Businessman Shulman accuses Kolomoisky, Boholiubov of embezzling over $500 million

Ukrainian businessman Vadim Shulman is proving the fact of the embezzlement of over $500 million by Ihor Kolomoisky and his partner Hennadiy Boholiubov in court in London, Kyiv Post publication has reported.

The publication received a copy of Shulman’s claim.

The publication said that the claim was filed in May 2017. He claims in the document that Kolomoisky and Boholiubov used a 15-year friendship to defraud him in business deals – from the joint acquisition of Pivdenny Mining (Dnipropetrovsk region) and Dnipropetrovsk Petrovsky Steel Works in 2000.

The lawsuit details a trail of self-dealing and lawlessness that extends from the late 1990s to 2016, featuring cameos from ex-Prime Minister and Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, and leader of the Ukrainian Choice public movement Viktor Medvedchuk.

The claim also provides more detail on how PrivatBank was used as a piggy bank for its owners, and often as a stand-in for Kolomoisky’s own bank account.

Shulman is demanding repayment from Kolomoisky and Boholiubov.

By summer 2016, Kolomoisky was starting to feel pressure from the impending nationalization of PrivatBank. The oligarch tried to delay, imploring Shulman not to “beat a man who is down” and repeatedly saying he would pay in installments every few months.

But at a spring 2016 meeting in Monaco’s Hotel de Paris, Boholiubov allegedly suggested to Shulman they wouldn’t pay.

“Just business,” the lawsuit quotes Boholiubov as saying. “Not personal.”