The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office has submitted an indictment against Igor Kolomoyskyi to the High Anti-Corruption Court in the NABU case concerning PrivatBank. The bureau itself announced this.
This is already the fourth episode in a large-scale case about the appropriation of PrivatBank funds — but the first one where Kolomoyskyi himself is named as a defendant, rather than mid-level managers.
What he is accused of
According to the investigation, in January–March 2015, Kolomoyskyi, then head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration, forced PrivatBank to pay over 9.2 billion hryvnias to a controlled offshore company. Formally, this looked like a buyback of the bank's own bonds — but at an inflated price, which allowed the funds to be withdrawn.
Part of the amount — over 446 million hryvnias — was legalized through a chain of five related legal entities under the guise of securities transactions, and then the funds ended up in the beneficiary's personal account. Notably, he subsequently contributed this same money to PrivatBank's authorized capital — to formally meet the National Bank's requirement for recapitalization.
Kolomoyskyi has been charged under three articles of the Criminal Code: 191 (embezzlement of property), 209 (money laundering), and 366 (official forgery). Besides him, charges have also been brought against former PrivatBank chairman Oleksandr Dubiliet and four less prominent bank managers.
One person, multiple investigation fronts
Igor Kolomoyskyi is already in custody in another case — regarding the organization of a contract killing, which the National Police announced in May 2024. This very proceeding has kept him in detention for over a year.
Parallel investigations continue: the Bureau of Economic Security completed its investigation in 2024, charging him with fictitious deposit of money into the bank's cash. And in May 2026, the SBU announced the exposure of another scheme — fraudulent appropriation of over 100 million hryvnias of PrivatBank funds.
Thus, the NABU case is neither the only one nor the largest by amount among those being conducted against Kolomoyskyi, but it concerns the most systemic episode: the bank's recapitalization on the eve of its transfer under state control in 2016.
The investigation essentially claims that the money, which the state later recognized as a "hole" in PrivatBank's capital, was first withdrawn from there — and only part of it was returned to formally meet the regulator's requirement.
The case now moves to the trial phase, where the prosecution will have to prove guilt — not suspicion — with documents, witnesses, and timelines spanning ten years. One question remains open: will it be possible to prove the intent of the regional administration head in bank operations formally managed by other people, if Kolomoyskyi himself remains in custody on another charge during this time?
