"According to the court, the decision was made despite the information attack and personal persecution against the judges," the statement on the BEB website reads.
According to the investigation, the bank's shareholder Olena Degryk-Shevtsova organized a scheme to legalize UAH 5 billion for illegal casinos using "miscoding".
During the pre-trial investigation, BEB detectives reported suspicions of high-ranking bank officials. The investigation materials regarding the organizer of the scheme, Shevtsova, and two other individuals were allocated to a separate criminal case under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: Art. 203-2 (illegal activities in organizing or conducting gambling, lotteries) and Art. 209 (legalization (laundering) of property obtained by criminal means).
"BEB detectives have collected sufficient evidence and conducted the necessary examinations, however, since the suspects are hiding abroad and are wanted, a petition was sent to the court to apply a special pre-trial investigation. Previously, such a mechanism was applied to [former People's Deputy and official Viktor] Medvedchuk, [former People's Deputy Andriy] Derkach and other fugitives, traitors, Russian war criminals and defendants in high-profile corruption cases," the Bureau of Economic Security said.
On March 13, the Lychakiv District Court of Lviv granted the detectives' petition. On the eve of the hearing, the court and its chairman Zhovnir were subjected to a large-scale information attack, according to a post on the court's website.