The Economic Court of the Kyiv region satisfied the claim of Investohills Vesta against Globus bank
04.10.2021 The Economic Court of the Kyiv region satisfied the claim of Investohills Vesta Financial Company LLC against Globus bank (in case No. 911/1232/21) and
– applied the consequences of the nullity of the transaction by canceling the notary’s decision on state registration of ownership rights of Globus bank to two land plots with an area of 10.6 hectares and 5.7 hectares in the Brovarsky District of the Kyiv region;
– recognized the financial company “Investohills Vesta” ownership of these two land plots.
According to court materials, Globus bank motivated its claims to the disputed property by the fact that in May 2015 it purchased land plots from the Ukrainian professional Bank (UPB).
The relevant agreements were concluded between the UPB and Globus shortly before the UPB was classified as insolvent.
The DGF recognized these transactions as null and void, since they violated the restrictions established by the National Bank’s resolution on classifying UPB as problematic (for example, settlements declared by participants in transactions were not made through the UPB account opened with the NBU, as it should be).
At the same time, the Economic Court of the Kyiv region noted that since the property purchase and sale agreements indicated accounts opened with the UPB for settlements, this made it possible to “perform artificial transactions” (quote), and after the declared sale of real estate, the amount of funds on the UPB account did not increase. According to the court’s estimates, the actual declared land purchase and sale operations were aimed at securing the UPB’s property of the bank’s debt to Globus (by UAH 22.2 million) and violated the interests of other UPB creditors, as they led to a decrease in UPB’s assets before withdrawing it from the market.
Quote from the court decision of 04.10.2021: “An insolvent bank that alienates property on the basis of a gratuitous contract in favor of an individual creditor immediately before the NBU makes a decision on its Insolvency Acts obviously in bad faith.”
Also, the Economic Court of the Kyiv region noted that Globus bank did not appeal these decisions of the DGF on the nullity of transactions in accordance with the established procedure and, accordingly, did not achieve their cancellation.
Taking this into account, the court concluded that Globus bank did not prove the validity of land purchase and sale agreements.
Since Investohills Vesta acquired property rights to the relevant assets from the DGF, this financial company was recognized in court as the owner of disputed land plots.