Court in Kiev extends Kolomoisky's arrest

MOSCOW. Jan 23 (Interfax) - The Shevchenkovsky District Court in Kiev has extended the arrest of businessman Igor Kolomoisky until March 2 and has cut the bail from 3.9 billion to 2.65 billion hryvni, Ukrainian media said on Monday night.

As reported, Kolomoisky's lawyers demanded that his incarceration be replaced with house arrest in the village of Nikolskoye-na-Dnepre in the Dnepropetrovsk region, in particular, because of poor health.

The court also denied Kolomoisky's bail.

Earlier reports said that Kolomoisky was suspected of fraud and embezzlement of PrivatBank funds. The Security Service of Ukraine charged him on two counts, i.e. fraud (Article 190 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code) and money laundering (Article 209). The police found that the businessman laundered over 0.5 billion hryvni by transferring the fund abroad in 2013-2020. He used the infrastructure of banks under his control to do so.

Investigators said that Kolomoisky embezzled 5.8 billion hryvni in 2013-2014 by setting up a criminal group of employees in a bank he founded and had a share in.

The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau informed PrivatBank ultimate beneficiary Kolomoisky and five former bank top managers they were suspected of embezzling bank funds totaling over 9.2 billion hryvni.