Bank Ukrayina: Names Named

Ukrayina Bank was led to a failure by the activities of an “organized criminal group functioning in the banking sphere,” believes Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada ad hoc Committee to Investigating the Reasons for Ukrayina’s Financial Crisis Viktor Korol. Speaking to Verkhovna Rada on December 14, he proposed the deputies to pass a recommendation that the government discharge Kostiantyn Rusalin from the post of the head of the Ukrayina liquidating committee’s executive board. In Mr. Korol’s words, the committee of inquiry believes that Mr. Rusalin was involved in Ukrayina’s collapse. On December 11 Ad hoc Committee Member Viktor Suslov announced that the committee acknowledged the work of Ukrayina Bank’s liquidator, the Agency on Bankruptcy, as unsatisfactory. Mr. Suslov noted that it had not yet started to pay the depositors. Simultaneously, he added, 37 million hryvnias out of the 55 millions received by the liquidator for this payment were spent on maintenance of the agency itself.

The head of the ad hoc committee accused Director of the State Property Fund Oleksandr Bondar of being involved into Ukrayina’s collapse. Mr. Korol named these names in connection with the investigation of the disappearance of the 12.8% of the state share in Ukrayina Bank, reports UNIAN.

Mr. Korol also suggested the deputies to pass a decision on instituting criminal proceedings against the governing body of the National Bank and making public the list of the owners and cofounders of the biggest firms that are debtors to Bank Ukrayina.

In addition, Mr. Korol recommended the Cabinet of Ministers draw its own conclusions about Minister of Economy Oleh Shlapak who, in the opinion of the Committee members, “is passive in making decisions connected with solving the Bank Ukrayina Bank problems.”