NV/Natalia Kravchuk

Oleksandr Pysaruk, a former first deputy governor of the NBU and former IMF employee, claims that NABU is intentionally dragging its feet on the VAB Bank refinancing case instead of admitting its mistake and closing the case.

The former IMF employee and currently CEO of Raiffeisen Bank Aval, Oleksandr Pysaruk, commented on the NABU case against him and the businessman Oleg Bakhmatyuk in an interview with NV.

According to Oleksandr Pysaruk, his lawyers filed a motion seeking reversal of the notice of suspicion back in May, where they presented detailed evidence of his innocence based on expert examinations and opinions by legal scholars, which as the banker put it ‘shatters NABU’s case to pieces’. ‘In this situation, the right thing to do would be for NABU to admit their mistake and close the case but it looks like NABU is reluctant to do so, that is why they are looking for ways to delay the case’, stated Pysaruk. 

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According to him, the case is being intentionally delayed because the deadline for the pretrial investigation is approaching, which is limited to one year. ‘They are going out of their way to delay the case using dubious legal methods, to put it mildly. They are trying to ‘hang’ the case, merge it with another case… We will not let them ‘hang’ it or put it on the back burner and keep it there, as often happens’.

Pysaruk stated that NABU ‘is prepared to implicate and sacrifice honest people, who have not committed any crime, in pursuit of their agenda’. ‘We may call it lack of professionalism, we may call it ‘got it all wrong’ or there might be an ulterior motive but the facts presented by my lawyers prove my innocence, they should calm down and admit their mistake, and cancel the suspicion notice’, said the banker. ‘No apologies, please, I don’t need their apologies, they should calm down and admit their mistake’.

Just as a reminder, the NABU case against Pysaruk and Bakhmatyuk was opened on allegations of misappropriation of refinancing extended by the NBU to VAB Bank during the banking crisis of 2014. Expert opinions by the State Deposit Guarantee Fund and statements by the NBU confirm that the proceeds of refinancing were fully used according with their designated purpose, they were paid out to the bank’s depositors.