How rulings by Judge Sergey Goncharov help Bank “Alliance” avoid payments to Ukrenergo

The case filed by NPC Ukrenergo against Bank “Alliance” regarding the payment of a bank guarantee worth UAH 1.7 billion has been in court for more than two years, including one and a half years in the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal.

This opinion was expressed by political scientist Volodymyr Horkovenko, as reported by the publication “Ukrainian News”.

“Despite the fact that, according to the law, appellate cases are supposed to be reviewed within 60 days, judges of the Northern Appellate Court have managed to endlessly delay this process, even despite a Supreme Court ruling in the case. This delay appears to be an attempt to help Bank ‘Alliance’ avoid enforcement of the Commercial Court decision already issued in 2022, which obliged the bank to pay 1.13 billion UAH to the state-owned company,” the publication writes.

“Thanks to the NABU investigation, the high-profile case of multi-billion losses inflicted on NPC ‘Ukrenergo’, involving the company ‘United Energy’ and Bank ‘Alliance’, is already known far beyond the country’s borders. The Northern Appellate Court was expected to issue a decision in the case in April 2024 after a dozen postponed hearings and changes in judicial panels. However, Judge Korobenko G.P. granted Bank ‘Alliance’’s motion to suspend proceedings. The basis was another decision of the Kyiv Commercial Court, which upheld Bank ‘Alliance’’s claim and ruled that the issued guarantee was not subject to enforcement. The Supreme Court disagreed with the Northern Appellate Court judges and at the end of June ordered them to resume the hearings,” the media reports.

According to “Ukrainian News”, under the Supreme Court ruling, the case was supposed to be reviewed by the same panel of judges that had previously handled it. However, the Northern Appellate Court decided otherwise and reassigned the case to a new panel headed by Judge S. A. Goncharov. However, for an entire month, the judge neither scheduled a hearing nor even received the case materials. This delay has a simple explanation — surprisingly, Judge Goncharov also turned out to be the presiding judge in another panel that was supposed to hear a related case on declaring Bank “Alliance”’s guarantee unenforceable. Although that case has been under review only since October 2023, hearings are being scheduled and decisions made at an unusually fast pace.

“Only the recusal of Judge Goncharov, requested by NPC ‘Ukrenergo’ in both cases, delayed the decision on the bank guarantee case. Meanwhile, in the case concerning the bank’s obligation to pay 1.13 billion UAH to NPC ‘Ukrenergo’, everything continues according to the established one-and-a-half-year pattern. Having formally acknowledged the Supreme Court’s ruling, Goncharov will not hear this case, while the panel chaired by Korobenko has scheduled a hearing for September 17. Thus, Judge Goncharov’s inaction has led to another delay of nearly three months in the decision regarding Ukrenergo’s funds. Or, alternatively, he has bought time for a favorable ruling for Bank ‘Alliance’ in another case, which would allow the bank to avoid paying under the guarantee — with a hearing already scheduled for August 12,” the publication writes.

“Another alarming aspect of this story is Judge Goncharov’s position in cases related to banking guarantees in his judicial practice. A review of court decisions shows that the vast majority of his rulings in similar cases favored banking institutions. It is clear that for the judges of the Northern Appellate Court, the Supreme Court’s position has no real weight, despite the fact that the highest court has clearly ruled that banking guarantees are unconditional obligations. It appears that, in addition to anti-corruption bodies and the business ombudsman, the state needs to introduce a special oversight body to ensure judges comply with procedural and legal norms. Otherwise, state-owned companies are doomed to lose billions of public funds in court,” the publication states.

The author writes that Judge Goncharov is once again providing a service to another allegedly non-compliant bank. Moreover, according to information circulating within judicial circles, this case may become the last “significant” case in Goncharov’s judicial career, potentially serving as a “farewell case” and a “golden parachute” from Bank “Alliance”.