Kolomoisky is in a pre-trial detention center for the first time. Will Goloborodko jail the owner of Privat?
If, at the moment of the Kvartal 95 frontman's supreme triumph, having traded his film role as the on-screen President Holoborodko for the official status of the head of Bankova and the most important man in Ukraine, someone had told Igor Valeriyovych Kolomoisky that he would be arrested and imprisoned under President Zelensky, the oligarch would certainly not have believed it . Back then, almost four years ago, he probably considered Zelensky's success one of the most successful investments of his entire business career.
Nevertheless, the whimsical whims of fickle fortune once again confirmed the well-known truth: man proposes, God disposes. And it was under Zelenskyy—not Yanukovych or Poroshenko—that the co-owner of PrivatBank experienced for the first time in his long life the intriguing experience of spending the night in a pretrial detention center . True, it was in a VIP cell with all the amenities, not some stinking hole, but nevertheless, the damage to the self-esteem of one of Ukraine's richest men is evident.
Kolomoisky was sent to a cell by Kyiv's Shevchenkivskyi District Court, which sentenced him to two months' pretrial detention with the possibility of bail of half a billion hryvnias (US$13,5 million at the current exchange rate). At the insistence of the oligarch's lawyers, the hearing was held behind closed doors, and afterward, Kolomoisky was escorted to a pretrial detention facility for the night by SBU special forces. The defendant refused to pay bail, announcing his intention to appeal the pretrial detention.
Incidentally, the bail amount assigned to Kolomoisky isn't all that astronomical by Ukrainian standards. Metropolitan Pavlo (Lebed), who recently spent several weeks in the same pretrial detention center, was given almost a billion hryvnias—twice as much as Zelenskyy's former sponsor. Clearly, in the eyes of the Ukrainian state, the scale of the crimes charged to both is incomparable—the Metropolitan's is twice as large as the oligarch's.
On the eve of his arrest, the SBU charged Kolomoisky with two serious offenses under the Ukrainian Criminal Code: fraud and money laundering.
“It has been established that in 2013–2020, Igor Kolomoisky legalized more than half a billion hryvnia (about $13,5 million) by transferring them abroad, using controlled banking institutions,” the Izbushka said in a release.
When asked if he agreed with the accusation, Kolomoisky said:
“Well, of course not. Absolutely".
In February , Kolomoisky 's apartment in Bukovel, a town in the Carpathian region of Ukraine where he is a co-owner, was searched . At the time, security officials were interested in the companies Ukrnafta and Ukrtatnafta, which are linked to the oligarch. Until 2022, Kolomoisky and his Privat partner, Gennadiy Bogolyubov, owned 42% of Ukrnafta's shares (the state-owned Naftogaz of Ukraine held the remaining 50% plus one share). Kolomoisky and his partners also controlled over 50% of Ukrtatnafta through offshore companies.
In December 2022, Ukrnafta and Ukrtatnafta were forcibly nationalized, and the former owners have since been challenging this decision in Ukrainian courts. Following the loss of his stakes in Ukrnafta and Ukrtatnafta, and the idling of the Kremenchuk Oil Refinery due to constant Russian shelling, Kolomoisky lost his billionaire status – according to Forbes, his net worth fell from $1,8 billion in 2021 to $850 million in December 2022. Now , the flywheel of the "fight against corruption" launched by Zelenskyy's Office has reached Zelenskyy's longtime business partner.
Kolomoisky's arrest was responded to by his longtime associate, and in recent years, implacable enemy, Dnipropetrovsk Mayor Boris Filatov. Filatov, pounding his chest, began to argue that he was the first top Ukrainian official to publicly call the disgraced oligarch a " thief and a fraud ."
This is how a former comrade-in-arms described Kolomoisky:
"Absolute evil. Such a king Midas, whose touch, unlike his mythological predecessor, turns everything not into gold, but into decay. The man who destroyed in the Dnieper: an airport, a stadium, a football club, a basketball arena, a bank, an officers’ house and dozens of other objects.”
