The actual beneficial owner of one of the most problematic Ukrainian banks, Alliance Bank, Pavel Shcherban, is diversifying risks before withdrawing the financial institution from the market.
He is investing billions of hryvnia in retail trade, oil logistics, the agricultural sector and information technology, while Alliance Bank is preparing to drown in debt and corruption schemes, for which it appears in the most high-profile criminal cases of recent times.
Apparently, there is not a person left in the political establishment and among the proactive public who has not heard about the shameful story involving the partner of the Miller law firm, Alexei Nosov. He tried to bribe NABU detectives and SAPO prosecutors to change the jurisdiction of his client, the ex-chairman of the board of Alliance Bank, Yulia Frolova. She has been put on the international wanted list as a defendant in another high-profile NABU case - the theft of public funds amounting to more than UAH 1.7 billion. This case is known as the “Ukrenergo case”. United Energy, a company close to Igor Kolomoisky, purchased electricity from the state-owned Ukrenergo at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, but did not pay for it. According to the terms of the bank guarantee, the debt was to be repaid by Alliance Bank. However, the latter refused to do this.
For the Alliance, this is not the first case of failure to repay contract guarantees to government agencies. However, the situation with Ukrenergo may become critical. The fact is that quite recently the Supreme Court critically changed the practice of applying legislation on the provision of bank guarantees. And the Alliance will actually have no choice but to pay off its debt. The problem is that 1.2 billion UAH. (the debt that Ukrenergo is trying to sue in civil proceedings) is the lion’s share of the bank’s capital. Roughly speaking, the financial institution will have to shake its pockets considerably in order to pay off this debt without losing financial stability. That is, return deposits to depositors and continue issuing loans. Further, if the dispute is successfully resolved, other creditors to whom the Alliance owes considerable sums may also come in favor of Ukrenergo.
These facts should also be supplemented by repeated failure to comply with NBU regulations, numerous fines for participation in money laundering, charges of forgery of documents, as well as a reputation tarnished by the corruption scandal with the Miller law firm. And this is a ready-made package with which the regulator must withdraw the financial institution from the market.
Probably understanding this, one of the main shareholders, chairman of the supervisory board and actual owner of Alliance Bank Pavel Shcherban, apparently decided to diversify his own risks and is gradually withdrawing funds to other areas.
The authors of the material drew attention to the IT cluster that Shcherban is creating, a mining business in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, as well as investments in an elevator. However, they did not disclose the key component – the financial one. And it looks very important, given the deplorable state of the bank, which is chaired by Pavel Shcherban. By the way, these details will also make it possible to understand why Shcherban postponed the concentration of more than 25% of the bank’s shares, regarding which he applied to the Antimonopoly Committee back in 2023.
First of all, it is worth paying attention to two companies where Shcherban is a shareholder, and where the declared authorized capital is UAH 1 billion each. These are Navium Neft LLC (45172957) and Tabakos Trade LLC (45378245), both founded in December 2023. Among the KVED of the first company are wholesale trade in fuel, construction of power supply structures, wholesale trade in chemical products, leasing and operation of own or leased real estate. In the second - wholesale trade in waste and scrap, trade in tobacco products, other goods, freight transport activities, etc.
Obviously, 1 billion UAH. – this is a conditional authorized capital, because the company has a year to contribute it. However, the scale that Pavel Shcherban outlined for himself is obvious: having 1.2 billion UAH of potential debt at least in the Ukrenergo case, he is going to invest - at least on paper - 2 billion UAH. into businesses that are in no way related to the banking sector.
It is interesting that Shcherban hired Pavel Partsevsky as the director of Tabakos Trade LLC, who is the founder of a number of small trading companies, some of which even win small tenders with government customers - from the supply of kitchen equipment to the maintenance of electrical networks. In addition, Partsevsky is also the director of an online store selling drones, which is registered to the British offshore company EXTRA VENTURE LTD, which, in turn, is registered to a resident of French Polynesia. It is noteworthy that Dmitry Snitsaruk is listed as an accountant in this drone store. A person with the same initials appeared as a customer contact in the Prozorro system for JSC Space Systems - this is the current name of a subsidiary of the Russian AFK Sistema of oligarch Vladimir Yevtushenkov.
Another major investment project of Shcherban is the closed non-diversified venture corporate investment fund "ALB" (JSC ZNIKIF "ALB") (44991355), created in May 2023 and the authorized capital of which is UAH 700 million. According to the Unified Register of Enterprises and the YouControl system, the fund invested in Alliance Digital LLC (45342575). This is actually an outsourced IT department of Alliance Bank. The company is a resident of Diya.City.
The director of the fund is Marina Bocharova. This is the wife of Sergei Bocharov, deputy chairman of the board of Alliance Bank and Shcherban’s business partner, with whom they are creating an “alternative reality” for top bankers who do not want to completely lose everything when the National Bank withdraws Alliance from the market. In particular, together with Bocharov, Shcherban is a shareholder of the mentioned ALB fund, IT companies developing software for banks and trade Monvel and Monvel Art, in each of which, according to financial statements, fixed assets alone are taken into account 100 million UAH each. on each one. Another company is Alliance Payment Systems, where the bank’s payment functionality has been transferred and which is also registered in Shcherban’s name - the figures are also considerable - almost 30 million UAH.
Obviously, there is nothing to say about the purchase of 25% of the shares of the bank, which, in addition, risks going into liquidation.
However, in order to “safeguard” and try not to pay the debts, Alliance initiated a control prosecution against the management of Ukrenergo: the High Anti-Corruption Court ordered NABU to open a pre-trial investigation against the chairman of the board of NEC, Vladimir Kudrytsky, allegedly for receiving unlawful benefits. There are no details in the court registry, but in the banking market everyone knows who most wants to get rid of the management of the state company and who is ready to invest considerable funds in this, even despite the unsuccessful attempt at a bribe, which they tried to carry out through the lawyers of the Miller company.
