The head of the National Bank of Ukraine is committing one heinous crime after another, but the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Arsen Avakov) and the Prosecutor General's Office (Viktor Shokin) turn a blind eye. All three are appointees of Petro Poroshenko. All of Ukraine is paying for the theft of billions of hryvnias by the presidential gang.
(Read more in the article Valeria Gontareva. The Glitter and Machinations of the Queen of Coins)
Delta Bank transferred a UAH 90 million loan from Ukrspirt to its companies, although this money was supposed to be returned to the National Bank for refinancing.
Ukrainian society is clearly unfair to the National Bank of Ukraine. Only rarely do you read anything positive about the NBU. We believe this is due to ignorance. We decided to fill this gap and tell a story in which the National Bank appears kind, generous, and forgiving. In short, a short Christmas story we stumbled upon in the Register of Court Decisions (we suspect there are many more such stories out there).
The essence of the National Bank's kindness can be summed up in one sentence. When a bank goes bankrupt and there's not enough money for everyone, the NBU is willing to sacrifice its share so long as the bank's owners "keep their bribes."
Ill-wishers, of course, may point out that the National Bank doesn't have "its own money"; it's all state-owned, but that's why they're ill-wishers: you don't listen to them.
… In our story, the family of Nikolai Lagun, the owner of Delta Bank, received a gift from the country’s main bank.
It all began in December 2013, when Delta Bank issued a UAH 54 million loan to the state-owned Ukrspirt at 24% per annum. However, just two months later, on February 26, 2014, Delta Bank took out refinancing from the National Bank, using the right to claim the debt on this loan as collateral. In other words, the money effectively became the property of the National Bank. However, this didn't last long.
In August 2014, Delta Bank, which by then had already begun to experience serious problems, began repaying the loan early through the courts, citing the alcohol producers' failure to pay interest. The National Bank did not object, although this meant the collateral for the refinancing was lost.
Having acknowledged the state regulator's kindness, Delta took another step. On September 12, it transferred the right to collect the debt to its parent company, Delta Capital, which was soon renamed Sky Capital Management LLC.
The gist of the agreement: if Ukrspirt fails to repay the loan within the next four months, Sky Capital Management will collect the debt. The fact that this loan is collateral for the NBU didn't bother anyone, including the NBU itself.
Meanwhile, Delta Bank's situation continued to deteriorate, and on October 30, it was classified as distressed. Ukrspirt managed to repay a small portion of its UAH 4,4 million debt in December, but was unable to pay any more. Therefore, the right to claim the remaining debt, as agreed in September, was transferred to Sky Capital Management on February 12.
Sky even paid Delta Bank for this right—a whopping 58 million hryvnias. There's just one catch, two actually.
First, let's remember, the bank transferred financial assets to a private company that had long been pledged to the National Bank. Second, Sky Capital Management paid with money that was worthless.
The thing is, this money was in the company's account at the same Delta Bank, so it was impossible to get it out of there: bankruptcy is the kind of thing where debts are paid in turns, and not by connections.
This time, it was a case of connections. At the time of the agreement with the bank in September 2014, Delta Capital was associated with Antonina Lagun, the sister of Delta Bank shareholder and chairman of the supervisory board, Nikolai Lagun. In 2014, Antonina herself was a member of the bank's supervisory board.
In November, Delta Capital, as a reminder, was renamed Sky Capital Management, registering it under the Cypriot company Sperlog Investments Limited. Meanwhile, Sky Capital Management LLC is registered at the same address (30/39 Shchekavitska Street, Office 24, Kyiv) as the Delta pension fund, which belongs to the bank and is being liquidated, as well as the Delta Life and Delta insurance companies. The Delta fund and Sky Capital Management share the same phone numbers: (044) 3915430 and 2071180.
Perhaps realizing that "debt transfer" without the NBU's consent would look somewhat odd, the participants in the operation began covering their tracks that same day—February 12. Sky Capital Management assigned the debt claim to another firm, Legal Consulting Group.
In turn, the consulting group transferred the right to claim unaccrued interest and penalties from Ukrspirt to another company, Accord. The problem is that only a bank or financial institution can accrue interest, and Accord is registered as such.
We won't list the owners of the new beneficiary companies from the Lviv region: it would be long and pointless. The main point is that the money, which was de jure considered to belong to the National Bank, de facto went into private pockets.
According to the court registry, Accord collected UAH 10,49 million in interest debt from Ukrspirt for the period from July 28, 2014 to April 30, 2015, and UAH 994 thousand for May 2015. In addition to UAH 53,74 million in principal debt, Legal Consulting Group collected UAH 23,55 million in inflation losses from Ukrspirt and UAH 1,31 million in 3% per annum accrued for the period from July 28, 2014 to May 31, 2015.
The total amount of debt under the loan agreement Ukrspirt entered into with Delta Bank, including interest and penalties, totaled UAH 94,47 million. And what about the National Bank? Everything is as it should be – it maintained its leniency. However, at first it seemed vindictive: on March 3 of this year, the provisional administration under Vladimir Kadyrov declared the agreement on the assignment of the debt to Sky Capital Management invalid.
But the commercial courts ignored this decision. The National Bank itself assisted them in this. The courts "did not receive a proper copy of the annex to the pledge agreement, which would have confirmed that Delta Bank had transferred the rights to the Ukrspirt loan to the NBU."
Representatives of the National Bank were unable to provide either the original or a copy of this appendix due to its considerable length, as it also mentions other legal entities that had also transferred their property rights to the central bank. Furthermore, the court rejected an extract from the appendix provided by NBU representatives, as it could not be concluded that Delta Bank's rights under the Ukrspirt loan were specifically pledged.
In short, a "significant volume" of documentation prevented the National Bank from reclaiming its 90 million hryvnias. A stroke of pure kindness, for what other word could one use for such a thing?
Realizing that the NBU would not challenge the decision, the Legal Consulting Group successfully overturned the decision of the temporary administration of the Kyiv District Administrative Court. The case is currently before the appellate court, with a hearing scheduled for December 22.
It seems that no matter how the courts end, the money will still flow from Ukrspirt in the right direction. And despite the state's fight for our money, it seems the judiciary won't be able to cast a shadow over the "businessmen."
Mykola Lagun, who embezzled from Delta Bank, is well aware of the sham criminal investigation into his actions, calmly sipping wine in the VIP box of the capital's Olympic Stadium. He's clearly confident of his own impunity—after all, he's apparently already paid handsomely to Petro Poroshenko's team for his freedom. And the state has acknowledged the loss of 18 billion hryvnias at Delta Bank.
According to E-data, the Official Portal of Public Finances of Ukraine, the Legal Consulting Group received at least half of this money as early as November 26. The State Enforcement Service of the Ministry of Justice complied with the court's decision, collecting tens of millions from Ukrspirt in favor of private shell companies—UAH 24,93 million went to the Legal Consulting Group and UAH 10,56 million to Accord. This money, however, was supposed to end up in the National Bank of Ukraine.
So, that's a Christmas story about kindness. Unfortunately, we don't know the collateral history for the entire UAH 10,17 billion refinancing loan received by Delta Bank last year. But we do know for sure who the kind Santa Claus visited. With a sack of presents and wearing white Ugg boots.
Irina Sharpinskaya, published on the website Our Money
Translation: Argument
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