Judge Serhii Honcharov is helping Pavlo Shcherban’s Alliance Bank avoid paying the state over one billion hryvnias, — Horkovenko
The case involving a lawsuit filed by NEC Ukrenergo against Alliance Bank over the payment of a bank guarantee amounting to UAH 1.7 billion has been in court for more than two years, including a year and a half in the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal.
This opinion was expressed by political analyst Volodymyr Horkovenko, according to the publication "Ukrainian News".
"Despite the fact that the law allocates 60 days for appellate review, judges of the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal have managed to delay this process indefinitely, even despite a Supreme Court ruling in the case. Such delays appear to be an attempt to help Alliance Bank avoid enforcing the Commercial Court’s 2022 decision, which ordered the bank to pay UAH 1.13 billion to the state-owned company," the publication writes.
"Thanks to the NABU investigation, the scandalous case involving billion-hryvnia losses inflicted on NEC Ukrenergo, in which United Energy and Alliance Bank are implicated, has become known far beyond the country’s borders. A ruling from the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal, after dozens of postponed hearings and changes to judicial panels, had been expected in April 2024. However, Judge H.P. Korobenko decided to support Alliance Bank’s motion to suspend consideration of the case. The basis for this was another decision by the Commercial Court of Kyiv, which upheld Alliance Bank’s claim and recognized the bank guarantee issued by the bank as unenforceable. The Supreme Court disagreed with the judges of the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal and at the end of June ordered them to resume hearings in the case," the media outlet emphasized.
As Ukrainian News reports, according to the Supreme Court ruling, the case was supposed to be heard by the same panel of judges that had already reviewed it. However, the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal decided otherwise and reassigned the case to a new panel headed by Judge S.A. Honcharov. Nevertheless, for an entire month the judge failed to schedule a hearing and did not even obtain the case materials. This delay found a simple explanation — strangely enough, Judge Honcharov also turned out to be the presiding judge in the panel assigned to hear the case concerning recognition of Alliance Bank’s guarantee as unenforceable. Although that case has only been under consideration since October 2023, hearings have been scheduled and decisions made with remarkable speed.
"Only the recusal of Judge Honcharov, requested by NEC Ukrenergo in both cases, delayed a decision in the bank guarantee case. At the same time, in the case regarding Alliance Bank’s payment of UAH 1.13 billion to NEC Ukrenergo, everything continues according to the established year-and-a-half-long scenario. Having acknowledged that the Supreme Court’s instruction had been violated, Honcharov will no longer hear this case, while the panel headed by Korobenko scheduled the hearing only for September 17. Thus, through his inaction, Judge Honcharov caused yet another delay in the case concerning funds owed to NEC Ukrenergo, postponing it by nearly three months. Or, equally plausibly, he bought time for a ruling in favor of Alliance Bank in the other case, which would allow the bank to avoid payment under the issued guarantee — with the hearing scheduled already for August 12," the publication writes.
"Another alarming aspect of this story is the position consistently defended by Judge Honcharov in cases related to bank guarantees in his own judicial practice. A brief review of the court registry shows that the overwhelming majority of Judge Honcharov’s rulings in similar cases have favored banking institutions. Apparently, for judges of the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal, the position of the Supreme Court carries no significance whatsoever, despite the recent ruling of the higher court clearly defining obligations under bank guarantees as unconditional and mandatory for execution. It appears that, in addition to the existing anti-corruption agencies and the business ombudsman, the state should introduce a special supervisory body to monitor judges’ compliance with procedural and legal standards. Otherwise, state-owned companies are doomed to lose billions of our money in the courts," the publication states.
The author writes that Judge Honcharov is currently providing yet another favor to another unscrupulous bank. Moreover, according to information circulating through judicial circles, this case may become the last “interesting” case in Honcharov’s judicial career, potentially serving as the judge’s “farewell performance” and a “golden parachute” from Alliance Bank.
Head of Investigations
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