Privat Group Co-Founder Martynov Accuses Former Partners of Laundering UAH 5 Billion Through Charity Foundation

Oleksiy Martynov, co-founder of the financial and industrial group Privat, who last August announced his intention to file a lawsuit against former partners Gennady Bogolyubov and Igor Kolomoisky in order to regain control of assets, accused them of laundering UAH 5 billion through a charitable foundation.

“The charitable foundation of one of the religious organizations of the city of Dnipro, of which they were the founders, was used to legalize funds stolen from the state. In total, over UAH 5 billion was laundered through this foundation,” Martynov said in his “Appeal to all law enforcement agencies of Ukraine” on Facebook on Monday.

The businessman added that this “operation” was carried out by Bogolyubov and Kolomoisky over the course of several years.

Martynov called on law enforcement agencies to immediately begin an investigation and assess the legality of these actions.

Previously, the Privat Financial and Industrial Group included many enterprises across the country, operating in sectors such as banking, ferroalloys, petroleum products, fertilizers and agribusiness.

Kolomoisky has been in the SBU pretrial detention facility for a year and a half. This agency, together with the Prosecutor General's Office and the Bureau of Economic Security (BES), accuses him of illegal manipulation of bank documents, which led to the actual failure to deposit UAH 5.8 billion into the PrivatBank cash desk, as well as the embezzlement of more than UAH 5.3 billion, which were later laundered.

The BEB detectives also claim that they have established the fact that Kolomoisky organized the seizure of more than UAH 3.3 billion from Ukrnafta and participants in joint investments and the subsequent legalization of more than UAH 4 billion obtained illegally. Kolomoisky denies all charges.

Bogolyubov left Ukraine at the end of June 2024. Later, the Prosecutor General's Office charged him in absentia with illegally confiscating someone else's passport and illegally crossing the border with the help of a border guard. At the same time, Bogolyubov's press service claims that the businessman left the country as a citizen of Ukraine, observing all norms and laws.