On November 4, the Pivnichnyi Court of Appeal satisfied the claim of Tekh-Trade-Invest LLC against Privatbank, Parktur LLC, Skorzonera LLC, Shelta LLC, and Aspect LLC (in case No. 910/12787/17) and declared some provisions of a number of loan agreements concluded between Privatbank and the defendants in 2006-2016 as null and void.
The grounds for such a court decision were the fact that "the disputable terms of the loan agreements actually determined an additional fee, which created a situation of double payment for the loan usage" (quote).
According to the court`s estimations, the relevant provisions of the loan agreements provided for payment for the loans usage "in two parallel ways - interest for the use of the loan, based on the interest rate specified in the agreements, and "R" interest or remuneration for the loans usage, payment for which is determined in the formulas, which also include the data on the official exchange rate of hryvnia to the U.S. dollar" (quote).
"The disputed clauses of these loan agreements violate the rights of the plaintiff, as they actually increase the amount of borrower`s indebtedness under loan agreements, the fulfillment of obligations under which is secured by the mortgage of the plaintiff`s property and, accordingly, to which the bank acquires the right to foreclose in the event of failure of borrowers to fulfill the terms of these loan agreements.
The Collegium of Judges believes that there is a violation of the requirements of the principle of fairness, fairness and reasonableness, and the payment of remuneration (commission) in the manner and amount established by the disputed contract does not meet the requirements of reasonableness and fairness of the contract, provided for in Article 627 of the Civil Code," - stated in the decision of the Pivnichnyi Court of Appeal dated 04.11.2019.
As follows from court materials and PrivatBank`s references, provided in December 2016 and January 2017, the total amount of the mentioned charges on "interest "R"or remuneration for the credit usage" under the relevant loan agreements reaches almost UAH 7.5 billion, which is several times higher than the maximum limit of loan agreements and the principal amount of debt on loans.
According to the State Register, one of the founders of Tech-Trade-Invest LLC is Skorzonera LLC, the ultimate beneficiaries of which are Ihor Kolomoiskyi and Hennadii Boholiubov.
Background
As Finbalance wrote, on October 10, the Supreme Court refused to satisfy the cassation appeal of Privatbank and affirmed the decisions of the lower courts, by which the nationalized bank was denied in recognition of creditors’ claims for amount of UAH 1,5 billion against Dniproavia (within the case No. 904/8902/17 on bankruptcy of this airline).
According to court materials, Privatbank’s claims included remuneration and penalty under the number of loan agreements of 2011-2014. The Supreme Court refused to comply with them, following on from their decisions on partial invalidation of correspondent agreements, which were accepted taking into account performance of the main debt obligation of the borrower by the guarantor, and also considering that “payment of remuneration (commission) in the order and in the amount, set forth in the disputable agreement, does not conform to the requirements of rationality and justice” (quote).
The owner of Dniproavia is LLC Haltera, which is associated with former Privatbanks owners.
The initiator of the case of declaration of Dniproavia’s bankruptcy is Ukrtatnafta (this enterprise is also controlled by former Privatbank’s owners).