Justice Minister Says Ukraine Not Afraid To Press Charges Against Oligarchs

(MENAFN- UkrinForm) Due to the change of Political realities and amid the ongoing war with Russia, the Ukrainian authorities feel newly empowered to prosecute oligarchs for their wrongdoings.

This was stated by Justice Minister Denys Maliuska, who spoke in an interview with Reuters , Ukrinform reports.

"Everyone was afraid of (the) consequences of indicting oligarchs, but this is no longer the case," he said.

According to the agency, Ukraine has long tried to get rid of the influence of its shadow tycoons, who have exploited huge industrial resources accumulated after the collapse of the Soviet Union to gain political influence and power. But Russia's invasion weakened their impact by destroying industrial assets in the east and south of Ukraine.

The law passed in 2021, aimed at limiting the political and economic influence of oligarchs, also sent a clear signal, stressed Masuska, and now they have become "quite accessible" to the authorities.

"It's easier to get access to documents, to witnesses, to case files, which was impossible even a couple of years ago for law enforcement agencies to achieve," he said.

Anti-corruption bodies have initiated cases against current and former officials, while the authorities also hope to reform the judicial system and strengthen the rule of law, according to the report.

At the same time, the EU recommended that Ukraine postpone the implementation of legislation in 2021, which places in a register those designated by the NSDC as oligarchs, because of the potential risks of it being "misused for political purposes".

Maliuska stressed that Ukraine would follow the EU recommendations but that law enforcement agencies in the meantime would continue the investigations.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, charges were pressed against former beneficial owner of Privatbank, Ihor Kolomoisky, under two articles of the Criminal Code, including fraud and money laundering.

On September 2, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv ruled to remand Kolomoisky in custody
to appoint the Kolomoisky preventive measure in the form of detention until October 31, setting a UAH 509,960,000 bails. Kolomoisky remains in the SBU pre-trial detention center.

The Bureau of Economic Security and the SBU have charged the mogul for the alleged legalization in 2013-2020 of more than half a billion hryvnias by withdrawing them abroad exploiting the infrastructure of banking under control of banking institutions.

According to law enforcement, the company's credit obligations were created immediately before the businessman, and all further debt payments came to his personal account.

Already on September 15, the BES pressed more charges against Kolomoisky, over the forgery of money transfer, conspiracy to seize property in particularly large amounts, as well as the acquisition and disposal of property in respect of which factual circumstances testify to its criminal nature.

The pre-trial investigation found that Kolomoisky had set up and led an organization, which included the head of PrivatBank's Kyiv branch and other managers.

According to law enforcement, the organization developed a plan aimed at seizing the bank's funds, which was to artificially create the visibility of cash deposit on behalf of Kolomoisky to the head branch and reporting transportation of non-existent cash. Such non-existent cash deposits on behalf of Kolomoisky took place from March 26, 2013 to February 18, 2014, totaling UAH 5 billion 878 million.

On September 15, the Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv amended the size of bail to UAH 3 billion 891 million.

On September 25, the Kyiv Court of Appeal upheld the decision to remand Kolomoisky in custody.

In October, the Court of Appeal upheld the ruling on the bail size.

Photo: gov

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