London court obliges Kolomoisky, others to pay PrivatBank GBP 10.9 m

"Following PrivatBank's success in the Court of Appeal, which confirmed in a judgment on 15 October 2019 that the Bank can pursue its fraud claim against its former owners in the English court, Mr Ihor Kolomoisky, Mr Gennadiy Bogolyubov and the other defendants must pay the Bank a total of £10.9 million by 12 November 2019," the statement reads.

It notes that the defendants have been ordered to pay back the interim costs payments that had been paid to them by the Bank after the first instance judgment last year. The Bank stands to receive GBP 4 million from Kolomoisky, GBP 2 million from Bogolyubov and GBP 1.5 million from the corporate defendants.

In addition, the defendants must pay the Bank's costs of both last year's hearing before Judge Fancourt and the money the Bank has spent pursuing the appeal. It will take some time for the total amount of the defendants' costs liability to be calculated, but in the meantime they must pay GBP 3.4 million of those costs on account by November 12.

On October 15, 2019, the Court of Appeal gave judgment confirming that the English court has jurisdiction to hear PrivatBank's fraud and conspiracy claims against its former shareholders, Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov. The worldwide freezing order, which has been in place since December 2017, will continue until judgment after trial.

The Court of Appeal granted PrivatBank's appeal in full on all grounds in a judgment handed down in London, overturning the prior judgment given by Mr Justice Fancourt in December 2018.

The three Lord Justices of Appeal concluded that "the Bank has a good arguable case to recover the full US$1.9 billion [US$3 billion including interest] given in the particulars of claim," and that the worldwide freezing order should remain in place.

The Court of Appeal ordered that "in circumstances where the fraud claim involves what the judge found was fraud and money laundering on an "epic scale," the Bank's claim should proceed to trial in England.

The Court of Appeal also refused to give the defendants permission to appeal the decision, and has required the defendants to file defenses to the claim by the end of November, meaning the Bank can move forward with the proceedings without further delay.

op