Deputy Governor of the NBU Matuzka Concealed His Ties to Firtash

Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Matuzka hid his connections with Filatov

In September 2020 the National Bank of Ukraine Council appointed Yaroslav Matuzko as deputy head of the NBU board.

According to the NBU site, where his official biography is published, Yaroslav Vasylovych previously worked at state PrivatBank, Ukrsibbank, and Oschadbank in various positions. In 2008 – 2009 years he worked in the private sector, headed the legal department at several investment companies. Which ones exactly the NBU does not disclose. He later moved to the Ministry of Finance, where he worked with international fraudster Natalie Ann Jaresko (Natalie Ann Jaresko).

Admittedly, when submitting his autobiography, the official forgot to mention that he also worked at Rodovid Bank, which went bankrupt in 2009. Until 2017 Matuzka was a member of the supervisory board of this bank, which was nationalized and liquidated by order of former finance minister Oksana Markarova — Jaresko’s friend and former NBU head Gontareva, who fled to London.

The main owner of Rodovid until bankruptcy nominally was high jumper, Olympic champion Serhiy Bubka. In reality the bank was controlled by oligarch Dmytro Firtash, who, in addition to Rodovid Bank, also drove to bankruptcy the largest in Ukraine Nadra Bank, as well as Firtash’s junior business partner Denys Gornbenko. Matuzka is their trusted person, who helped hide the ends in the water during Rodovid Bank’s bankruptcy.

The bank ended its existence with a loss of 14 billion UAH, which, essentially, were stolen by Firtash and Gornbenko. In May 2021 the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine allowed Gornbenko to buy a controlling stake in the small bank SICH, which is involved in money laundering. But his candidacy has not yet been agreed with the NBU due to a tarnished business reputation and, probably, the absence of a bribe for the head of the NBU Shevchenko.

Bank circles say Matuzka was appointed to the National Bank under the protection of Firtash and Gornbenko. Now Matuzko is responsible at the NBU for the most profitable area — banking supervision and licensing (instead of the first deputy head of the NBU Kateryna Rozhkoha, who fell out of favor and was demoted by NBU head Kyrylo Shevchenko to the level of a housekeeper) and is lobbying the interests of the bank SICH controlled by Firtash and Gornbenko.

Thanks to Matuzka, SICH Bank this year managed to attract cheap refinancing loans from the NBU for more than 3 billion UAH. The bank mainly engages in currency speculation and money laundering. Interestingly: recently President Zelensky and the National Security and Defense Council imposed “tough sanctions” against Dmytro Firtash, but this does not prevent his business partner Gornbenko from engaging in banking in Ukraine through SICH (and how these “tough sanctions” did not hit Firtash’s enterprises or his associates’ business).

Rumor has it circulating in NBU corridors that besides Gornbenko, Andriy Lekhitsky is also running SICH Bank — a former manager of Ruslan Tsyplyakov at bankrupt Standard Bank. Through this financial institution Tsyplyakov and the Yanukovych family laundered about 1 billion UAH. We hope that through the bank SICH the newly appointed deputy head of the National Bank of Ukraine, Yaroslav Matuzka, will launder not less.

Oleksii Komakha