An inexplicable incident occurred at the National Bank's Odesa Oblast office in November: gold disappeared from the office's vaults, or rather, was replaced. This fact is confirmed by an official letter from the regulator, intended for internal use only, the text of which was obtained by Kapital . The NBU press service confirmed the authenticity of this document.
In her letter, NBU Governor Valeria Gontareva demands that several departments of the regulator conduct an investigation into the "substitution of assets" at the regional office. A special commission consisting of the heads of various departments was to conduct the investigation. The document specifies November 24 as the start date for the internal investigation into this flagrant substitution.
Right to buy
"According to the NBU law, the regulator's territorial offices have the right to purchase precious metals, so-called scrap," the NBU press service explained. The NBU claims the gold was swapped at the acceptance stage. "During a scheduled audit of the NBU's territorial office in Odesa Oblast, violations of the instructions for this operation (purchase of scrap precious metals – Kapital) were uncovered. As a result, an internal investigation was launched, and the materials regarding the violations were transferred to law enforcement agencies," the regulator's press service reported.
In this regard, Gontareva asks the commission to focus on the video archive recording the process of receiving, packaging, and transferring precious metals to the storage facility, as well as on the compliance of the gold in the storage facilities with the accounting data and the "movement of acquired valuables" report, and other relevant information. The investigative commission was supposed to submit a report on its work to the audit department by December 2. The National Bank was unable to provide any information on the commission's findings.
Law enforcement agencies had already begun their pre-trial investigation into this case. "On November 19, 2014, the Primorsky District Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in the Odesa Oblast entered information into the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations under Part 1 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine regarding the misappropriation of property belonging to the NBU's regional office. The Odesa Prosecutor's Office is overseeing the proceedings. The pre-trial investigation is ongoing, and a range of necessary investigative actions are being carried out. A number of expert examinations have been ordered," the Odesa Prosecutor's Office press service told Capital.
System collapse
According to unconfirmed media reports, the total amount of gold missing from the NBU's Odesa branch is approximately 5 million hryvnias. Moreover, according to Yevhen Berezovsky, First Deputy Chairman of the Board of Delta Bank, stealing or substituting client funds or gold bars, even in a standard bank vault, is virtually impossible. As for the bank's own funds, Berezovsky says, there's an even more complex control system. "Bank gold is deposited with the National Bank. The bank's funds are kept only within authorized limits. The theft of these funds by collusion is virtually impossible, as the process is controlled by a large number of independent units," explains the publication's source. "Theoretically, anything is possible, but in practice, it's extremely unlikely."
It's also worth keeping in mind that banks only allow access to storage facilities to individuals who have signed a financial liability agreement, explained Pavel Krapivin, First Deputy Chairman of the Board of Kontrakt Bank. Accordingly, any shortfall in precious metals discovered during the next inventory will have to be compensated for by them. "After an internal investigation, of course," he added.
These facts make the story of gold substitution at the National Bank's own management even more mysterious. "The NBU has its own control system. They operate by slightly different rules. They initially have more valuables in storage. In this case, there was almost certainly collusion," says a banker who wished to remain anonymous. "It would have been impossible to do this without the knowledge of the department's management."
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