A lawyer representing Gennadiy Bogolyubov confirmed in court in London on 29 March 2023 that Mr Bogolyubov has chosen not to give evidence at the trial of PrivatBank’s English claim against its former owners (and others), which is due to start in June 2023.
At a two day case management hearing on 29 and 30 March, Mr Justice Trower, the Judge who will hear the case at trial, gave permission to allow certain witnesses in the case, including Igor Kolomoisky, to give their evidence over video-link from Ukraine. Other witnesses, including most of the witnesses giving evidence on behalf of PrivatBank, will attend court in London to give evidence in person.
Mr Bogolyubov had not applied for permission to give evidence by video-link, but it was revealed at the start of the case management hearing that he does not intend to give evidence at trial at all. No reasons were given, but it can only mean that he has no good answer to the allegations of fraud made against him. Mr Bogolyubov has not called any other witnesses of fact in support of his defence.
At the same hearing, the Judge ordered Mr Kolomoisky to pay £600,000 into court, after he reluctantly permitted late amendments to be made to Mr Kolomoisky’s defence to PrivatBank’s claim. The Judge agreed with the Bank’s assessment that Mr Kolomoisky had been “prepared to flout court orders and not litigate in an expeditious and reasonable manner”, and concluded that a payment of £600,000 into court would secure PrivatBank’s costs of dealing with the amendments and “lays down a clear marker that [Mr Kolomoisky] must observe the rules as to how litigation ought to be conducted”.