The SBI took to the court the case of  the former high-ranking officials of the Bank "Finance and Credit" 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 the former high-ranking officials of the Bank "Finance and Credit." They are accused of embezzlement of bank’s property as a part of the criminal organization of more than 608 million hryvnias.

The indictment was sent to the court.

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 trusties, who were controlled and loyal to the shareholder.

By taking into account just one of the episodes of criminal activity, the bank's losses were amounted to more than 608 million hryvnias, by lending to the company that was controlled by the shareholder.

The members of the criminal organization were trying to give 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. The bank did not receive any liquid collateral.

The former high-ranking officials of the bank are accused 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 defendants face up to 12 years in prison with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to 3 years and with confiscation of the property.