Boholiubov, Kolomoisky intend to file $23 mln suit against the United States with ICSID for forfeiture actions targeting their assets – media

Interfax | 9 February 2021

Boholiubov, Kolomoisky intend to file $23 mln suit against the United States with ICSID for forfeiture actions targeting their assets – media

U.S. Optima Ventures, registered in the state of Delaware, and its subsidiary owned by former owners of PrivatBank Ihor Kolomoisky and Hennadiy Boholiubov intend to file a lawsuit against the United States seeking compensation of $23 million in response to two civil forfeiture actions targeting their assets in Louisville (Kentucky) and Dallas (Texas).

According to the Global Arbitration Review, citing companies controlled by Kolomoisky and Boholiubov, the lawsuit will be filed with the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

At the same time, the ICSID website does not currently have information about this lawsuit.

On August 6, the U.S. Department of Justice said that the United States filed two civil forfeiture complaints today in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida alleging that commercial real estate in Louisville, Kentucky, and Dallas, Texas, both acquired using funds misappropriated from PrivatBank in Ukraine, are subject to forfeiture based on violations of federal money laundering statutes.

According to the document, the complaints allege that Kolomoisky and Boholiubov, who owned PrivatBank, embezzled and defrauded the bank of billions of dollars. The complaints allege that they laundered a portion of the criminal proceeds using an array of shell companies’ bank accounts, primarily at PrivatBank’s Cyprus branch, before they transferred the funds to the United States. As alleged in the complaint, the loans were rarely repaid except with more fraudulently obtained loan proceeds.

As alleged in the complaints, in the United States, associates of Kolomoisky and Boholiubov, Mordechai Korf and Uriel Laber, operating out of offices in Miami, created a web of entities, usually under some variation of the name "Optima," to further launder the misappropriated funds and invest them.

According to the release, they purchased hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate and businesses across the country, including the properties subject to forfeiture: the Louisville office tower known as PNC Plaza, and the Dallas office park known as the former CompuCom Headquarters. The buildings have a combined value of approximately $70 million.

source: Interfax