On 30 July 2025, Mr Justice Trower handed down judgment, following a 14-week trial taking place between June and November 2023, in JSC Commercial Bank Privatbank v Kolomoisky & others [2025] EWHC 1987 (Ch).
In these high-profile proceedings, Privatbank, Ukraine’s largest bank, brought claims against its former owners, Igor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Bogolyubov, contending that they had perpetrated a massive fraud upon the bank, which had contributed to the bank’s failure and subsequent nationalisation in 2016. The bank contended that, while under their ownership, Mr Kolomoisky and Mr Bogolyubov had orchestrated the extraction of more than US$1.9bn from the bank via a series of sham loans to a network of shell companies within their ownership and control.
The Court upheld the bank’s claims against Mr Kolomoisky and Mr Bogolyubov, rejecting a variety of legal and factual defences raised by the defendants, and held them jointly and severally liable to compensate the bank for the US$1.9bn extracted, less the value of certain assets received by the bank. The Court also found six companies who had participated in the fraud, and who it found to be owned and controlled by Mr Kolomoisky and Mr Bogolyubov, liable to compensate the bank in the sum of certain funds they had received.
A copy of the judgment can be found here.
James Willan KC, Tim Akkouh KC, Chris Lloyd and Catherine Jung of Essex Court Chambers were all instructed for Privatbank, alongside Robert Anderson KC and Andrew Hunter KC of Blackstone Chambers and Conor McLaughlin of Erskine Chambers. They were instructed by Richard Lewis, Rebecca Wales, Oliver Humphrey and Jenna Ralfe of Hogan Lovells.
