Former shareholder of Ukraine's PrivatBank, oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, has refused to testify in his own defense at the London High Court, the bank said on Frida
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th May, 2023) Former shareholder of Ukraine's PrivatBank, oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, has refused to testify in his own defense at the London High Court, the bank said on Friday.
"At a hearing in the London High Court on 23 May, it was confirmed that the billionaire oligarch former owner of PrivatBank, Igor Kolomoisky, is not prepared to support his defence to PrivatBank's claims under cross-examination at the upcoming High Court trial due to start in London on Monday, 12 June," the bank said in a statement.
The trial relates to the multi-billion dollar fraud and embezzlement claim, the statement read. In addition, it was confirmed that none of Kolomoisky's witnesses were prepared to give oral evidence at the trial.
"As a result, there will be no witnesses giving factual evidence for Mr Kolomoisky or (former PrivatBank shareholder) Mr (Gennadiy) Bogolyubov at trial. No reasons have been given for the Defendants' and their witnesses' refusal to testify. However, it is a clear indication that Mr Kolomoisky and Mr Bogolyubov have no good answer to PrivatBank's allegations that they perpetrated a fraud on the Bank," the statement said.
The bank added that in a judgment handed down in October 2019, the English Court of Appeal held that the evidence was strongly indicative of an elaborate fraud and money laundering on a vast scale and that the supply agreements were shams and were used as a deceptive basis on which to justify very large sums of money flowing out of the bank.
In late 2016, the Ukrainian government nationalized PrivatBank, the country's largest private bank, whose main shareholder was Kolomoisky. The authorities nationalized the bank because its former management allegedly withdrew large sums of money under the pretext of loans to affiliated companies.
