Based on the materials of the SBI, the former top officials of the Bank «Finance and Credit» will be judged for financial fraud worth hundreds of millions of hryvnias

The employees of the SBI, under the procedural guidance of the Office of the Prosecutor General, have completed the investigation of the criminal proceeding against former top officials of the Bank «Finance and Credit». They are suspected of embezzlement of the bank's property as part of the criminal organization of more than 608 million hryvnias.

During the investigation it was established that one of the bank's shareholders during the period from 2007 to 2015 organized an illegal scheme of lending to the companies, which were under his control, to withdraw the funds of the banking institution to offshore companies for their further legalization. The functioning of the scheme was ensured by the high-ranking officials of the bank and trustees, who were controlled and loyal to the shareholder.

Only in one of the episodes of the criminal activity, the bank's losses, due to lending to the company controlled by the shareholder, were amounted to more than 608 million hryvnias.

The members of the criminal organization were trying to give to their actions the appearance of the legality and disguise the illegal origin of the funds that were received as the result of the deal. For this purpose, for 5 years they had been concluding more than a hundred additional agreements to the main loan agreement, which gradually and unreasonably increased the credit limit to the borrower. At the same time, the bank did not receive any liquid collateral.

The former high-ranking officials of the bank are suspected of committing a crime under Article 255 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (participation in a criminal organization and participation in crimes committed by such organization), as well as Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (embezzlement of someone else's property on an especially large scale, by abuse of office by official, as part of a criminal organization).

The suspects face up to twelve years in prison with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to three years and with confiscation of the property.

Currently, the defense has begun familiarization with the materials of the proceedings, after which the case will be sent to the court.