British court rules to seize assets of Bank Finance and Credit ex-owner Zhevaho due to non-payment of UAH 1.5 bln - NBU
The High Court of Justice of England and Wales has issued an order to seize the assets of Kostiantyn Zhevaho - the former owner of Bank Finance and Credit, the liquidation of which began in 2015, the National Bank of Ukraine reported on Friday.
"At a hearing "without notice" on July 11, 2025, the High Court of Justice granted the National Bank's application to freeze certain assets of Kostiantyn Zhevaho until the final decision of the English court on the NBU's claim for the recognition and enforcement in England of the decision of the Kyiv Shevchenkivsky District Court dated October 1, 2019, which was made against Kostiantyn Zhevaho," the central bank noted.
It recalled that the Shevchenkivsky Court ordered Zhevaho to pay a debt of UAH 1.539 billion in favor of the NBU, because in 2015 the former owner of Finance and Credit Bank concluded a surety agreement on the repayment of the bank's refinancing loans under a number of loan agreements, assuming personal obligations for the repayment of the financial institution's debt to the National Bank.
It is noted that the legal process in England was a continuation of the NBU's many years of work to recover this debt, which began in December 2015 with an appeal to the court in Ukraine.
In December 2019, the decision entered into force and the National Bank appealed to the State Enforcement Service for the forced execution of the court decision to collect the debt. However, Zhevaho evaded its full execution, which is why it has not yet been possible to fully execute the court decision in Ukraine, the NBU explained.
The interests of the National Bank of Ukraine in a foreign jurisdiction are represented by an advisor - the leading global law firm Hogan Lovells International LLP, which helped the nationalized PrivatBank win a court dispute in London with its former owners.
As reported, on September 17, 2015, the NBU made a decision to classify Finance and Credit Bank as insolvent. At the time of this decision, the bank's majority shareholder was Zhevaho, who indirectly owned a 97.67% stake.