Ukraine’s biggest bank has accused two former owners of “fraud on an epic scale” covered up by “money laundering on a vast scale” at a High Court trial in London.
JSC Commercial Bank Privatbank says former owners Igor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Bogolyubov of misappropriated more than £1.5 billion (nearly two billion US dollars).
A judge began overseeing a trial – due to last several months – on Monday.
Mr Kolomoisky and Mr Bogolyubov are fighting the case.
The trial was due to start a year ago but lawyers representing Mr Kolomoisky and Mr Bogolyubov persuaded Mr Justice Trower that it should be delayed because of the war in Ukraine.
Andrew Hunter KC, who is representing Privatbank, told Mr Justice Trower on Monday that “the fraud” contributed to the failure of the bank in 2016.
“This case concerns fraud on an epic scale, covered up by money laundering on a vast scale perpetrated against the bank in 2013-14 by its former owners, Igor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Bogolyubov,” he said in a written case outline.
“The fraud contributed to the failure of the bank in 2016 and its nationalisation in December of that year, following which an investigation led the bank – now under new ownership and management – to discover what had happened.
“That fraud – referred to in these proceedings as the ‘misappropriation’ – concerned the extraction of more than 1.9 billion US dollars from the bank, using a complex network of vehicles.”
He said the bank was the largest in Ukraine.
Mr Hunter added: “There is a wealth of evidence to establish the misappropriation, and the defendants’ involvement in it.”
