Is Gontareva connected to a new major player who is eyeing the acquisition of financial institutions and banking assets?
Valeria Gontareva
Recently, high-profile and highly scandalous information was released about the emergence of a new major player in the banking mergers and acquisitions market. This player is currently eyeing the acquisition of several financial institutions and other banking assets. And the threads leading to National Bank Head Gontareva and even further—to President Poroshenko…
We are talking about Viktor Polischuk, who has been very successful in recent years and is now, among other things, a co-owner of the small but rapidly growing Mikhailovsky Bank.
"The speed with which Viktor Polishchuk burst into the top business league and began acquiring expensive assets would have been the envy of even the odious Sergei Kurchenko, who is considered the nominal owner of Viktor Yanukovych's 'family' assets," writes prominent economic journalist Alexei Komakha in his article "Is Gontareva's Company Buying Banks for Klimenko?" published by the publication "Minprom."
"Back in 2000, my husband (Viktor Polischuk) was an engineer, and I worked as a simple accountant at a large Kyiv company," the businessman's wife, Liliya Rezvaya, said in a recent interview.
Rezvaya, a once-simple accountant, currently manages the Gulliver business center, the capital's most expensive and tallest office building. Viktor Polishchuk claims to be the owner of the business center. He also owns Eldorado, the largest electronics retailer, the Forte insurance company, and many other assets.
Polischuk is also currently building a massive logistics complex in Brovary. Forbes estimates his net worth at $101 million. But that's a very modest estimate. How this simple engineer became a billionaire (currently in hryvnia) remains a mystery. "Everything I manage was given to me by God for my hard work and faith in Him," Polischuk asserts.
However, there is another version, the author of the publication in "Ministry of Industry and Trade" points out. For example, according to former Ukrainska Pravda journalist Sergei Leshchenko, the Gulliver business center is owned by companies associated with the former head of the Ministry of Revenue and Duties, Oleksandr Klymenko.
Mykhailovskiy Bank was registered only last year. However, since the beginning of this year, the bank's assets have grown fourfold (!), reaching 1,9 billion hryvnias. In less than a year, it has opened nearly 100 new branches and approximately 2200 points of sale in retail chains such as Eldorado, Foxtrot, EpiCenter, and others.
And now this still-small bank has actively engaged in acquiring (or preparing to acquire) Ukrainian banks whose value has plummeted due to the crisis. "We are in the process of considering (the possibility of acquiring) several banks. We are primarily interested in the bank's branch network and client base," the Ministry of Industry and Trade quotes Igor Doroshenko, the bank's chairman of the board, as saying.
However, curiously, the investment company "Investment Capital Ukraine" (ICU) is searching for acquisition targets—the same one owned by business partners of NBU Governor Valeria Gontareva.
It's especially noteworthy that Mikhailovsky is considering acquiring banks under temporary administration by the Deposit Guarantee Fund. Currently, 32 banks are under temporary administration by the Fund or are in liquidation. Naturally, acquiring such assets, given the lack of demand and the presence of connections, can be done quite cheaply.
"It's very profitable to buy bank assets from the Guarantee Fund. They sell them for next to nothing," commented Rostislav Kravets, a lawyer and senior partner at Kravets & Partners. This is profitable not only for the banks but also for the Fund's officials. By selling off assets worth billions on the balance sheet, government officials can make big money.
Interestingly, the Guarantee Fund was recently headed by Konstantin Vorushilin, the former chairman of the supervisory board of the International Investment Bank, which belongs to President Petro Poroshenko.
Well, Gontareva, of course, is also Poroshenko’s “person”…
I don't know how others will interpret this information, but after reviewing all these facts, I have a strong suspicion that National Bank Governor Gontareva and the head of the Guarantee Fund Vorushilin are more concerned with, shall we say, other, mercantile matters than with the stability of the hryvnia and the safety of Ukrainians' bank savings. Moreover, on one side of this ugly story looms the shadow of the "legendary" swindler Klymenko, and on the other, that of current President Poroshenko.
Incidentally, a criminal case was opened against the former head of the Ministry of Revenue and Duties of Ukraine (affectionately nicknamed "Ministry of Revenue and Duties") back in April. The Prosecutor General's Office accused him of causing enormous material damage to the state. Specifically, the Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case against former Minister of Taxes and Duties Oleksandr Klymenok for abusing his official position during his tenure as head of the ministry, causing material damage to the country amounting to 6 billion hryvnias.
Portal Kompromat
Subscribe to our channels in Telegram, Facebook, Twitter, VC — Only new faces from the section CRYPT!