The NABU ceased criminal proceeding in respect of abuse of office by the Head of the NBU
On 12 April the criminal proceeding in respect of abuse of office by the Head of the National Bank of Ukraine was ceased upon decision of the NABU detective. This was done in accordance with the article 284, section 1, clause 2 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine due to the absence of the elements of a criminal offence.
It should be reminded that the information on the proceeding was entered into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations on 16 December 2015 by the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office upon the allegation from V. Shabunin, the head of the Anti-corruption Action Centre. The allegation was based on the information Oleksandr Dubinsky posted on his Facebook page and accused the Head of the NBU of abusing her position and giving her relatives information on financial state of the “Delta bank” PJSC which allowed them to withdraw their money from deposit accounts before interim administration was put into place.
In order to confirm this fact he presented a copy of a bank document on the account belonging to V.V. Gontareva, the daughter-in-law of Natalia Gontareva, the Head of the National Bank showing commission for cash withdrawal in the amount of 124.9 thousand UAH which could mean that the amount of cash withdrawn from the account in February 2016 was about 12 million UAH.
The pre-trial investigation established that the sum of 124.9 thousand UAH was the sum the commission was charged on, not the commission itself. On 11 February 2015 V.V. Gontareva withdrew 149.9 thousand UAH from her bank account. Since, according to the “Delta Bank” tariff committee protocol of 01-12-2014, any cash withdrawal exceeding the monthly limit of 25 thousand UAH, is charged with 2% commission, V.V. Gontareva was charged with commission in the amount of 2,498 UAH (149,900-25,000=124,900; 124,900*2%=2,498).
The allegation also stated that A.O. Gontarev, the son of the Head of the National Bank, enjoying special privileges, withdrew money from his deposit account at the time when the “Delta Bank” PJSC supposedly no longer returned the money. The pre-trial investigation established that after the end of the deposit period for his 800 thousand UAH deposit A.O. Gontarev signed a new deposit agreement for the sum of 200 thousand UAH on 9 February 2015. This sum was later reimbursed by the Deposit insurance fund within the established limit (200 thousand UAH). On 10 February 2015 he transferred the amount of 300 thousand UAH to his wife's account. On 11 February he withdrew 149.9 thousand UAH from his account, and the next day – 149.1 thousand UAH. Detectives established that over the period of 16 January – 2 March 2015 about 13 thousands of other “Delta Bank” PJSC clients performed similar transactions amounting to about 2 billion UAH. Therefore the actions of the son of the Head of National Bank were not exceptional and thus cannot be regarded as providing benefits to family members through abusing one's position.
The copy of the decision to cease the proceeding can be found using the link below.
The verification of other high-profile reports of the actions of NBU officials continues.
