Financial scam of 22 million hryvnias: Former chairman of the "Sich" bank board has been notified of suspicion.

The former head of the board of a Ukrainian bank and the director of a borrowing company are suspected of a large-scale financial fraud. The perpetrators face the risk of imprisonment for up to 12 years with asset confiscation.

This was reported by RBK-Ukraine citing the press service of the National Police.

According to sources from RBK-Ukraine, this concerns the bank "Sich."

Preliminary information indicates that the individuals involved orchestrated a massive scheme, resulting in multimillion-dollar losses for the bank and the Deposit Guarantee Fund for individuals.

The investigation revealed that representatives of the bank and a commercial enterprise entered into several agreements for crediting in the form of overdrafts—allowing transactions without sufficient funds in the account. The bank agreed to extend a credit limit of over 20 million hryvnias to the enterprise, despite the lack of real collateral.

According to the investigation, the agreement was made without proper verification of the borrower, and the collateral only existed on paper.

After receiving the funds, the commercial entity quickly converted them into foreign currency and transferred them to accounts of foreign companies in Turkey. According to fictitious contracts, this was part of an advance payment for the supply of goods. However, in reality, the funds were withdrawn in cash through affiliated individuals.

Ultimately, the bank was declared insolvent, and its obligations to depositors were transferred to the Deposit Guarantee Fund, which incurred losses amounting to nearly 22 million hryvnias.

The former head of the bank and the director of the borrowing enterprise have been charged under part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which provides for up to 12 years of imprisonment with asset confiscation.

Photo: The former head of the "Sich" bank has been notified of the suspicion (npu.gov.ua)

Bank "Sich"

Bank "Sich" was one of the Ukrainian banks that ceased operations in 2022. Although it was among the TOP-30 Ukrainian banks by asset size, the National Bank of Ukraine had to revoke its license and liquidate it.