Israel’s Supreme Court upholds PrivatBank’s right to litigate against its ex-owners over misappropriation of $600 mln

The Supreme Court of Israel on March 26, 2021 rejected an appeal of Israel Discount Bank (IDB, Tel Aviv) seeking to have the claim brought by PrivatBank (Kyiv) against the ex-owners of the bank over the alleged misappropriation of $600 million dismissed, or otherwise stayed until other claims have been determined and ruled that the claims against IDB proceed in full.

The press service of PrivatBank said on Tuesday that by its ruling, the Israeli Supreme Court upheld the District Court's decision that the claims brought by PrivatBank against IDB should proceed in full and should not be struck out or stayed, as IDB had argued.

The press service recalled that on December 18, 2019, PrivatBank initiated a claim against Ihor Kolomoisky, Hennadiy Boholiubov, Israel Discount Bank (IDB). The claim concerns an alleged misappropriation scheme by which at least $600 million was unlawfully extracted from PrivatBank between 2007 and 2011 and transferred to a bank account held with IDB.

PrivatBank sues IDB in Israel as one of several defendants, claiming that IDB facilitated the misappropriation of the bank's funds and breached its duties to PrivatBank through enabling the obviously fraudulent transfers to be made into a bank account held with IDB in Israel, and failing to take any actions to refuse or block those transfers despite the many obvious 'red flags' indicating fraud and money laundering.

On December 18, 2016, the government of Ukraine, referring to a proposal of the National Bank and former shareholders of PrivatBank, decided to nationalize this largest financial institution on the Ukrainian market and injected over UAH 155 billion into its capital.

According to the National Bank of Ukraine, PrivatBank was ranked first in terms of total assets (UAH 600.15 billion) among 74 banks operating in the country as of October 1, 2020.

Source: www.en.interfax.com.ua