Prosecutor's Office passes case of National Bank's chief lawyer Zyma to police because SBI did not investigate it - expert

The Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office has transferred the case against Oleksandr Zyma, director of the legal department of the National Bank of Ukraine, to the police for investigation, as the State Bureau of Investigation probably did not investigate the case. This opinion was expressed by former Deputy Prosecutor General Oleksiy Bahanets in an exclusive commentary to UNN.

Context

Concord Bank co-owner Yulia Sosedka reported that the criminal proceedings on the fact of possible abuse of office by the National Bank's chief lawyer Zyma were transferred from the State Bureau of Investigation to the Pechersk Department of the Main Police Department in Kyiv for investigation. She does not rule out that this is an attempt to delay the investigation.

First of all, when a situation arises and the investigation is ineffective, a higher-level prosecutor has the right to change the jurisdiction, either within one body - a territorial or district unit - and transfer it, for example, to a city or regional, or even to the central office. That is, if the investigation is ineffective, a higher-level prosecutor can change the jurisdiction of a criminal proceeding, despite the fact that it is legally obliged to be investigated by, for example, SBI investigators. This can happen,

According to him, such a transfer of criminal proceedings from one investigative body to another may be due to the fact that, for example, no investigative action has been taken in the case for two months and the media write about it.

At the same time, Baganets added that there are also cases when prosecutors, as procedural supervisors, abuse their right and change the jurisdiction of criminal cases without any reason. "Sometimes they change the jurisdiction when there are no legal grounds for this," the lawyer said.

Recall

The criminal proceedings concern a letter from the National Bank to the Deposit Guarantee Fund signed by Zyma, in which he recommended that the Fund withdraw the lawsuits filed by Concord Bank against the NBU.  The document referred to four lawsuits filed by the bank against the NBU, in which Concorde demanded that fines totaling almost UAH 63.5 million be canceled. They were filed even before the National Bank decided to liquidate Concorde and put it under temporary administration.

On April 22, 2024, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv recognized Yulia Sosiedka as a victim in the criminal proceedings, but investigators have not yet handed her a memo on the rights of the victim, which meant  the execution of the court decision.