"Bank Alliance" vs. Agroholding AST: the bank’s attempt to cover up fraudulent schemes with black PR

"Bank Alliance" vs. Agroholding AST: the bank’s attempt to cover up fraudulent schemes with black PR

Agricultural holding AST has issued a public response to a media attack that began on July 17, 2023.

In the response, it is stated that Agricultural holding AST, like the entire agribusiness, is currently operating in survival mode. Despite this, AST even under war conditions, remains a responsible business partner and a taxpayer contributing millions to the state budget. In the context of the full-scale invasion, the agricultural holding preserves jobs, helps local communities, and allocates millions of hryvnias to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

AST has achieved such results thanks to effective operational management, with all managers and business owners located in Ukraine and continuing to work; no one has avoided problems or the war by staying abroad. Baseless claims about the agricultural holding and its management being linked to the name Medvedchuk during the war is a rather popular way to discredit nowadays for obvious reasons. In the public response, which was published in many media outlets, Agricultural holding AST has convincingly refuted all the absurd accusations.

The response from Agricultural holding AST states that neither the agricultural holding nor the company’s management has ever been and is not associated with Viktor Medvedchuk and Oksana Marchenko, nor are they personally acquainted with them, which excludes the existence of both partnership and friendly relations with these individuals.

The agricultural holding is confident that this informational attack is one of the tools "Bank Alliance" uses to try to seize funds and property of the agricultural holding and distract attention from its illegal transactions and fraudulent schemes.

The response argues that "Bank Alliance," through its counterparty "Evoterra Trade LLC," and with the participation of top bank officials, specifically the chairman of the Supervisory Board of "Bank Alliance," Pavlo Shcherban, attempted to seize funds and assets of Agricultural holding AST. This is about a fraudulent scheme involving a loan issued by "Bank Alliance" for the purchase of fertilizers through its counterparty, as a result of which the agricultural holding did not receive fertilizers, but the credit payment obligations remained.

Appeal to law enforcement authorities regarding the fraudulent actions of "Bank Alliance" representatives ended with the information being entered into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations. The pre-trial investigation in criminal case No. 12022111380000371, initiated on 28.07.2022 under evidence of a criminal offense provided for in Part 3 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, has not yet led to results.

During this critical time, when every enterprise in Ukraine operates under extreme conditions and every business owner and manager must constantly monitor the operational business cycle and be present on the ground, all key top managers of "Bank Alliance" are not performing their direct duties in managing the enterprise and have abandoned the bank. The owner of "Bank Alliance," Oleksandr Sosis, with money stolen from his own bank, Chairman of the Supervisory Board Pavlo Shcherban, and the Chairman of the Board Yuliya Frolova—all fled the country from fulfilling their direct duties and have been abroad since the start of the full-scale invasion. Most importantly, they do not care for and do not address the problems of those for whom banks are established—their customers, ordinary depositors of "Bank Alliance," and plan to further use the bank and clients’ funds as instruments for their fraudulent schemes.

It is worth noting that a situation where "Evoterra Trade LLC," which is associated with "Bank Alliance," did not fulfill its obligations to supply fertilizers to agricultural enterprises, is not isolated, as indicated by numerous court cases.

https://youcontrol.com.ua/ru/catalog/court-document/107460429/ https://reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/108320924

"Bank Alliance" is involved in thousands of court cases in Ukraine and has been repeatedly suspected by the Security Service, the Prosecutor General’s Office, and NABU of money laundering and transferring funds to beneficiaries in the Russian Federation. Furthermore, one of the state’s largest energy companies, "Ukrenergo," for over a year now has not been able to receive from "Bank Alliance" a debt of nearly 1.2 billion UAH. All these facts prove that "Bank Alliance" has used fraudulent schemes on a systemic basis for many years as a tool for illegal enrichment.

It should be noted that officials of "Bank Alliance" have been outside Ukraine since the beginning of the war and continue to be, as mentioned by online resources repeatedly.

We ask the law enforcement agencies to pay attention to the illegal activities of "Bank Alliance." We are confident that a thorough investigation of such fraudulent schemes and strict punishment for them will guarantee the development of fair business in Ukraine even during the war and attract investors after our Victory.

unian.ua