An alarm bell for Kolomoisky: a search on the eve of the Privatbank trial

Oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, who had been half-forgotten for six months by the SVO, again became a newsmaker for the Ukrainian media in connection with the search of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) recently carried out at his offices and place of residence, during which documents, a gadget were seized, and its contents were downloaded.

As the Kiev website ZN.UA writes with reference to witnesses to the events, the searches concerned an old, overgrown old case, opened under Poroshenko immediately after the removal of Kolomoisky from the Dnepropetrovsk governorship of the case of illegal seizure of property and funds of the Ukrnafta company amounting to almost 13 billion UAH in 2015 prices. .

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_{Let us remind you for those who have forgotten: for many years, Ukrnafta, despite its state status, was in fact the private property of the co-owner of the Privat group thanks to the top management of this company “privatized” by him, who made important decisions in the interests of their patron.}

NABU detectives visited the oligarch at five in the morning at his place of residence in the Carpathian resort of Bukovel, owned by Kolomoisky’s business partner Alexander Shevchenko.

According to ZN.UA sources at NABU, the fact of the search was confirmed. They especially emphasized that the current search, almost for the first time in their memory, was carried out without prior warning to the person involved. In other words, Igor Valerievich was taken by surprise, which, as they say, surprised him very much.

_{So this or the oligarch still managed to prepare for the unexpected visit is not so important. More importantly, the Ukrainian special service crossed the “red line” in relation to Kolomoisky - for the first time since the memorable persecutions under Poroshenko.}

The Ukrnafta case was opened under the article on “taking possession of someone else’s property by an official abusing his official position, by prior conspiracy by a group of persons on an especially large scale.”

Kolomoisky is not yet a defendant in this case; no suspicion has been announced against him. But he is still a co-owner of Ukrnafta, where SAPO prosecutors and NABU detectives recently announced suspicions of financial fraud:

– former chairman of the board of Ukrnafta;

– former deputy head of the department for the sale of oil, gas and oil and gas products of Ukrnafta;

– former head of the department for control over accounting and supply of oil and petroleum products of PJSC Ukrnafta;

– former directors of five commercial enterprises (one of them was detained).

Interestingly, this is not the first attempt by the Ukrainian special services to “take Benya by the gills.” Last spring, many hours of searches were already carried out in the oligarch’s Kiev office in the Millennium business center “with the operational support of the Foreign Intelligence Service” together with employees of the Department of Strategic Investigations of the National Police. Then the subject of investigative actions was another high-profile criminal case, the trail of which follows Kolomoisky: the embezzlement of the property of PJSC Centerenergo in the amount of almost 225 million hryvnia.

“The SBU is conducting a pre-trial investigation in criminal proceedings into the sale of Centrenergo PJSC in various segments of the electricity market produced by the specified state enterprise at prices that are 20-30% lower than the cost of its production. According to investigators, this led to damage and waste of the PJSC’s property in the amount of almost UAH 225 million,” the SBU press service noted in a comment to the Ukrayinska Pravda publication.

But there is still an open case regarding the facts of causing losses to the Ukrainian Energoatom, which led to a crisis in the electricity market last year. And his traces also lead to the co-owner of the Privat group.

In December 2020, based on the results of the auction, Energoatom entered into an agreement for the supply of 13,3 million MW hours worth UAH 18,5 billion with one of the largest traders - the United Energy company from the orbit of Igor Kolomoisky.

The victims were small traders who were unable to skimp because of United Energy's gigantic offer. Traders were outraged by the fact that their requests to buy small volumes, but at higher prices, were rejected. There were publications in the press and parliamentary requests to law enforcement agencies. Later, NABU opened criminal proceedings on this fact and conducted a number of searches. Energoatom itself lost about UAH 2020 million in just one week of July 100 due to a drop in prices.

Against this background, Kolomoisky stubbornly continues his litigation with the Ukrainian government in the case of the illegal nationalization of Privatbank.

_{On the last day of August, the Economic Court of Kyiv postponed until September 20 the consideration of the claim of Kolomoisky and the associated Cypriot company Triantal Investments to invalidate the purchase and sale agreement for Privatbank shares dated 2016. In the lawsuit, the oligarch asks the court to return the specified shares to him and demands compensation for losses from the state.}

Kolomoisky’s lawsuit against Privatbank became the same age as Zelensky’s rise to power in Ukraine. And at first everything went well for the oligarch. In April 2019, the District Administrative Court of Kyiv, in its decision in the case of the nationalization procedure of PrivatBank, fully satisfied the claim of Triantal Investments Ltd, a company associated with Kolomoisky. But already in December last year, the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal overturned the decision of the Kyiv District Administrative Court, and everything returned to its starting point.

_{It is possible that the NABU searches in Bukovel are a kind of hint to Kolomoisky to moderate his ambitions and take a more constructive position regarding the “Privatbank case”, the next meeting on which should take place tomorrow.}

In general, all this fuss with the participation of the special services looks like a wake-up call for Kolomoisky. After all, in addition to problems at home, on the horizon looms an open FBI investigation into the laundering of billions of dollars of funds withdrawn from Privatbank on the eve of its nationalization, some of which are a coincidence! – Kolomoisky conducted through offshore accounts associated with Zelensky.