After the removal of Oleksiy Stupak — a figure in the “Forrest Gump” case — from the position of Chairman of the Board of “Sense Bank”, his duties will be temporarily performed by Olena Zubchenko.
This was reported by the press service of “Sense Bank”.
They say that Zubchenko has over 20 years of professional experience, including in leadership positions in the banking, legal, and government sectors, including work at PrivatBank and the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, as well as significant expertise in international law.
The press service adds that the bank is currently continuing to operate as normal, and all officials who are involved in the NABU and SAPO investigations have been suspended from their duties and do not have access to the bankʼs management.
On September 2, as for the former chairman of the board Stupak, the National Bank recognized him as not meeting the qualification requirements for professional suitability and sent a demand to the government, the owner of “Sense Bank”, to replace him. On the same day, HACC assigned Stupak a UAH 15 million bail as a preventive measure.
The bank reminded that the renewal of the Supervisory Board is underway in parallel. In August, NBU approved international banker Peter Novak as an independent member of the board, and approval of two more new members is expected in the near future. Only after one of them takes office will the Supervisory Board have the necessary composition to terminate the powers of the Chairman of the Board.
The “Forrest Gump” case and “Sense Bank” involvement in it
On August 19, NABU and SAPO reported that they had uncovered a criminal scheme that organized the legalization of UAH 150 million to pay bail for one of the defendants in the Midas case, former Minister of Energy Herman Halushchenko.
According to the investigation, in early June, the participants in the scheme gained de facto control over “Sense Bank” and began using it to launder money. They were informed of suspicions of money laundering.
Among the defendants are the former chairmen of the supervisory board and management board of the state-owned “Sense Bank” Mykola Hladyshenko and Oleksiy Stupak, and the head of the department of the same bank Lyudmila Snihur. And also:
- former Deputy Head of the Presidentʼs Office Iryna Mudra;
- former MP Maksym Mykytas and people associated with him: Valentyn Yelizarov, Yehor Merkulov, Oleksandr Ostapenko and Mykyta Tarkovsky;
- current MP 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.
At the same time, on August 19, “Sense Bank” was searched, and the government suspended the chairman of the supervisory board Hladyshenko. At that time, the chairman of the National Bank Andriy Pyshny demanded not to suspend, but to dismiss Hladyshenko, and also to check the suitability of the entire board.
Already on August 21, NBU began inspections of “Sense Bank”.
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