Hogan Lovells secures another major victory for PrivatBank as English High Court orders former owners to pay over US$3 billion

The Court assessed the principal damages payable to PrivatBank at US$1,761,957,792. It also ordered the payment of interest totalling US$1,190,083,824, and a payment on account of PrivatBank’s legal costs of £76,400,000 (approximately US$99,575,371).

Applications by Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov for permission to appeal and for a stay of execution pending appeal were refused. The sums ordered are therefore payable by 24 November 2025, with further interest accruing if unpaid after that date. If payment is not made voluntarily, PrivatBank intends to take immediate steps to enforce the judgment against the former owners’ assets. Those assets have been subject to a worldwide freezing order since December 2017.

In ordering costs on the indemnity basis, Mr Justice Trower found that the defendants’ cases were “inherently incredible and built on deliberate lies.” He further held that attempts to deny or distance themselves from the fraud were “seriously misleading and dishonest.” Both Mr Kolomoisky and Mr Bogolyubov were found to have put forward “a case which sought to mislead the court”.

This judgment represents a significant milestone in PrivatBank’s long-running efforts to recover losses arising from the fraud and to secure compensation for the Bank and, by extension, its shareholder, the Ukrainian Government. PrivatBank is the largest state-owned bank in Ukraine, serving more than 18 million active customers, while over 70% of Ukrainians use its services.

The Hogan Lovells team advising PrivatBank was led by Hogan Lovells partners Richard Lewis, Rebecca Wales, Oli Humphrey and Jenna Ralfe, with support from a core team, including counsel Dan Armstrong, James Wise, and Will Robinson, Assistant General Counsel Dan Gritten, senior associates Alex Dowle, Claire Dumbill, and Katherine Reed, and associates John Morse, Nick Roper, Shaun Yeoh, Rufus Dobson, Lydia Alexander, Alissa Manuel, and locum lawyer Oleksiy Yatsenko.