Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
FGVO asks the Supreme Court to unblock lawsuit against Rozhkova for 1,5 billion UAH
27.01.2021 The Supreme Court opened cassation proceedings on the cassation appeal of the Deposit Guarantee Fund against the ruling of the Commercial Court of Kyiv dated 14.09.2020 and the decision of the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal dated 08.12.2020 (in case No.910/12955/20), by which the Fund’s lawsuit against former members of the management board and supervisory board of Platinum Bank for joint recovery of 1,48 billion UAH was returned to the Fund.
Among the defendants in this case are, among others, Kateryna Rozhkova (former acting head of the management board of Platinum Bank, currently first deputy governor of the NBU), Kostyantyn Smolskyi (former head of the management board of Platinum Bank), Hryhoriy Hurtovyi (former head of the supervisory board), and other individuals.
26.02.2021 The Supreme Court suspended consideration of this case until the conclusion of the review by the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court of case No.910/11027/18, within which 13.05.2019 the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal refused to satisfy the Fund’s appeal and left unchanged the decision of the Commercial Court of Kyiv dated 20.12.2018, by which the Fund was denied relief on its claim against related parties of Ukopospilka bank for recovery of 76,93 million UAH of caused damage (among the defendants were former members of the bank’s management board and supervisory board).
According to court materials, earlier the Deposit Guarantee Fund stated that during the liquidation of Platinum Bank it identified facts of decisions made by the bank’s officials “on the basis of which subsequently a number of knowingly loss-making active operations were carried out, namely the extension of final deadlines for repayment of loan funds” (quote).
When returning the Fund’s statement of claim, the court of first instance noted that the plaintiff’s stated claims “are not connected with each other by the grounds of their occurrence and are not connected by the submitted evidence, therefore they cannot be considered homogeneous,” and that the statement of claim “lacks justification regarding the necessity of considering the claims arising from different grounds of liability” (quote).
The appellate court agreed with the conclusion of the court of first instance, noting that “the criteria of connection between the borrowers themselves and the similarity of the vast majority of collaterals for these loans, which the plaintiff cites to justify joining the claims in one lawsuit, are not sufficient for applying the rules on joining claims within the meaning of Article 173 of the CPC of Ukraine” (quote).
As Finbalance wrote, 08.07.2020 for the same reasons the Commercial Court of Kyiv returned another similar lawsuit of the Fund against former officials of Platinum Bank (including Kateryna Rozhkova) for 1,48 billion UAH.
The Fund motivated its claim by stating that the defendants, who were officials of Platinum Bank, “as a result of improper performance of their official duties, which manifested in making unfounded decisions” regarding lending to a number of companies (including PP “Logistik Trans”, LLC “Kodos Invest”, LLC “Osher”, LLC “Stratagem-Invest”, LLC “Titan-Pivden”, LLC “FC Real Invest”), as well as “carrying out a number of knowingly loss-making active operations, namely extending the final deadlines for repayment of loan funds (which were not returned to the bank), postponing interest payment deadlines with a reduction of the interest rate for use of loan funds, on the monetary obligations of the borrowers, legal entities, for significant amounts secured by clearly illiquid collateral in the form of property rights under supply contracts, pledge of securities and collateral whose value could not fully cover the monetary obligations of the borrowers, which directly contradicted the interests of PJSC ‘Platinum Bank’ and its creditors” (quote), caused damage to Platinum Bank in the amount of 1,48 billion UAH, which consists of amounts of unrepaid and written-off loan funds.
According to the Fund’s conclusions, such actions led to the bank’s lack of funds to meet its obligations to depositors and creditors, violation of NBU regulations, classification of Platinum Bank as insolvent, and harm to the bank, its depositors and other creditors, including the Deposit Guarantee Fund.
