Did he embezzle 233 million?
Former Zelensky supporter Kolomoisky indicted
September 7, 2023, 9:37 p.m
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Kolomoiskyj has had a dubious reputation for years. President Zelensky also keeps his distance from him, even though the Ukrainian oligarch’s media empire used to support his career. Now Kolomoiskyj is in the dock because he is said to have embezzled hundreds of millions of euros.
After his arrest a few days ago, the Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoiskyj was charged with suspected fraud. Investigators informed President Volodymyr Zelensky’s former supporter that he was suspected of embezzling more than 9.2 billion hryvnia (233 million euros) in bank funds, prosecutors said.
Without naming Kolomoiskyj, the prosecutor’s office referred in its letter to the “former head of the Dnipro region” and beneficiary of PrivatBank at the time of the crime in 2015. The indictment had been sent to the court, it said. Accordingly, in addition to Kolomoiskyj, five other suspects have to answer in court in the case.
Kolomoiskyj was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of fraud and money laundering. According to previous investigations, between January and March 2015, he “developed a plan to seize funds” from PrivatBank, Ukraine’s largest bank. The billionaire was a co-owner of the banking group before PrivatBank was nationalized in 2016. The Ukrainian central bank had previously accused him of siphoning $5.5 billion (5.1 billion euros) from PrivatBank before nationalization.
Kolomoiskyj has had a dubious reputation for years. He is on a US sanctions list and is not allowed to enter the USA because he is accused of corruption and anti-democratic efforts. The billionaire was one of Ukraine’s richest men before the Russian invasion of the country, with interests in numerous economic sectors, including the media, aviation and energy sectors.
Zelensky was elected in 2019 with the help of Kolomoisky’s media empire. However, the president has since tried to distance himself from his former ally. At the time, the entrepreneur and billionaire owned the television station in which Zelenskyj appeared as a comedian and became known.
Since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression, the leadership in Kiev has been trying to take more consistent action against corruption and bribery in the country – also with a view to joining the EU. The European Union has made progress in this area a condition of Ukraine’s EU accession. Recently, several corruption scandals were uncovered in Ukraine.