Ukraine fires state bank chair after alleged $3.3 million bail-laundering scheme
The government and central bank also moved against Sense Bank’s CEO and financial monitoring chief while reviewing the bank’s entire supervisory board.
Ukraine has terminated Mykola Hladyshenko as chair of the supervisory board at state-owned Sense Bank following allegations that the bank was utilized for laundering 150 million hryvnias ($3.3 million) to secure bail for a former minister. The Cabinet's decision was made on August 21, ending Hladyshenko's authority and placing a state representative on the board to help restore a quorum.
The Finance Ministry and National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) are now tasked with ensuring proper governance and preparing the bank for sale. New recordings from NABU's investigation into an alleged $100 million kickback network at state nuclear operator Energoatom have shifted the NBU's assessment, suggesting that Hladyshenko's departure was merely formal and that he continued to exert influence over the bank.
The new evidence emerged on August 19 as part of Operation "Forest Gump." The Mindich tapes, named after businessman Tymur Mindich, a former associate of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, were released by NABU in response to questions about Hladyshenko's independence raised in a May review. The recordings also prompted the NBU to demand that Sense Bank suspend Liudmyla Snihur, head of the bank's financial and currency monitoring department, while it investigates potential interference with the bank's operating systems.
The government initiated suspension proceedings against Sense Bank's chair, Oleksii Stupak. Sense Bank, which was nationalized by Ukraine in 2023, was already in the process of being privatized before the investigation began.
Written by urgent.news from Euromaidan Press's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
