The Deposit Guarantee Fund is selling the property of Megabank, which is in the process of liquidation, at greatly reduced prices. The owner of Megabank, Viktor Subbotin, told UNN.
According to Subbotin, pools of claims under loan agreements of JSC Megabank totaling UAH 1.676 billion were put up for public auction through the Prozorro.Sale website, which were secured by collateral totaling UAH 2.39 billion. He clarified that the market value of the collateral was confirmed by the Big Four audit firms based on the results of the bank's operations in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Subbotin emphasized that the results of these audits are available to the bank's liquidator, i.e. the Deposit Guarantee Fund, and the National Bank of Ukraine.
"The actual value of the above pools amounted to UAH 216 million, which is 12.9% of the initial price of the claim pool. In other words, the method, procedure, composition and conditions of alienation of the bank's property approved by the Fund leads to a violation of the main principle stipulated by the Law of Ukraine "On the Deposit Guarantee System" - the sale of the bank's property (assets) at the highest price," Subbotin said.
At the same time, according to Subbotin, such "sale of assets" and "organization of bidding" are surprising, and such cases are not isolated.
The owner of Megabank said that the rights of claim under customer loan agreements totaling UAH 505 million were also put up for sale as one pool on the Prozorro.Sale website. According to the "Public Asset Passport" , the total area of the pledged real estate is about 16 thousand square meters, and the movable property, based on the description, is the equipment of these premises and is related to car maintenance. For example, the inventory includes "infrared drying, lifts."
According to Subbotin, these assets were sold for UAH 72 million, which is 14.2% of the initial price, or UAH 4 400 per square meter (USD 115 per square meter), even without taking into account the value of the equipment that was in these premises.
At the same time, according to the Prozorro.Sale website, the premises, which used to be a bank branch, were sold for UAH 13 million with an initial sale price of UAH 11.4 million (the area of the premises is 406.8 square meters), i.e. for 118%.
"And here the question arises, why is it so? Where does the principle - the sale of the bank's property (assets) at the highest cost - sometimes disappear? How do we return the funds to the state paid to depositors and other creditors in such a sale of the bank's property and assets?" Subbotin said.
In addition, according to him, the pools formed according to an unclear principle and sold at a high cost are surprising and questionable.
"There is a heterogeneity in the formation of the pool, where purely banking equipment (ATMs and payment terminals) is sold together with real estate (parking lots). Even a person inexperienced in "sales" can understand that banking equipment and parking spaces have different buyers. And the formation of such an "incomprehensible" pool leads to the result that equipment that is liquid in the banking market is sold at a price that is 50 percent or more below the balance sheet price," Subbotin added.
In his opinion, it is also worth paying attention to the unusual and incomprehensible formation of a large pool of assets for sale totaling UAH 2.119 billion, which includes borrowers from various sectors of the economy: trade, manufacturing, agriculture, construction, etc.
Subbotin noted that these assets are attractive to certain sectors of the economy where potential buyers work and who understand the market value of each individual asset from the respective sector of the economy. But, according to him, they will never spend money on the acquisition of a non-core asset.
"The formation of such a "large pool" is an understandable action if its ultimate goal is to sell the bank's property (assets) at the lowest cost," Subbotin explained.
Add
During a journalistic investigation conducted by UNN, it turned out that in 2023 , Rekrut spent more than 100 days abroad or on the way back and forth, which is almost half of all working days of the year. In 2022, her trips totaled more than 80 days.
It is noteworthy that according to Svitlana Rekrut's declaration , in 2022 she received compensation from the DGF for excessive travel expenses in the amount of over UAH 65 thousand.
At the same time, the DGF press service in 2022-2023 reported only three international events that took place abroad with Svitlana Rekrut's personal participation.
In addition, during the investigation, UNN learned that Svitlana Rekrut repeatedly used two Toyota Camry cars belonging to Megabank JSC, which has been in the process of liquidation since July 2022, to travel abroad.
She started using one of the cars in October 2022.
According to the Law "On the Deposit Guarantee System", the property of a bank in liquidation may be used for the purpose of saving money only by a representative of the DGF who is part of the temporary administration. According to the website youcontrol, Svetlana Rekrut is not an authorized person from the DGF to liquidate JSC Megabank. Currently, the liquidation is carried out by Iryna Bila on behalf of the Fund.
In its responses to journalistic inquiries, the DGF claims that Svitlana Rekrut used cars owned by Megabank JSC exclusively for business trips and to save money.
However, according to UNN, on September 22, 2022, she traveled abroad in a Toyota Camry owned by Megabank JSC, together with her parents Valery and Valentina Rekrut. They returned to Ukraine three days later on September 25, 2022. It is worth noting that Svitlana Rekrut traveled from Thursday to Sunday, which means that it is unlikely that she was traveling with her parents on a business trip on the weekend in the car of the bank that is being liquidated.
Recall
Following a deputy appeal by Nina Yuzhanina, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption launched an investigation into a possible conflict of interest of Recruit when she used cars owned by Megabank for traveling abroad.
In addition, Megabank owner Viktor Subbotin plans to appeal to law enforcement agencies regarding the use of bank cars by Recruit for personal trips abroad and the sale of Megabank assets by the Fund at significantly reduced prices.
In response to a journalistic inquiry about Recruiter's travels abroad, the DGF reported that information on the movements of the Fund's officials (business trips, business trips, etc.) is official information with limited access, and added that Recruiter had applied to law enforcement agencies regarding IA UNN.