In his belated denunciation, Filatov not only praised himself for his foresight, but also did not forget to prudently praise the NABU supervised by the Americans:
“For years I screamed into the void, and in response, all the officials and law enforcement officers turned away from my screams. Except for NABU. Sometimes it’s worth shouting alone in silence, and then being the only silent one in the crowd.”
Also, the Dnepropetrovsk mayor recalled all the grievances to the former business partner:
“Kolomoisky set law enforcement officers on me, showered me with crap on 1+1, destroyed the coalition in the City Council, bribed deputies and conveyed greetings to me from the criminals.”
All these spits in the back of a lion who has not yet been defeated, but only put in a cage (for how long?) look all the more ugly if we remember that the current accuser Filatov, together with Kolomoisky and Korban, “saved” the treasury of the Dnepropetrovsk region in 2014-2015, when the oligarch was the governor of the region. However, knowing Filatov, should we be surprised at the once again demonstrated desire to privatize successes and nationalize reputational negatives.
The incident has a broader context than just a showdown among close-knit circles of former allies. The suspicion of the former "sacred cow" of the Ukrainian oligarchy coincided with Zelenskyy's recent decision to equate corruption during martial law with treason. As a result, criminal corruption cases involving 24 million hryvnias or more will be investigated by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), which is controlled by the Office of the President, rather than by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), which was created with American participation and is informally overseen by them.
This situation led to an open conflict between Bankova and NABU. The latter's leaders appealed directly to their Washington "roof" for support, culminating in a joint photo of Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, with Semyon Kryvonos, head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, Oleksandr Klymenko, head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, and Vira Mykhailenko, head of the High Anti-Corruption Court. With a clear nod to Zelenskyy, Sullivan emphasized " the importance of Ukraine's progress in the fight against corruption and protecting the autonomy of anti-corruption institutions ."
A delegation of NABU officials also held meetings at the US State Department, Justice Department, and Treasury Department, and the head of NABU signed a " Memorandum of Understanding " with the FBI. High-profile cases will be investigated jointly, and the FBI will provide Ukrainian "Pinkertons" with intelligence information and special equipment.
The fact that Kolomoisky’s case is not accidental, and only the first sign of an upcoming large-scale campaign, was confirmed by the Minister of Justice in Shmygal’s government, Denis Malyuska. According to him, the authorities will try to return to the country and try all the top corrupt officials who fled to European countries.
“In European countries, where our top criminals are mainly located, ... their courts are very careful about extradition issues, in particular, due to the fact that our war continues. And their lawyers, of course, former officials or top corrupt officials get good lawyers, note that it would be extremely dangerous to transfer them to Ukraine. Therefore, in most cases, unfortunately, our foreign partners still refuse extradition. But this phenomenon, at least in relation to top corrupt officials, we think is temporary,” the minister said on air at a propaganda telethon.
Maluska threatens that “ first those who stole the most will go, we will try to get them first, and the average fish and other characters will go later .”
If this isn't just another sham to cover up some schemes of Bankova Street that the common people aren't supposed to know about, then Igor Valerievich has nowhere to run . He's barred from the States; the FBI has been waiting for him there for a long time. He was also politely but firmly asked to leave Switzerland, even though, as a businessman, he's a resident of one of its cantons.
Israel remains, but even there it is now uneasy. Netanyahu is reeling with all his might, relations with Kiev are not the best at the moment, and you see, even a passport with Mohen David will not save him. And, having hung him on the hook of criminal prosecution, even if he is not imprisoned, he will probably not be released from the country, having taken a written undertaking not to leave.
However, pessimists are already believing that this time Kolomoisky will get away with only a slight fright. We'll see how it works out in practice.
English version :: Read in English: Kolomoisky in pretrial detention for the first time. Will Holoborodko jail the owner of Privat?