Ukraine’s Privatbank issues $5.5 billion claim in Cyprus against ex-owners

Ukraine’s largest lender, state-run PrivatBank, said on Friday that it had filed a new $5.5 billion claim in the Cypriot courts against its former owners.

The bank said in a statement that it was seeking damages in respect of schemes bearing all the hallmarks of fraud and money laundering which the bank alleges were perpetrated by ex-shareholders.

The government took PrivatBank into state hands in 2016 as part of a donor-backed clean-up of the finance system, saying that shady lending practices under then-major-owner Ihor Kolomoisky had driven the bank close to insolvency.

Kolomoisky denies wrongdoing and disputes the central bank’s characterization of PrivatBank’s finances at the time.

[Reuters]