Boholiubov to appeal London High Court decision in PrivatBank case
Former owner of PrivatBank Hennadiy Boholiubov has said he plans to appeal the decision of the High Court of London in the PrivatBank case, issued on July 30, 2025, the businessman's press service told Interfax-Ukraine.
"We believe that the judge made a significant error in the key conclusions regarding Mr. Bogolyubov's involvement in the fraud, and the alleged harm and losses caused to the bank," said the businessman's lawyer George Maling from the Enyo Law firm.
The report emphasizes that the defense believes that during the consideration of the case, errors were made in assessing the role of Boholiubov in the disputed events, who denies his involvement in any fraudulent actions and insists on his non-involvement in the financial schemes that became the subject of the trial.
"The appeal will be filed within the established time frame," the release says without specifying.
Earlier, another former owner of PrivatBank, Ihor Kolomoisky, who has been in custody in Ukraine for almost two years, also announced his intention to appeal the decision of the London court.
"The decision of the High Court of London will be appealed. We will defeat all Ukrainian corruptors taken together, whether they are from the Poroshenko camp or Yermak-Zelenskyy, truth and justice will be restored," the businessman's press service said in an official statement.
According to the text of the court decision, "one of the most significant (and interesting) aspects of Mr. Boholiubov's case is his statement that in early July 2014 he entered into an oral agreement with Mr. Kolomoisky that he would exercise the voting rights associated with his shares in the Bank and perform the duties of the Chairman of the Supervisory Board exclusively on the instructions of Mr. Kolomoisky."
According to Boholiubov, later, in May and June 2015, this was reflected in official documentation, but the nationalized PrivatBank did not agree with this statement, as did the judge later during the hearing of the case.
The court decision also noted that there was some documentary evidence indicating that Kolomoisky and Boholiubov may have parted ways since 2007, but this was contained in the testimony of Boholiubov's witness provided in court, on which PrivatBank was unable to cross-examine him. Therefore, the judge was unable to conclude that the witness's words fully reflected the true situation, especially since the former owners themselves refused to testify and be present at the cross-examination of the witness's testimony.
According to the ruling, Boholiubov considered himself more internationally oriented, having left Ukraine in 2007 and moved to London in 2009, where he remained until 2017, when he moved to Geneva. “His position was that since leaving Ukraine in 2007, he and Kolomoisky had been focusing on their own individual projects. Like Kolomoisky, he returned to Ukraine in 2019,” the judge noted.
He concluded that while it is entirely possible that there had been a change in the exact nature of the relationship between the former owners of PrivatBank, they continued to act in concert with each other during the period relevant to the proceedings.
"In short, the evidence shows that even after May 2015 they (Kolomoysky and Boholiubov) continued to control the Supervisory Board both through their continued role as members and through their ability as shareholders to control the composition of its members," the court verdict said.
As reported, according to the decision announced on July 30 of this year, Kolomoysky and Boholiubov are jointly and severally liable to the bank for compensation for the damage caused to it. This amount should be determined at $1 billion 911.88 million less the real value of the assets transferred to the bank, as indicated in the text of the decision. As noted by PrivatBank's lawyers, the court established the need to take into account their real value of approximately $140 million for the transferred assets, while the defendants' estimates (approximately $640 million) should not be taken into account.
As for the interest, Judge Trauer ruled that this issue should be resolved at the next hearing.
The amount of the payment that the former owners will be required to make will be determined at the next hearing in October 2025. It is expected that the amount compensated to the bank will exceed $2 billion, including interest and legal fees," the Ministry of Finance reported. PrivatBank itself and the National Bank agree with this assessment.
PrivatBank is the largest state-owned bank in Ukraine: its total assets as of April 1 of this year amounted to UAH 945.5 billion ($22.6 billion at the current exchange rate), or 25.2% of the entire banking system. Today, the bank serves more than 18 million active clients, and a total of 70 million Ukrainians use its services.
