Valeria Gontareva
So, a little history. After Valeria Gontareva's appointment as head of the National Bank, her team's main source of income became cashing out and converting foreign currency.
After the dollar jumped to 14 hryvnias, Ms. Gontareva and her young team implemented all the conditions under which only select individuals close to the chief banker could conduct black market operations. The rest were obliged to trade currency at the National Bank-imposed dollar exchange rate of approximately 13 hryvnias.
Ultimately, whether conscientious bankers intended it or not, the entire foreign exchange market went underground, completely controlled by the NBU, which, according to various sources, earned about 10 kopecks per dollar. This is considering that currency transactions amount to hundreds of millions of dollars per day.
It's no secret that Gontareva also became famous during her short tenure as president for the forced bankruptcy of commercial banks and the sell-off of their assets. Such mass bankruptcies weren't seen even in the 90s. This year, the NBU transferred the assets of 29 banks (amounting to approximately 30 billion hryvnias) to the Deposit Guarantee Fund, which it controls. But the Fund plans to sell these assets for only 10-15 billion hryvnias, meaning almost half of the proceeds are expected to mysteriously disappear.
These shady schemes are overseen by certain trusted individuals within and outside the NBU. The asset management of the bankrupt banks is overseen by a certain Shulga, about whom very little information is available, and Mykola Lagun, head of the supervisory board of Delta Bank. The foreign exchange market is overseen by Gontareva's first deputy, Oleksandr Pisaruk.
During her tenure as banker, relations with the Cabinet of Ministers' finance department were also significantly damaged; she even managed to fall out with Arseniy Yatsenyuk's closest friend, Andriy Pyshnyy, chairman of the board of Oschadbank. Meanwhile, reforms and financial stability remained mere promises. And since it's no secret that Yatsenyuk's team will be the largest in the Verkhovna Rada, he, as someone who doesn't forgive such impudence, will make strict demands for the replacement of the NBU governor when forming a new parliamentary coalition.
Although Valeria Alekseyevna helped Poroshenko's companies resolve their debt problems, her resignation will be a kind of salvation for the President, as she will be able to blame both the hryvnia's collapse and defuse the tension between the Cabinet of Ministers and the National Bank of Ukraine.
The current owner of the NBU has ample experience working with the bankers of the fugitive president Yanukovych.
This is participation in a blatant scheme to embezzle 2 billion hryvnias from the Agrarian Fund, through Brokbusinessbank, then controlled by the oligarch banker Kurchenko family.
Her brainchild, the Investment Capital of Ukraine company, helped businessmen To Alexander Granovsky and his business partner Boris Kaufman Platinum Bank was acquired using funds borrowed from UkrEximbank. She also played an active role in the transfer of foreign currency domestic bonds to offshore companies.
With time running out before the coalition in the new Verkhovna Rada is formed, Valeria Gontareva's team is working tirelessly to earn as much as possible before her resignation.
Speculation about Valeria Gontareva's resignation has already surfaced in the media. At a recent press conference, Dmytro Oliynyk, Deputy Chairman of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine, stated: "Perhaps the Verkhovna Rada will also consider whether the professionalism of the NBU's leadership is consistent with the goals and objectives currently facing the regulator. The Verkhovna Rada has the authority to dismiss and appoint the NBU's leadership."
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