Ukrainian oligarch Kolomoiskyi remains in custody with possibility of bail, sent to medical examination

The Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv has rejected the request of the defence of Ihor Kolomoiskyi, a Ukrainian oligarch, about the change of preventive measure to home arrest.

Source: Anti-Corruption Centre

The defence stressed that while Kolomoiskyi was in the SSU detention facility, his health condition has worsened.

The oligarch’s lawyers have compared the indicators of his health condition before the detention and after it, and concluded that they have worsened. They claim Kolomoiskyi has not been receiving certain medications he has to take regularly.

In connection with this, the court has ordered to arrange a medical examination for Kolomoiskyi and facilitate necessary treatment.

Moreover, the defence has once again involved the guarantors who asked the court about the mitigation of the preventive measure. Mainly, these were Alla Mazur, a TV host; Serhii Demchenko, MP from the Servant of the People faction, and Shmuel Kaminetskyi, the Chief Rabbi of Dnipro.

Before the meeting, 23 rabbis of Ukraine turned to Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin with the request to consider the possibility of changing the preventive measure.

It was stated in the appeal that Kolomoiskyi is a "renowned businessman and philanthropist who has systematically been supporting the Jewish community in Ukraine and in other countries."

During the speech, Kolomoiskyi claimed he considered himself a citizen of Ukraine, Israel and Cyprus in this chronological order of obtaining citizenships.

Background:

Kolomoiskyi was first served with a notice of suspicion by the Bureau of Economic Security, the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) and the Prosecutor General’s Office. He was accused of extortion and money laundering.

The second notice of suspicion was served by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialist Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office. According to the investigation, while in office of the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast State Administration, Kolomoiskyi has created the plan of appropriation of funds of Privatbank, from which UAH 9.2 billion (US$241 million) was artificially withdrawn. Part of these funds in the amount of UAH 446 million (roughly US$12 million) was later transferred to Kolomoiskyi's private account. He then transferred this money to the statute capital of Privatbank in order to fulfil the requirements of the National Bank of Ukraine within the framework of the bank’s financial recovery.

After that Kolomoiskyi was held in the SSU detention facility.

In addition to this, on 8 September, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office seized Kolomoiskyi's assets and property for two days. After that, the detectives sent the request to the High Anti-Corruption Court to arrest the oligarch.

The request was submitted to judge Oleh Tkachenko who only appointed consideration of the request for 12 September, when the 48-hour detention period was already over. After that, Tkachenko refused to consider the Bureau’s request.

The third notice of suspicion was served by the Bureau of Economic Security and the SSU. The suspicion served earlier was changed. This time Kolomoiskyi was accused of counterfeiting payment documents, appropriation of property and money laundering. The amount was ten times higher, US$152 million. This concerned the operations conducted in 2013-2014.

The same evening, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv increased bail for Kolomoiskyi to almost US$100 million even though the Prosecutor asked for roughly US$ 152 million.

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