Austria refused to extradite ex-chairman of the NBU Shevchenko to Ukraine

In Austria, the court refused to extradite to Ukraine the chief executive of the National Bank, Kirill Shevchenko, suspected of stealing more than 200 million hryvnia from Ukrgasbank. He previously sought asylum in the European country and said the case against him was political in nature.

According to Shevchenko, he is being persecuted in Ukraine because of his “uncompromising struggle” as head of the National Bank, since he allegedly refused to issue hryvnia and lower the discount rate in the first year of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Let us remind you that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau announced suspicion of embezzlement of Ukrgasbank funds against Kirill Shevchenko. However, it seems that the man fled from Ukraine abroad even at the moment when he headed the NBU.

At the end of October 2022, NABU put three officials of JSB Ukrgasbank on the wanted list, including Shevchenko.

According to investigators, he, first as first deputy and later as chairman of the board of Ukrgasbank, possessed information about banking service agreements concluded with large clients and used this to steal money.

Law enforcement officials claim that for this purpose, bank employees ensured the conclusion of fictitious agreements with individuals and legal entities who, allegedly as “agents” of the bank, attracted large clients to it. For such “agency services,” the bank illegally paid monthly “remuneration” to these people.

It is noted that during 2014-2019, under this scheme, 52 fictitious agents groundlessly transferred more than 206 million hryvnia from the state bank. The pseudo-intermediaries turned out to be individual entrepreneurs, self-employed people and legal entities. Most of them registered exclusively to participate in this scheme: after receiving the money, they ceased their activities and did not carry out other activities other than those indicated in the fictitious acts of performing services.