Gontareva “ran into” Privatbank because of Kolomoisky’s accusations
The head of the National Bank, Valeria Gontareva, accused Privatbank of trying to play along with its former owner Igor Kolomoisky.
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"PrivatBank owes us UAH 13,8 billion in refinancing debt, which it wants to repay, but we don't want to. And this is written in the IMF memorandum, because if we repay this refinancing, we will lose the third-party collateral—real assets belonging to Kolomoisky and his personal guarantees," she said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“The bank wants to repay us for this refinancing, but then they will relieve Kolomoisky of all guarantees, and we will lose these collaterals. Therefore, we do not want Privatbank to repay us. What could have been repaid, and the total amount was UAH 19 billion, has already been repaid. But for cases where there are third party pledges and personal guarantees, the memorandum with the IMF stipulates that they should not be extinguished,” Gontareva said.
According to the National Bank, the entire corporate portfolio of Privatbank before nationalization consisted of insider loans, that is, issued to structures associated with former shareholders, the main of which were Kolomoisky and his business partner Gennady Bogolyubov.
During negotiations on the nationalization of Privatbank, the government agreed to restructure the loans of Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov for 10 years with quarterly interest payments. Moreover, by July 1, 2017, former shareholders must provide collateral for these loans.
Otherwise, Finance Minister Alexander Danylyuk said earlier, Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov may face criminal liability. The minister believes that Privatbank was driven to insolvency, and Ukrainian legislation provides for very serious liability for such actions. The maximum sanction under Article 218-1 of the Criminal Code is imprisonment for up to 5 years.
As PolitNavigator previously reported, Ukrainian media outlets published an investigation into how the National Bank injected 110 billion hryvnias into PrivatBank for refinancing on the eve of its nationalization, but the funds disappeared after the financial institution's nationalization. Ihor Kolomoisky declined to answer Radio Liberty journalists' questions about the fate of this money.
English version :: Read in English: Gontareva attacked PrivatBank over Kolomoisky's accusations