The Imexbank case is not completed, because UAH 14 billion was never returned to Ukraine: a history of fraud

Former people's deputy, Yanukovych's ally, Odessa businessman and owner of the bankrupt Imexbank JSC Leonid Klimov must pay UAH 309 million to the National Bank by decision of the Supreme Court of June 12, 2024.

At the same time, the total debt of his financial institution since 2015 to creditors and depositors is 12 billion hryvnia. That is, almost 10 years since the stolen money has been moving through Klimov’s accounts, and he still moves freely around Odessa. In addition, in 2022, his plans were to become the Gauleiter of Odessa in the event of the city being captured by the Russian military.

Start of the diagram

For Leonid Klimov, the period from 2010 to 2014 became a goldmine, just when he was a freelance adviser to Yanukovych. Around 2011, a long-running scheme to steal money and deliberately bring the bank to bankruptcy began.

Imexbank, which had a loan portfolio of 12 billion hryvnia, issued highly liquid loans, with the money of ordinary depositors, to a number of legal entities, the beneficiary of which was Leonid Klimov himself. This money was secured by the property of the Odessa Chernomorets stadium. And this estimate is greatly overestimated, because in May 2017 the Guarantee Fund valued the stadium at less than UAH 1.5 billion. But the number of loan agreements grew exponentially over the course of three years. Because, according to Economic Pravda, in 2011 the stadium was secured by one loan agreement worth UAH 70 million, and since December 2014 – 41 loan agreements worth UAH 8.3 billion. The Supervisory Board covered its eyes with its hands because it was headed by his wife Klimova.

“Fictitious companies sometimes fulfilled their loan obligations. This provided an illusion and a closed cycle of on-lending. But one day, as planned, the financial pyramid collapsed,” notes lawyer Igor Kurilko. In the last months of 2014, assets and highly liquid collateral were withdrawn, and some borrowers changed the composition of the founders and re-registered in other areas. The bank's management announced billions of losses - in fact, the outstanding debts of their own companies. It is clear that the Revolution of Dignity undermined the influence and assets of the “regional” Klimov. However, after the annexation of Crimea, he tried to preserve and build a banking business in the occupied territory. Imexbank issued loans against collateral in Crimea, and after the annexation, they began selling certificates of settlement with the bank. Not only ordinary depositors and honest businesses suffered from his machinations, but also the NBU and the Individual Deposit Guarantee Fund.

In 2015, the National Bank declared Imexbank insolvent and introduced a temporary administration there, and the Guarantee Fund launched the procedure for liquidating the institution. Later, the Fund paid depositors 4.3 billion hryvnia and put up for sale the main building of the bankrupt Imexbank, the Klimov Tower on Gagarin Avenue. Outstanding claims amount to UAH 8.4 billion. A total of 170 criminal complaints were filed.

In 2017, Yuri Gramatika, the chairman of the bank’s board, was put on the wanted list as a suspect of abuse of power and embezzlement of property on an especially large scale. But in the indictment, the article about theft on an especially large scale disappeared, and they did not remember about the damage of 14 billion UAH. What about Klimov?

It is necessary to take into account his connections with local authorities and law enforcement agencies at the state level. Back in 2014, the case was conducted by the SBU unit in Odessa. The case was opened and closed and this is attributed to the influence of the Service from Kyiv. Not without the Prosecutor General's Office. This is a fairly large chain of contacts, which also takes into account the judicial vertical.

Courts for Chernomorets

Let's return to the stadium. After the bankruptcy of Imexbank, the owner of Chernomorets became the Deposit Guarantee Fund, which, since 2018, has repeatedly tried to sell it for two years. Bidding on Prozzoro did not produce results, even when the starting price of just over 1 billion UAH dropped to 200 million. It was purchased by an American company on an American site for the amount of 194 million UAH (we remember that the bank provided this property with a loan portfolio of 12 billion UAH). But something went wrong; more precisely, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the SBU blocked the transfer due to a number of criminal proceedings. Law enforcement officers did not touch the stadium case for three years, and after successful bidding, a case arose with arrest. Although, according to the law of Ukraine, it is prohibited to seize the property of an insolvent bank. However, this court decision exists and it was needed to block the purchase and sale process. The Guarantee Fund won the appeal, but the Kiev prosecutor's office again opened a new case. The stadium was arrested twice and handed over to the Asset Tracing and Management Agency (ARMA)

300 million or 14 billion

A separate matter is 300 million. In November 2014, while Klimov was still the owner of the bank, he entered into a guarantee agreement with the NBU to repay a stabilization loan of UAH 300 million to support liquidity. And it is likely that from this money he gave 500 million UAH to the Russian Sberbank for a kickback. He took upon himself to repay the debt to the National Bank. Within a year, the NBU informed Klimov with a demand to pay the debt, but he did not do so. Therefore, in 2016, the NBU went to court. The claim was upheld, the appeal court overturned the decision, and so it was for a long time: in 2017, 2018, 2020. They wanted to return part of the amount through the sale of the Lustdorf sports complex for more than 187 million UAH. In May 2024, the complex was put up for sale for the fourth time. Already in June 2024, the Supreme Court confirmed the obligation to repay the bank’s debt in the amount of UAH 309 million to the National Bank.

By the way, as the Left Bank publication noted, in 2017 Leonid Klimov was among the top twenty Ukrainian businessmen-debtors. And that year, the amount of their debts to the state was many times greater than the money that Ukraine planned to receive as a loan from the International Monetary Fund. It turns out to be a rather absurd chain of debts. And although the National Bank writes on its website that the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court, with its decision, finally put an end to a long dispute, this is the end of only one sentence, and not the entire text of Leonid Klimov.