The request from the state PrivatBank (Kyiv) to disqualify the panel of judges from the Cassation Economic Court within the Supreme Court (SC), which will hear an important dispute with the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant (NZF) on November 19, has once again been rejected, the state bank reported on Monday.
"As a result, the cassation appeal of the opponents was submitted to a panel of judges that the bank believes was formed illegally. Consequently, the bank recently filed another request to disqualify the newly appointed panel of judges of the Supreme Court, which was again rejected," the release stated.
PrivatBank informed that during the new review of the case in the appellate court, the prosecution took steps to change the previously determined panel of judges of the SC, which contradicts established procedural norms.
The bank believes that this violates the principle of the immutability of the court's composition and regards these actions as "manipulations by the opponents aimed at deliberately delaying the proceedings."
The financial institution reminds that the legal dispute between the state bank and the company, part of the group of companies owned by the former owners of the nationalized PrivatBank, Ihor Kolomoyskyi and Hennadiy Boholiubov, has been ongoing for four years. Specifically, NZF is attempting to prove in Ukrainian courts that it has fulfilled its credit obligations to the bank, while Privat claims there are no outstanding claims against the enterprise regarding loan repayments. The bank's claims concern the possible involvement of NZF and related enterprises in schemes of fraud and money laundering involving the bank for amounts exceeding $685 million. The bank has filed a lawsuit against the former owners in a U.S. court, but the American court has postponed the hearing of PrivatBank's claim until the final decisions are made by Ukrainian courts to determine their legal significance in the U.S. case.
It is specified that the hearing scheduled for November 19 regarding the case (No. 910/12559/20) filed by NZF against Privat is crucial.
According to PrivatBank’s lawyer, Dmytro Monastyrskyi, the claims of NZF in Ukraine are an attempt to resolve their issues in the U.S. through Ukrainian courts.
"NZF distorts the essence of the claims by presenting decisions from Ukrainian courts in the U.S. as supposed confirmation of the absence of any claims from PrivatBank," the lawyer noted.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of September 1 of this year, PrivatBank ranked first in total assets (904.08 billion UAH) among the 62 operating banks in the country. The net profit of the financial institution, according to the bank, amounted to 48.35 billion UAH from January to September.