Supreme Court puts an end to oligarch Kolomoisky's appeal for restoring Privatbank ownership

Ukraine's Supreme Court on Nov. 26 upheld earlier rulings on nationalizing Ukraine's largest bank and dismissed an appeal of its former owner Ihor Kolomoisky, ending a years-long case.

Kolomoisky, one of the country's most well-known and controversial oligarchs, co-founded PrivatBank in 1992 but lost ownership to the state in 2016 after his management left a $5.5 billion hole in its balance sheet.

The oligarch was later charged with embezzling $220 million from PrivatBank and has been in detention since September 2023 pending trial over multiple charges of fraud, illegal property acquisition, money laundering, and a murder plot.

Kolomoisky is the richest businessman to be imprisoned in Ukraine's independent history.

"The Commercial Court of Cassation of the Supreme Court... rejected the cassation appeals of the former shareholders of PrivatBank Ihor Kolomoisky and the Cypriot company Triantal Investments Ltd." and upheld earlier rulings of the Commercial Court of the City of Kyiv from May and the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal from September, the statement read.

The decision ended proceedings that had been ongoing for almost five years.

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The Kyiv IndependentJakub Parusinski