NABU, SAPO unable to explain to lawmakers what grounds used to open case against VAB Bank

The Verkhovna Rada's anti-corruption committee today, July 8, considered the issue of enforcing the decision made by Kyiv's Pechersky district court to close the case concerning a stabilization loan issued to VAB Bank. At the meeting, lawmakers tried to get answers from NABU and SAPO regarding the grounds for both opening and appealing against the closure of this case under the court ruling.

In particular, representatives of NABU could not answer any of the questions raised by MP Anatoliy Burmich on whether the specific appropriation of funds was documented by the audit materials (because if there was no appropriation, there are no reasons to launch the criminal proceedings), whether this audit and counter-inspection were carried out at all, whether the bank sent an offer on the readiness to return the funds of the loan received, which makes the proceedings an administrative rather criminal one, and whether NABU handles cases concerning some other banks that have not returned loans to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), in particular with respect to PrivatBank. Having received no answer, the lawmaker noted that NABU had been investigating the case for 3.5 years, and at the same time, it could not answer specific questions, although the answers to them are in the public domain.

In turn, lawyer Tetiana Kozachenko recalled that the investigated and closed case had been reopened by the then Deputy Prosecutor General Vitaliy Kasko unreasonably and with numerous violations. In addition, official examinations established the groundlessness of the charges. "Kasko did not have materials of the criminal proceedings, all 100 volumes, and he did not look into any of them. He was only eight days in office. And the decision was made without the availability of the materials, outside the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine. The investigator got the materials, all 100 volumes, only two weeks after," Kozachenko commented.
In addition, the lawyer noted that neither NABU nor SAPO is a subject of the decision by the Prosecutor General's Office to resume the litigation, therefore it is unclear why they dispute this court ruling: "The case was investigated by the National Police, the decision was made by the Prosecutor General's Office. And now NABU and SAPO are appealing the decision made by the Prosecutor General's Office, and challenging it via the HACC [High Anti-Corruption Court]. How are SAPO and NABU involved in this?"

It must be mentioned that on June 5, Kyiv's Pechersky district court issued a ruling that invalidated the decision by Vitaliy Kasko, the former deputy of the then Prosecutor General Ruslan Riaboshapka, to reopen the case against ex-deputy head of the NBU Oleksandr Pysaruk and businessman Oleg Bakhmatyuk. However, NABU and SAPO still refuse to enforce the court ruling, which is final, and appealed it in the HACC, although it should be considered by the authorized Appeals Court in Kyiv.