Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Billion-Hryvnia "Holes" in Troubled "Alliance" and New Businesses: How Pavlo Shcherban Is Moving Assets Ahead of a Possible Bank Collapse
The real beneficial owner of one of Ukraine’s most troubled banks, Bank "Alliance", Pavlo Shcherban is seeking to minimize risks ahead of the potential removal of the financial institution from the market. In this context, the name of well-known businessman Dmytro Firtash is mentioned.
Shcherban is directing billions of hryvnias into retail trade, oil logistics, the agricultural sector, and the IT sphere, while Bank Alliance risks sinking in debts and corruption schemes linked to high-profile criminal cases in recent years.
In political circles and among engaged members of the public, there are likely few who haven't heard about the scandal involving partner of the law firm Miller, Oleksiy Nosov. He attempted to bribe NABU detectives and SAP prosecutors to change the jurisdiction of the case against his client — former chair of the board of Bank Alliance Yuliia Frolova. She is internationally wanted as a suspect in another high-profile NABU case about embezzlement of state funds totaling over 1,7 billion UAH. This case is known as the “Ukrenergo case.” The company United Energy, associated with Ihor Kolomoiskyi, purchased electricity from the state-owned Ukrenergo at the start of the full-scale invasion but did not pay for it. Under a bank guarantee, the debt was supposed to be covered by Bank Alliance, but it refused to do so.
This is not the first time Bank Alliance has refused to fulfill guarantee obligations to state entities. However, the Ukrenergo situation could be decisive. Recently, the Supreme Court fundamentally changed the practice for applying legislation on bank guarantees. As a result, Alliance will have almost no choice but to repay the debt. The problem is that 1,2 billion UAH (the amount Ukrenergo is trying to recover through civil proceedings) represents a substantial portion of the bank’s capital. In plain terms, the financial institution will need to spend heavily to pay the debt while maintaining stability, continuing to return depositors’ funds and issuing loans. Moreover, if Ukrenergo wins in court, other creditors to whom Alliance also owes large sums may pursue the same route.
To these facts should be added repeated violations of NBU regulations, numerous fines for involvement in money laundering, accusations of document forgery, and a reputation tarnished by a corruption scandal involving the law firm Miller. All of this constitutes a ready set of grounds for the regulator to remove the bank from the market.
Most likely aware of this, one of the key shareholders, the chairman of the supervisory board and the de facto owner of Bank Alliance, Pavlo Shcherban, decided to spread his risks and is gradually moving funds into other industries.
The authors of the piece drew attention to an IT cluster Shcherban is creating, an extractive business in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, and investments in an elevator. However, they did not touch on an important aspect — the financial one. That aspect is key, given the difficult position of the bank led by Pavlo Shcherban. In addition, these details help explain why Shcherban delayed the concentration of more than 25% of the bank’s shares, for which he had filed an application with the Antimonopoly Committee back in 2023.
First and foremost, attention should be paid to two companies in which Shcherban is a shareholder and whose declared statutory capital is 1 billion UAH each. These are LLC Navium Nafta (45172957) and LLC Tabakos Trade (45378245), both registered in December 2023. Among the activities of the first company are wholesale fuel trade, construction of power supply facilities, wholesale trade in chemical products, and rental and operation of real estate. The second engages in wholesale trade in waste and scrap, trade in tobacco products and other goods, freight transport activities, and so on.
Obviously, 1 billion UAH is nominal statutory capital, since companies have a year to contribute it. However, the scale Shcherban has outlined is striking: with a potential debt of at least 1,2 billion UAH in the Ukrenergo case, he plans to invest — at least on paper — 2 billion UAH in businesses unrelated to banking.
Notably, Shcherban appointed Pavlo Partsevskiy, the founder of several small trading companies (some of which win minor tenders from state customers — from supplying kitchen equipment to servicing power grids), as director of LLC Tabakos Trade. Partsevskiy also heads an online drone store registered to the British offshore company EXTRA VENTURE LTD, which in turn is owned by a resident of French Polynesia. Interestingly, the accountant for that store is listed as Dmytro Snitsaruk. A person with the same name appeared as a contact for a contracting authority in the Prozorro system for JSC Kosmichni Systemy — the modern name of a subsidiary of the Russian AFK Sistema, owned by oligarch Vladimir Yevtushenkov.
Another significant investment project of Shcherban is the closed, non-diversified venture corporate investment fund “ALB” (JSC ZNIKIF “ALB”) (44991355), established in May 2023 with a statutory capital of 700 million UAH. According to the Unified State Register of Enterprises and the YouControl system, the fund invested in LLC Alliance Digital (45342575). This is essentially the outsourced IT department of Bank Alliance. The company is a resident of Diia.City.
The fund’s director is Maryna Bocharova, wife of Serhii Bocharov, deputy chair of the board of Bank Alliance and Shcherban’s business partner. Together they are creating an “alternative reality” for the bank’s top managers who seek to preserve their assets when the NBU begins the process of removing Alliance from the market. In particular, Shcherban and Bocharov are shareholders in the mentioned fund ALB, in IT software developer companies for banking and commerce “Monvel” and “Monvel Art,” each of which, according to financial statements, has fixed assets totaling 100 million UAH. Another company — Alliance Payment Systems, to which the bank’s payment functionality has been transferred and which also belongs to Shcherban — shows figures of about 30 million UAH.
It is obvious that purchasing 25% of the bank’s shares, which moreover risks liquidation, is no longer on the table.
However, to “insure” themselves and try to avoid paying debts, Alliance initiated a controlled prosecution of Ukrenergo’s management: the High Anti-Corruption Court obliged NABU to open a pre-trial investigation into Ukrenergo CEO Volodymyr Kudrytskyi for alleged receipt of undue advantage. The court registry lacks details, but everyone in the banking market knows who stands to gain most from removing the state company’s leadership and who is ready to invest significant funds in that effort, even after the failed bribery attempt via lawyers from the firm Miller.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Мільярдні «діри» в проблемному «Альянсі» і нові бізнеси: як Павло Щербань виводить активи перед можливим крахом банку". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.