The head of the National Bank Kirill Shevchenko, who escaped from Ukraine, accused the country’s authorities of political persecution and populist “steering” of the economy.
“I did not talk about almost two years of political pressure, which escalated on the eve of my decision and, in fact, caused a serious aggravation of health problems,” he wrote in his social networks. “I was an inconvenient chairman of the National Bank,” Shevchenko emphasizes.
He called the reanimation of the criminal case, which is 3.5 years old and has not been investigated all this time, a manifestation of political persecution.
“They tried to persuade me to make decisions that I consider harmful to the financial stability of the state and a threat to the independence of the NBU,” he also said, accusing Zelensky and his associates of persecuting the head of state.
Earlier it was reported that the anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine filed charges against the outgoing head of the National Bank of Ukraine Kirill Shevchenko for health reasons.
The case relates to the period when he headed Ukrgasbank. According to the investigation, bank officials concluded fictitious contracts with individuals and legal entities who were allegedly “agents” of the bank and attracted large clients to it. For such “agency services”, the bank, under the leadership of Shevchenko, paid monthly remuneration to these persons.
During 2014-2019, as it was established by the investigation, according to this scheme, 52 fictitious agents transferred funds of the state bank in the amount of over UAH 206 million.