The former chairman of the board of JSCB Arkada and his deputy were informed of suspicion of illegal misappropriation of UAH 480 million from depositors of three bank funds.
It is noted that the prosecutors of the Podolsk District Prosecutor's Office of the city of Kyiv were notified of suspicion of the former chairman of the board of JSC JSCB Arkada and his deputy of embezzlement and embezzlement of funds (Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
According to the investigation, in the period 2014-2020, the joint-stock commercial bank Arkada was the manager of three funds - two pension funds and a children's fund, the depositors of which were about 25 thousand individuals. Clients invested about UAH 480 million in these funds.
“The head of the bank’s board, who was also its beneficial owner, decided to invest them in bonds in order to take possession of these funds. To do this, he organized and purchased from a private enterprise, in which he was also the beneficial owner, interest-bearing bonds in the amount of UAH 480 million at a nominal value inflated by 99.9%,” the prosecutor’s office notes.
In turn, his deputy, a member of the bank’s board, squandered the funds of fund investors in favor of the specified private enterprise under the guise of purchasing the same interest-bearing bonds in the amount of UAH 72 million.
“Later, this money was transferred to the accounts of other enterprises controlled by the Chairman of the Board of the Bank. That is, in the end, UAH 480 million ended up in the accounts of his enterprises. The redeemed bonds were not repaid, which caused damage to investors represented by the Deposit Guarantee Fund for almost half a billion hryvnia,” the Office of the Prosecutor General emphasizes.
They add that the criminal investigation continues and the involvement of other persons in the crime is being established.
Arkada Bank went bankrupt
Let us recall that the National Bank of Ukraine declared Arkada Bank insolvent at the end of August 2020. Subsequently, they decided to liquidate the financial institution.
The reason for classifying the bank as insolvent was the NBU’s loss of ownership of its own office building in the center of Kyiv, which was re-registered in the name of Burisma Group top managers Mykola Zlochevsky.
Officials of Arkada Bank are also suspected of withdrawing 11.5 million hryvnia due to a scheme involving the promotional sale of apartments.
The Arkada-Construction company, associated with the Arkada Bank, built 39 houses in the large residential areas of Kyiv “Eureka”, “Patriotika” and “Patriotika on the Lakes”. After the bankruptcy of the bank, their construction was frozen and partially resumed after a change of developer.
JSCB Arkada was founded in 1993. The president and owner of 74.8% of the shares of Arkada Bank was Konstantin Palivoda.
In February 2021, Palyvoda was informed of suspicion of embezzlement of UAH 22.7 million. depositors.
