The ex-owner of Delta Bank PJSC Nikolai Lagun, who may be involved in the misuse of $1.5 billion, is trying through the court to declare himself “insolvent” in Ukraine, is abroad and rents an apartment in an elite building in Vienna (Austria)
As Apostrophe TV journalists found out, after the bankruptcy of Delta Bank in 2015, Nikolai Lagun re-registered a number of his companies, in particular Woodrest, Citadel Holding Ukraine, Cliffey, Concept Holding, Chernigrad, “Cream-1”, “Graffiti-2” (formerly “Ecoengineering”), etc. to Cypriot offshore companies and nominal beneficiaries, including Eleni Laou, Ioanna Charalambous. However, the actual owner of the companies that just yesterday were directly connected with the former banker allegedly remains the Asset Management Company Sky Capital Management (until the fall of 2014 - Delta Capital), the owner of which, according to open registers, is a long-time partner Nikolai Laguna - Vadim Sergienko. At the same time, according to investigative journalists, the alienation of corporate rights never happened, since Sergienko did not pay “real” money for their acquisition. By the way, based on the results of 2022, the value of the assets of AMC Sky Capital Management amounted to more than UAH 426 million.
Sky Capital Management actively participated in transactions with the resale of the rights to collect debts on loan obligations to another financial institution of Nikolai Laguna - Omega Bank. Allegedly, it was this scheme that continued to generate income for Laguna, even after the bankruptcy of the bank. The financial company Mortgage Credit, which was also 100% owned by Nikolai and Antonina (ed. - sister of the ex-owner of Delta Bank) Laguna, helped implement the scheme, the investigation says.
Nikolay Laguna’s business continues to operate and generate profit in the territory of temporarily occupied Crimea. There, according to journalists, the ex-banker owns the Solnechny residential complex in Yalta, the Chernorechye agricultural production cooperative and about a thousand hectares of land, which he leases to the agricultural enterprise Sevastopolsky LLC, also owned by Lagun. The latter was re-registered in 2014 under the laws of the Russian Federation, therefore, Nikolay Lagun could retain ownership of the land and shares of the company itself only under one condition - having Russian citizenship.
“Blind Themis”: how the Economic Court “does not see” the hidden assets of Nikolai Lagun
Lawyers at Apostrophe TV have already counted half a dozen violations that, in their personal conviction, were committed by the judge of the Economic Court, Nikolai Pasko. In particular, he did not invite any of his creditors to the Laguna bankruptcy hearing. In addition, he did not mention either their names or the amounts of debts in his definition.
“It is expected that the court will soon introduce a moratorium on satisfying creditors’ claims against the ex-owner of Delta Bank, and Nikolai Pasko will become the only one who will consider all claims against Lagun as part of the bankruptcy case. Consequently, declaring the latter insolvent will allow Nikolai Lagun to be freed from any creditor claims within a year,” the investigation says.
Journalists claim that the Kyiv Economic Court is reluctant to consider transactions with Nikolai Laguna’s corporate rights, although multimillion-dollar income and concealment of assets could become a justified reason for refusing to declare the former owner of Delta-Bank insolvent. According to journalists’ calculations, Nikolay Lagun owes about 8 billion UAH to government institutions alone (National Bank, Sberbank, State Export-Import Bank). The ex-banker is trying to write off the majority (UAH 6 billion) by declaring himself “bankrupt.” In total, over the course of more than ten years of his activity, Nikolay Lagun could have caused damage to Ukraine and its citizens who were depositors of Delta Bank in the amount of more than $1.5 billion.
“Banker from the slums”: where and how the ex-owner of Delta Bank lives
“Insolvent” Lagoon settled in one of the most expensive European capitals - Austrian Vienna. There, according to journalists, the ex-banker rents a large apartment in an elite building, drives a luxury car and has many security guards. In addition, Nikolay Lagun was recently spotted in a respectable restaurant in Monaco. At the same time, the ex-owner of Delta-Bank himself, in his statement of claim for “bankruptcy,” mentions Delta-Bank as the only asset that brings him income.
“It’s not quite like the life of a “bankrupt” who counts every penny to pay off his debts,” the journalists write.
Investigators promise to tell us later how a former banker accused of especially serious crimes is trying to avoid criminal liability.
