NBU recognizes his business reputation as not impeccable for attempt to seize his IIB shares - Poroshenko
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) plans to recognize the former president and leader of the opposition party European Solidarity as "a person with an impeccable business reputation" next week, using the Presidential Decree on sanctions against him, Poroshenko himself claims.
"The law does not provide for such a mechanism. This is an internal interpretation of the National Bank. But it is precisely this that will allow you to realize your goal: to block and try to withdraw the shares of the bank (International Investment Bank, IIB) that belong to me," Poroshenko wrote on Facebook on Friday evening as part of a public discussion with NBU Chairman Andriy Pyshny.
Before that, the head of the National Bank denied the accusations from Poroshenko and the political force he leads that the audit of the IIB and the operations of the Poroshenko Charitable Fund (CF) and the public organization Sprava Hromad, whose accounts are located in this bank, is a political persecution of the opposition and the implementation of the instructions of the authorities.
"We deny any political subtext in the actions of the National Bank," the NBU said in a statement on its website on Friday.
At the same time, Poroshenko insists that scheduled and unscheduled inspections of the IIB call into question the independence of the NBU and the impeccable reputation of its chairman, and that the subject of the National Bank's interest is the Poroshenko Charitable Foundation, the ROSHEN Foundation, the NGO Sprava Hromad and European Solidarity.
"And it is precisely regarding them that you are demanding documents, explanations, and an answer to the question of why the bank did not recognize the transactions of these clients as risky. And you will try to impose a fine again. I hope you will have the sense not to do this. You are actually demanding that the activities of charitable organizations be treated as suspicious," the ex-president claims.
He disagrees with the NBU's statement that the IIB audit is planned, because it comes immediately after the completion of the previous planned audit for the period 2022–2024 and begins simultaneously "with the cleansing of the political field in the country."
Poroshenko also insists that the financial monitoring announced by the National Bank is actually a political interest in the nature of volunteer assistance and leads to multi-million fines, loss-making of the bank, and gaining control over it.
The majority shareholder of IIB also states that the NBU's fine of UAH 20.5 million imposed on the bank last week for servicing a company that had a contract with the Ministry of Defense is confirmation of a selective attitude towards the bank, because other banks that work with the same company are free of sanctions.
The ex-president also calls on the National Bank to remove the "banking secrecy" stamp from its request, since the NBU is proposing a public discussion on this issue.
In addition, Poroshenko criticized the National Bank for blocking his tax payments and the circular sent to banks about blocking his accounts based on the presidential decree, which at that time had not been published and had not entered into force.
"This is abuse of power and servility instead of independence. Both situations are currently being considered by the Supreme Court as part of my lawsuit against Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The hearing is on April 17," the ex-president said.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of February 1 of this year, IIB ranked 26th among 61 banks in the country in terms of total assets (UAH 14.37 billion). It occupies 0.19% of the banking system's assets.