04.08.2020 The Pecherskyi District Court refused to grant the liquidator of Platinum Bank’s petition to recognize it as a victim in criminal proceeding No.12015100000000334 concerning suspicious operations of Platinum Bank (including during the period when the current first deputy governor of the NBU Kateryna Rozhkova served on its management board).
According to court materials, within the mentioned criminal proceeding police investigators established that “officials of PJSC ‘Platinum Bank’ embezzled and appropriated another’s property by abusing their official position, entering into the period from December 2013 to May 2014 into loan agreements with fictitious enterprises LLC ‘Titan-Pivden’, LLC ‘Kodos Invest’, PP ‘Logistik Trans’, LLC ‘Stratagem-Invest’, LLC ‘Osher’, LLC ‘FC Real-Invest’ and LLC ‘FC Businessfinance’, the officials of which are controlled by persons related to this bank, without the intention of these business entities to fulfill their obligations under the loan agreements, causing damage to the bank in especially large amounts totaling over 1,1 billion UAH, and legalization of proceeds obtained by criminal means” (quote).
The NBU recognized Platinum Bank as insolvent in January 2017, and in February of the same year the institution was sent to liquidation.
According to the Deposit Guarantee Fund, the volume of creditors’ claims against Platinum Bank is 7,04 billion UAH, the estimated value of the liquidation estate is 1,94 billion UAH, and the amount of the bank’s asset shortfall to satisfy creditors’ claims is 5,1 billion UAH.
On 01.01.2021 depositors of Platinum Bank were paid compensations within the guaranteed amount totaling 4,82 billion UAH (98,7% of planned payments).
In the summer of 2017 Kateryna Rozhkova in an interview for Finbalance commented on the above criminal proceeding and the Deposit Guarantee Fund’s information that 95,5% of the corporate loan portfolio at Platinum Bank were insider loans as follows:
“Lending to enterprises was carried out in foreign currency and on market terms. However, due to the deterioration of the financial and economic situation in Ukraine and the rise in the foreign currency exchange rate, the bank restructured enterprises’ debt by extending repayment deadlines and reducing the interest rate.”
“In May 2015 the NBU changed approaches to determining related parties of a bank, as a result of which certain borrowers were recognized as related parties of Platinum Bank in June 2015. The list of related parties of the bank was subsequently adjusted and agreed with the National Bank of Ukraine.”
“Regarding the investigation — I cannot comment.”
About the state enterprise UkrAerorukh’s attempt to recover 400 million UAH lost due to Platinum Bank’s bankruptcy — here.
Context
As Finbalance wrote, 01.02.2021 the Commercial Court of Kyiv refused to satisfy the Deposit Guarantee Fund’s claim against former managers of Trust bank (in case No.910/9851/20) for compensation of damage in the amount of 395 million UAH, which, according to the Fund’s estimates, was caused by the “improper performance by the defendants of their employment duties” — engaging in “risky activities contrary to the interests of Trust bank and its creditors” (quote).
11.01.2021 The Northern Commercial Court of Appeal refused to satisfy the Deposit Guarantee Fund’s appellate complaint and left unchanged the ruling of the Commercial Court of Kyiv dated 14.08.2020 in case No.903/515/20, by which the Fund’s statement of claim against 9 individuals for recovery of 123,3 million UAH of damage, which the Fund believes was inflicted on Zakhidinkombank, was returned to the Fund due to violation of rules on joining claims.
16.10.2020 The Supreme Court refused to satisfy the Deposit Guarantee Fund’s cassation appeal and left unchanged the ruling of the Commercial Court of Kyiv dated 16.09.2019 and the decision of the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal dated 27.11.2019 (in case No.910/7186/19), by which the application of former top managers of the bankrupt Delta Bank was granted and the Fund’s claim against them for compensation of damage in the amount of 19,83 billion UAH was left without consideration.
24.09.2020 The Commercial Court of Kyiv refused to satisfy the Deposit Guarantee Fund’s claim against former members of the management board, supervisory board, and credit committee of Daniel bank (which was declared insolvent and sent to liquidation in 2014) for recovery of 1,13 billion UAH (case No.910/12930/18).
