The State Bureau of Investigation suspects Ukrainian billionaire Hennadii Boholiubov, who formerly owned Ukrainian bank PrivatBank alongside oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, of illegally crossing the border and passport fraud, the bureau said on July 9.
The announcement came days after reports that Boholiubov had recently left Ukraine under forged documents.
According to the statement, the oligarch and his close relative left on June 24 by train from Kyiv to the Polish city of Chelm. The Ukrainian databases did not confirm that he had crossed the border.
Boholiubov fled the country using an invalid passport of a Ukrainian citizen, who is currently in the country, the bureau said.
The border guard who helped him leave Ukraine was detained. According to the investigators, he handed over the passengers' documents to his subordinate, saying that he had already checked the compartment where Boholiubov and his relative were.
When crossing the border, the oligarch showed Polish border guards his Ukrainian passport, the bureau said. Boholiubov is currently residing in Austria, Ukrainska Pravda reported, citing anonymous sources at the Prosecutor General's Office.
If detained, Boholiubov may face up to seven years in prison. The court ordered that the border guard be held in pre-trial custody with an alternative of bail in the amount of Hr 25 million ($613,000).
The financial and industrial group Privat, of which Boholiubov and Kolomoisky are the co-owners, operated the PrivatBank from its founding in 1992 until 2016.
In 2016, the bank was nationalized when it was found to have an over $5.5 billion hole in its ledger, allegedly moved out by its former owners Kolomoisky and Boholiubov via fraudulent schemes.
The former owners appealed to the Supreme Court against the government's decision but lost their case in July 2022.
Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine's most infamous business tycoons, was arrested on Sept. 2, 2023, for alleged fraud and money laundering related to his oil and gas holdings. His bail was initially set at Hr 509 million (now $13.2 million).
Kateryna Denisova
(Updated: )
