PrivatBank secures major victory in $3 billion battle against former oligarch owners
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The U.K.'s Supreme Court rejected PrivatBank’s former owners’ final appeal in a $3 billion fraud case, in a major victory for the state-owned Ukrainian bank that clears the way to pursue recovery of the funds worldwide.
Privatbank was nationalized in 2016 after Ukraine's central bank discovered a $5.5 billion hole in its ledger due to fraudulent lending. The bank — Ukraine's largest — launched proceedings against the former owners, Ukrainian oligarchs Ihor Kolomoisky and Hennadiy Boholyubov, the following year to recover the money.
The ensuing and lengthy legal process has widely been seen as a major test for Ukraine's post-EuroMaidan Revolution reforms and its efforts dismantle an oligarch system in which powerful business figures wielded outsized influence.
In July 2025, a London court found the two liable for fraud, and later, in November, ordered them to pay more than $3 billion in damages and costs. They failed to pay by the court-imposed deadline and subsequently challenged the ruling, which was upheld in May of this year.
Privatbank announced in a statement published online on Nov. 4 that the U.K.'s Supreme Court had refused the former owners' permission to appeal the judgement. The decision marks the end of the appeals process, allowing the bank to continue pursuing enforcement and recovery of the court's judgement in jurisdictions around the world.
"PrivatBank is delighted that the Supreme Court has dismissed the defendants’ applications so quickly, bringing an end to the appeals process, and enabling PrivatBank to continue with its enforcement process," the bank said in the statement.
As part of the legal proceedings, $2.5 billion in assets belonging to Kolomoisky and Boholyubov were frozen worldwide.
Someone close to the case told the Kyiv Independent last year that those frozen assets will be the key focus PrivatBank's strategy to recover the funds, although the bank's plan is secret.
The person said that while the location and content of the assets is well known, recovering them will be similarly difficult and lengthy process.