10.06.2020 The Northern Commercial Court of Appeal refused to satisfy the Fund’s appellate complaint and left unchanged the decision of the Commercial Court of Kyiv dated 16.01.2020 (in case No.910/15260/18), by which the Fund was denied relief on its claim against former members of the supervisory board, management board, and credit committee of the bankrupt Standard bank for recovery of 764 million UAH of damage, which, according to the Fund’s estimates, was caused by the shortage of the bank’s assets to cover creditors’ claims and by the wrongful actions of the defendants.
19.02.2020 The Northern Commercial Court of Appeal refused to satisfy the Fund’s appellate complaint and left unchanged the decision of the Commercial Court of Kyiv dated 13.03.2019 (in case No.910/12803/18), by which the Fund was denied relief on its claim against former officials of Tavryka bank for joint recovery of 2,68 billion UAH of caused damage.
24.10.2019 The Kharkiv Regional Commercial Court refused to satisfy the Deposit Guarantee Fund’s claim against former top managers of Zoloti Vorota bank for joint recovery of caused damage in the amount of 563,2 million UAH (case No.922/2860/18).
18.09.2019 The Northern Commercial Court of Appeal refused to satisfy the Fund’s appellate complaint and left unchanged the decision of the Commercial Court of Kyiv dated 28.02.2019 (in case No.910/11371/18), by which the Fund was denied relief on its claim against former officials of Legbank for compensation of damage in the amount of 412,2 million UAH (quote).
13.05.2019 The Northern Commercial Court of Appeal refused to satisfy the Fund’s appellate complaint and left unchanged the decision of the Commercial Court of Kyiv dated 20.12.2018 (in case No.910/11027/18), by which the Fund was denied relief on its claim against related parties of Ukopospilka bank for recovery of 76,93 million UAH of caused damage (among the defendants were former members of the bank’s management board and supervisory board).
25.07.2019 The Supreme Court in case No.916/2733/18 returned to the Deposit Guarantee Fund its statement of claim against former beneficiaries (including Leonid Klimov) and top managers of Imexbank for recovery of 18,98 billion UAH of caused damage (quote).
08.04.2019 The Supreme Court in case No.910/16336/18 returned for the Fund its claim against some former shareholders and top managers of Nadra bank for compensation of damage in the amount of 10 billion UAH.
11.09.2019 The Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court decided to leave unchanged the decision of the Kyiv Court of Appeal dated 08.08.2018, which, due to a violation of jurisdiction (case No.757/75153/17-c), annulled the decision of the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv dated 02.04.2018, which in turn had denied the Fund relief on its civil claim against former top managers of Forum bank for recovery of 2 billion UAH.
07.08.2019 The Supreme Court satisfied the Fund’s cassation appeal in case No.910/10888/18 and annulled the decisions of lower courts that had left the Fund’s claim against former top managers of Forum bank for recovery of 1,99 billion UAH of “damage caused to the bank by related parties” without consideration (quote). The cassation court remanded this case to the Commercial Court of Kyiv.
25.07.2019 The Supreme Court refused to satisfy the cassation appeal of former head of the management board and shareholder of Kyivska Rus bank Viktor Bratko and left unchanged the decision of the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal dated 21.02.2019, which transferred to the Commercial Court of Kyiv case No.910/15469/18 (on the Fund’s claim against V. Bratko and other officials of Kyivska Rus bank for recovery of 1,67 billion UAH).
10.07.2019 The Supreme Court refused to satisfy the Fund’s cassation appeal and left unchanged the decisions of lower courts in case No.910/14734/18, by which the Fund’s statement of claim was returned (due to failure to remedy its defects) against former shareholders and top managers of Creditprombank (including Mykola Lahun) for recovery of 532,9 million UAH.
finbalance
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