The court has kept Zhevago's Ukrainian assets under arrest
The Northern Economic Court of Appeal has once again confirmed the legality of the seizure of the Ukrainian assets of the ex-owner of the Finance and Credit bank Konstantin Zhevago, against whom the Deposit Guarantee Fund filed a claim for 46 billion hryvnias regarding losses caused to the bank and creditors.
This is reported by the Deposit Guarantee Fund of Individuals.
The Fund initiated the arrest to secure its claim against Zhevago for losses caused to the bank and its creditors.
"Thus, the court took into account the evidence provided by the Fund that the defendant had failed to comply with the requirements of the law, according to which the managers, owners of substantial participation and the final beneficial owners of the insolvent bank are required to provide the Fund, upon its request, with information about all their property (assets) and obligations," the statement said.
FGVFL notes that Zhevago "for a long time tried in various ways to conceal the fact of ownership of property belonging to him, due to which the claims of the Fund may be satisfied in the future."
In lawsuits against related parties, asset preservation is one of the most important areas of work, said Viktor Novikov, Deputy Managing Director of the Fund.
"Due to the complexity of this category of cases, their consideration has been going on for years, cases are being returned to previous instances over and over again, and former bank owners are making tremendous efforts to hide assets and not return anything to creditors, even in the event of a court decision on damages," he said.
The court's ruling makes it possible to protect assets and in the future, after appropriate court decisions, recover them in favor of the bank's creditors, the report says.
The Fund filed a lawsuit in the Kyiv Economic Court against the owner of Bank Finance and Credit JSC for damages to the Bank and its creditors in the amount of almost 46 billion UAH on January 4, 2023.
These losses were caused as a result of a systematic withdrawal of funds, in particular, systematic lending to companies associated with Zhevago without proper collateral and the transfer of credit funds to non-resident companies owned by Zhevago.
These companies did not repay the loans they received and most of them turned out to be insolvent, the Fund notes.
The specified claim of the Deposit Guarantee Fund is based on materials, documents and evidence collected earlier during the preparation and consideration by the High Court of England and Wales of the case on the Fund's claim against the owner of the bank.
In this case, the English court recognized that there were sufficient grounds for the worldwide seizure of K. Zhevago's assets, and received his written commitment not to evade participation in the trial.