[UPDATED: Sept. 5, 4:16 pm
, Kyiv time. Ukreximbank changed to Ukrgasbank due an accidental mistake]
Twenty-one banks, including four state-owned lenders, were used to channel funds for the Hr.150 million (roughly $3.3 million) bail posted for former Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko, Deputy Head of Ukraine’s State Financial Monitoring Service (SFMS) Bohdan Korolchuk told lawmakers. Speaking at a Wednesday, Sept. 2 meeting in Kyiv of the Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada’s Temporary Investigative Commission on Economic Security, Korolchuk said that the funds passed through roughly 85 accounts.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. The four state-owned institutions involved were Sense Bank, Oschadbank, PrivatBank and Ukrgasbank, according to Interfax-Ukraine. Transfers and monitoring The bail funds, according to Korolchuk, were transferred between June 25 and June 29. On June 30, the State Financial Monitoring Service prepared and provided priority materials to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), followed by additional information that included transaction chains and evidence underlying suspicions. The financial-monitoring agency had proactively sent inquiries to all 59 Ukrainian banks on Feb. 17, Korolchuk said. Transfers, however, are not monitored in real time, as the system processes more than 50 million transactions daily and institutions provide information on suspicious activity after transactions have occurred. According to Korolchuk, Hr. 14 million (about $313,804) had been stopped during the investigation. He said that banks may refuse or suspend suspicious transfers under Ukrainian law, noting that the SFMS can ask the National Bank of Ukraine to impose enforcement measures or sanctions when banks report transactions late or incompletely.
