After attempts by a businessman and a former deputy to hide the facts of property ownership, the court arrested Konstantin Zhevago’s 50.3% stake in three mining and processing plants of his Ferrexpo AG group.
The Economic Court of Kyiv, following a lawsuit by the Guarantee Fund, seized the assets of the owner of the Finance and Credit bank, Konstantin Zhevago, as part of a case to indemnify the bank for 46 billion hryvnias. This was reported by the press service of the Deposit Guarantee Fund of Individuals.
It is known that the seizure of the assets of the businessman and the former deputy occurred after the defendant’s attempts to hide the facts of ownership of property, due to which the claims of the Fund may be satisfied in the future.
At the same time, the managers, shareholders and beneficiaries of an insolvent bank were obliged to inform the Fund about the property (assets) they own, as well as to inform about obligations upon request.
“Zhevago did not comply with such a requirement,” the Fund for Guaranteeing Individuals’ Deposits notes.
Therefore, the court arrested the share of Konstantin Zhevago in the amount of 50.3% in three mining and processing plants of his Ferrexpo AG group:
Poltava Yeristovsky Belanovsky.
It is noted that these shares through Ferrexpo AG indirectly belong to the businessman.
The court also prohibited other companies related to it from alienating these assets.
“Now the Fund’s claim against the owner of the bank is in the first instance in Ukrainian jurisdiction, and it is extremely important that during the consideration of this case, the assets are preserved in full and subsequently could be used to compensate for losses caused to the bank’s creditors,” said Deputy Director- Manager of the Deposit Guarantee Fund Viktor Novikov.
Meanwhile, Ferrexpo on its official website stated that the arrest of the businessman’s stake in three mining and processing plants is part of an ongoing series of legal proceedings against the businessman. The company believes that all this is connected with “current affairs in Ukraine with the participation of a businessman and one of the enterprises that he owned until 2015.”
The company also recalled that they had previously successfully appealed a similar arrest applied to the shares of Ferrexpo AG at the Poltava Mining and Processing Plant.
How Konstantin Zhevago ended up under arrest
He was detained on December 27, 2022 in the ski resort of Courchevel in the French Alps after a corresponding request from Ukraine. According to investigators, Zhevago organized a mechanism for embezzlement of $113 million from his bank JSC Bank Finance and Credit. He was suspected of committing crimes under Part 3 of Art. 27, part 5 of Art. 191, part 3 of Art. 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, and the court sent him under extradition arrest.
The State Bureau of Investigation reported that the property of the suspected businessman was seized. In particular, we are talking about the shares of his companies worth hundreds of millions of hryvnias and real estate.
Already on January 5, 2023, Konstantin Zhevago was released on bail of 1 million euros. Reuters noted that Zhevago does not consider himself guilty, assuring that his case is politically motivated.
In October 2019, the SBI put Konstantin Zhevago on the wanted list, and in December of the same year, a Ukrainian court issued a permit for his arrest. In August, it also became known that the journalists of Ukrayinska Pravda tracked down the fugitive oligarch Konstantin Zhevago in Monaco on his own yacht called “Z”.
