REUTERS
If the bank refuses to return the money, the offshore companies may file a lawsuit to recover it.
Kyiv's Court of Appeals has rejected state-owned PrivatBank's appeal against a ruling passed by Kyiv's Pechersky district court to order the bank to pay over US$250 million to the Surkis brothers' companies.
According to the court's clarification, the bank must comply with the terms of deposit agreements concluded with Camerin Investments, Sunnex Investments, Tamplemon Investments, Berlini Commercial, Lumil Investments, Sofinam Investments (all are UK-based). The point at issue is the payment of bank deposits and interest worth US$250 million, or about UAH 7 billion.
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Ukraine's Justice Ministry commented on this decision, saying that there are no grounds for forced recovery of US$250 million from PrivatBank in favor of the Surkis brothers' companies, as there is no court decision on such recovery.
"The Justice Ministry, as the body that executes court rulings, will not recover the billions [in the local currency] from PrivatBank now, because there was and there is no court decision to recover the money from the bank," the ministry said. "Such scenario will become possible only if the offshore companies file lawsuits to recover the money (in case of the bank's refusal to return the deposited funds) and secure a court ruling that will have to be enforced."
On February 25, Kyiv's Pechersky district court ordered PrivatBank to pay deposits worth more than US$200 million to the companies of the Surkis brothers.
As UNIAN reported, the State Enforcement Service on December 29, 2017, seized assets and a number of accounts of PrivatBank "in the case of recovering funds from the bank in favor of Ihor Surkis and his family members, which were converted into the capital of the financial institution during its nationalization.
On November 13, 2017, the State Enforcement Service opened proceedings to collect funds from PrivatBank in favor of Marina Surkis, Rakhmil Surkis, Ihor Surkis and Svitlana Surkis in keeping with a ruling passed by Kyiv's District Administrative Court of May 17 in the amount of UAH 1.05 billion (or US$38.9 million), US$266,200, and EUR 7,800, converted into the capital of the financial institution during its nationalization.
UNIAN memo. PrivatBank (Dnipro) has been operating in Ukraine since 1992 and is the country's largest bank in terms of assets. On December 18, 2016, the Cabinet of Ministers decided to nationalize the bank, as was recommended by the National Security and Defense Council, which took into account the proposal of the National Bank of Ukraine. During the government's entry into the bank's capital, the funds of persons associated with the financial institution were converted into capital (bail-in procedure) to reduce the state's expenses on additional capitalization of the financial institution. The Surkis family has been seeking in court the cancellation of the decision to recognize them as persons affiliated with the bank.