Ex-head of Sense Bank supervisory board explained origin of payments in Midas case
Former chairman of the supervisory board of state-owned Sense Bank Nikolai Gladyshenko said that 150 million UAH in cash, which appear in NABU's investigation into the legalization of funds for posting bail for one of the participants in the Midas case, were not deposited into the bank. According to him, the money was credited to Sense Bank clients' accounts via non-cash transfers from other banks.
Gladyshenko also claims that allegations of possible "manual" interference with the bank's automated systems are not confirmed by technical expertise. According to him, any such interference would leave traces in information systems that cannot be deleted.
"No cash was deposited into Sense Bank," — the former supervisory board chairman said in a comment to Ukrainian News.
He noted that Sense Bank does not know the origin of the funds before they came from other banks.
Only part of the sum passed through Sense Bank
According to Gladyshenko, Sense Bank clients transferred only about a third of the total bail amount from their accounts in this bank. The remaining two-thirds, he claims, were transferred by the same business entities through other financial institutions — OTP Bank, PUMB and Idea Bank.
The former supervisory board head also stated that the payments at Sense Bank went through the established financial monitoring procedure. According to him, the bank's system automatically flags transactions with such purposes for additional verification, and information about the executed payments was promptly sent to the State Financial Monitoring Service.
What NABU says
On August 19, NABU and SAPO reported exposing a criminal organization whose members are accused, among other things, of money laundering and raiding. According to the investigation, the matter concerns 150 million UAH in cash that were introduced into legal circulation through a number of accounts of shell companies and subsequently used to post bail for one of the participants of the criminal organization in the Midas case.
NABU reported suspicions to members of the organization and related persons under articles on creation of a criminal organization, misappropriation of property, illegal seizure of enterprise property, money laundering, document forgery, and unauthorized interference with information systems. The investigation is ongoing, and the guilt of the suspects can only be determined by a court.
After the publication of the investigation materials, on August 19 the government suspended Gladyshenko from his duties and initiated the suspension of the chairman of the board of Sense Bank. The Cabinet of Ministers said that the facts publicized by anti-corruption bodies require assessment.
On August 21, the Cabinet of Ministers early terminated Gladyshenko's powers as chairman of the supervisory board. The reason was the National Bank's information about his non-compliance with established requirements for an independent member of the supervisory board of a state-owned bank.
Thus, Gladyshenko's statement represents his position regarding the circumstances of the payments and does not refute NABU's investigation itself. Anti-corruption agencies continue to establish the origin of the funds and the role of individual participants in the scheme.
Based on: Ukrainian News, NABU, Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine
