The former chairman of the "Sich" bank is under suspicion for embezzling nearly 22 million UAH.

Employees of the State Bureau of Investigations have reported suspicions against a former chairman of a commercial bank and a former director of a private enterprise. During the full-scale invasion, they allegedly misappropriated funds from the bank. This information was reported by the press service of the SBI on November 14.

According to investigators, the entrepreneur approached the bank in July 2022 to obtain a loan of 20 million UAH allegedly for purchasing fabric abroad. The chairman colluded with the businessman and other bank officials to unjustifiably secure the loan. Subsequently, the funds were used by the enterprise to purchase foreign currency, which was transferred abroad to non-resident companies based on fictitious contracts disguised as advance payments for goods delivery. As a result of these illegal actions, the bank incurred losses of 21.9 million UAH.

The SBI reminded that this commercial bank was declared insolvent by the NBU in October 2022 due to its inability to fulfill its refinancing loan obligations. The funds of citizens, which amounted to over 1.2 billion UAH held in the bank, will be returned by the state through the Deposit Guarantee Fund. It is clear from the circumstances that this refers to the "Sich" bank. At that time, the chairman of the bank was Viktor Demydenko.

The former chairman of the bank and the director of the borrowing enterprise have been informed of their suspicion of embezzlement of another's property in especially large amounts, by prior conspiracy of a group of individuals, under martial law (Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). Currently, the issue of choosing preventive measures for the suspects is being resolved. They face up to 12 years in prison.