PrivatBank Wins Appeal Against Kolomoyskyi and Bogolyubov: What Does This Mean?
22 May 18:24
PrivatBank has prevailed in court against its former owners, Ihor Kolomoyskyi and Hennadiy Boholyubov, who had sought to appeal the court ruling issued against them in July 2025. This was reported by PrivatBank, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
The ruling ordering Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov to pay PrivatBank over $3 billion in damages, interest, and legal costs remains in effect.
“PrivatBank welcomes the decision of the Court of Appeal, which upheld the original ruling of the High Court of England and Wales that Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov committed large-scale fraud against the bank and must compensate it for the losses incurred,” the statement reads.
In particular, the Court of Appeal rejected the former owners’ arguments that they had returned the misappropriated funds using proceeds obtained through subsequent fraudulent acts against the bank.
In 2017, the bank obtained a court order for a worldwide seizure of the defendants’ assets.
PrivatBank’s Position
PrivatBank will now seek enforcement of the court’s substantive ruling regarding these assets in order to obtain compensation for the bank and, accordingly, for its shareholder—the Government of Ukraine.
“We are determined to recover the significant funds that were stolen so that they can be returned and used for the benefit of the Ukrainian people,” said Nils Melngailis, Chairman of PrivatBank’s Supervisory Board.
He thanked stakeholders and international partners for their support, “without whom this landmark victory would not have been possible.”
Richard Lewis, a partner at the law firm Hogan Lovells, which represents the bank in the litigation, noted that the appellate court “apparently had no particular difficulty in rejecting the defendants’ arguments that, despite having committed large-scale fraud against the bank, they should be able to avoid liability for that fraud by embezzling additional funds and using them to conceal their prior fraud.”
“We intend to recover the illegally appropriated funds for the bank through enforcement of the court decision,” he added.
Yulia Svyrydenko thanked the teams from the government, the Ministry of Finance, the National Bank of Ukraine, and PrivatBank for their many years of work on the case and for defending the state’s interests at the international level.
She emphasized that the court’s decision paves the way for further compensation for the losses incurred by the bank and confirms the state’s ability to defend its interests in complex international proceedings.
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The Essence of the Case
On July 30, 2025, the High Court of England and Wales ruled in favor of PrivatBank in a case regarding the recovery of assets from the financial institution’s former owners, Ihor Kolomoyskyi and Hennadiy Boholyubov.
The High Court in London found that they had illegally appropriated approximately $2 billion from the bank through a complex refinancing scheme.
The court rejected Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov’s objections, stating that their arguments were based on “dishonest grounds.” The judge emphasized that Kolomoisky likely considered himself “above the law,” while Bogolyubov used forged documents to evade liability.
Although the exact amount of the liability has not yet been determined, the former owners will likely be forced to pay more than $1.7 billion, excluding interest, PrivatBank notes. The total amount, including interest and litigation costs, could exceed $2 billion.
The court also found that both former owners actively destroyed documents related to the case. PrivatBank now plans to recover damages by seizing the defendants’ assets.
Nationalization of PrivatBank
Recall: In December 2016, the Ukrainian government, at the proposal of the National Bank and PrivatBank’s shareholders—the largest of whom at the time were Ihor Kolomoyskyi and Hennadiy Boholyubov—decided to nationalize PrivatBank.
The bank became state-owned, and the state spent a total of over 155.3 billion hryvnias on its recapitalization. Following an audit, the investigative firm Kroll confirmed that PrivatBank had been the target of large-scale fraudulent activities prior to nationalization, resulting in losses of $5.5 billion.
The bank’s former shareholders challenged the nationalization decision in a number of Ukrainian and foreign courts.
In December 2017, PrivatBank filed a lawsuit in the High Court of London against Ihor Kolomoyskyi, Hennadiy Boholyubov, as well as the companies Teamtrend Ltd., Trade Point Agro Ltd., Collyer Ltd., Rossyan Investing Corp., Milbert Ventures Inc., and ZAO Ukrtransitservice Ltd., which are believed to be owned or controlled by them.
A year later, the court ruled that PrivatBank had filed the lawsuit to establish the London court’s jurisdiction to hear the case against Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov. The judge also found that the bank had valid claims against Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov amounting to at least several million dollars.
At the same time, the court issued an order for a worldwide asset freeze against the bank’s former owners and the six companies in question, totaling more than $2.5 billion.
Following the hearing on January 19, 2018, the High Court of London extended the order for a worldwide freeze on the assets of PrivatBank’s former owners, Ihor Kolomoyskyi and Hennadiy Boholyubov, until the court issues a further order to that effect. At the same time, the court ordered the defendants to disclose information about all their assets to a limited group of individuals directly involved in the case.
On February 2, 2023, the High Court of London expanded the scope of the worldwide asset freeze against PrivatBank’s former shareholders, Ihor Kolomoyskyi and Hennadiy Boholyubov.
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