs Office Iryna Mudra;
- former Peopleʼs Deputy Maksym Mykytas;
- current Peopleʼs Deputy Vadym Stolar;
- Deputy Minister of Justice Olena Ferens;
- Director General of the Directorate for Legal Policy of the Public Prosecutorʼs Office Viktor Dubovyk;
- businessman and former deputy of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council Vasyl Astion;
- former chairmen of the supervisory board and management board of Sense Bank Mykola Gladyshenko and Oleg Stupak;
- Head of the department of the state-owned Sense Bank Lyudmila Snigur;
- According to the prosecutor, the people connected with Mykytas are Valentin Yelizarov, Yegor Merkulov, Oleksandr Ostapenko, and Mykyta Tarkovsky.
In addition, on August 20, NABU and SAPO presented a continuation of this case — Operation Themis with the same defendants. As investigators established, with the help of hackers, the defendants hacked into state registers, forged documents, and used "their" people in the Commercial Court and the Ministry of Justice to seize enterprises and real estate.