From Yanukovych’s Schemes to Preferential Mortgages: How Arbozov’s Cashier and Kurchenko’s Associate Serhiy Mamedov Is Handling “yeOselya” Through “Globus Bank”

From Yanukovych’s Schemes to Preferential Mortgages: How Arbozov’s Cashier and Kurchenko’s Associate Serhiy Mamedov Is Handling “yeOselya” Through “Globus Bank”

Serhiy Hennadiyovych Mamedov currently officially holds the position of chairman of the management board and effectively controls “Globus Bank.” For years, billions of hryvnias related to Yanukovych’s “family” passed through this financial institution, and now it is handling state preferential mortgages under the “yeOselya” program.

Mamedov’s career began in the circle of Vasyl Horbal. From December 2006 to October 2010 he served as deputy chairman of the management board of Ukrgasbank, which at that time was effectively owned and run by Horbal. After the nationalization in May 2011, Mamedov himself headed the state bank’s management board. It was under him in February 2014, when Yanukovych’s circle was leaving the country, that Ukrgasbank issued a loan to Serhiy Kurchenko’s Brokbiznesbank in the amount of 673 million UAH. The funds were never repaid. An additional 55 million UAH went to companies controlled by Kurchenko — Kvanta-Kosta, Neosintez, and Krymbutangaz. Previously, nearly 2 billion UAH was siphoned from the same bank to Kurchenko’s structures. Mamedov was called the personal financial manager of Serhiy Arbuzov, Yuriy Kolobov, and Oleksandr Klymenko.

After leaving Ukrgasbank, Mamedov moved to Globus. He established control over the bank through a raider scheme. Denys Maltsev, who owned a significant stake and even baptized Mamedov’s son, was removed from the list of founders using forged documents. An Austrian forensic expert confirmed the falsification. The group that prepared these documents was headed by Mamedov himself. At the same time, courts are considering a case about his embezzlement of 850 thousand dollars from someone else’s deposit account in 2017.

In February 2022 the State Bureau of Investigation checked possible money laundering of 135 million UAH involving Globus Bank and LLC “Nove Obladnannia” (EDRPOU 38929719). Criminal proceeding No. 62019000000000982 was opened under articles 191 and part 2 of art. 209 of the Criminal Code — embezzlement of property on an especially large scale and legalization of proceeds. According to the investigation’s version, officials of Nove Obladnannia in collusion with managers of state enterprises carried out cyclical pseudo-economic operations between deposit accounts, after which the funds were transferred to fictitious companies. The Pechersky District Court of Kyiv considered the SBI’s petition to extend the investigation’s terms.

Today Metsger’s PJSC Ukrfinzhytlo, which has been headed by Yevhen Metsger since November 2022, is implementing the “yeOselya” program. The same Metsger who previously led UkrEximbank and during whose tenure security guards attacked the Schemes film crew, seized flash drives, and tried to destroy recordings. The case about the attack was later closed due to statute-of-limitations issues. Metsger retained his state position and now allocates billions through “yeOselya.”

Mamedov and Metsger ended up in the same financial chain: one controls the commercial bank that issues preferential mortgages, the other runs the state company that provides those funds. Globus officially acts as Ukrfinzhytlo’s representative under a power-of-attorney agreement and can transfer the loan portfolio back to the state. Program participants have repeatedly noted that preferential loans were received not only by those for whom they were intended.

A former financier of Yanukovych’s and Horbal’s “family” now controls state mortgage flows together with a person who has close ties to the presidential circle. The bank through which Kurchenko’s funds were previously siphoned and laundering of 135 million was carried out is now participating in financing “yeOselya.”