Gontareva and Former ICU Partners Named in Criminal Investigation as They Prepare New Business in Cyprus

Valeria Gontareva, former Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and former co-owner of Investment Capital Ukraine (ICU), may become a co-founder of a new investment business.

Serhiy Lyamets, former editor of Ekonomichna Pravda, reports this on his blog, citing his own sources.

“According to my sources, Valeria Gontareva is opening a family office in Cyprus. Her partner in the new venture may be Kateryna Rozhkova, former First Deputy Governor of the NBU, who has also reportedly been spotted in Cyprus and is rumored to own property there. Rozhkova is a longtime friend and confidante of the former head of the National Bank,” he wrote.

According to the author, under Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, Gontareva became a subject of a joint investigation conducted by the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and the Office of the Prosecutor General. As part of this investigation, in early 2026 the Prosecutor General’s Office sent requests for international legal assistance to Cyprus, the British Virgin Islands (BVI), and the Netherlands. Investigators are examining her and other ICU co-owners for possible links to Russian representatives and potential abuse of official powers.

“It is relatively easy to draw a line from stabilization loans to charges of causing particularly large-scale losses to the state, given that approximately half of Ukraine’s banks were liquidated during the so-called ‘banking purge,’” Lyamets writes.

According to the author, other cases had previously been brought against Gontareva at various times, as she had made enemies of many influential people in Ukraine. The banking-sector “cleanup” she initiated cost Ukraine a substantial portion of its GDP, with consequences lasting for years.

It should be recalled that between 2015 and 2017, she initiated the so-called “banking purge,” which resulted in the collapse of approximately 90 banks, affecting thousands of businesses and millions of people. Among the most high-profile bankruptcies were Delta Bank, VAB Bank, Nadra Bank, Finance and Credit, Khreshchatyk, Mikhailivskyi, and Platinum Bank.

As a result of the banking purge, billions of dollars in bank assets were allegedly sold off at heavily discounted prices, while the savings of individuals and companies disappeared. Gontareva blamed unscrupulous bankers, while critics accused her and her political backers of corruption, abuse of power, and unethical conduct. However, criminal proceedings against Gontareva were either never initiated or were quickly closed, allegedly due to support from the authorities and her close relationships with influential figures in the United States.

At the same time, the ICU group was considered close to President Petro Poroshenko, who appointed Gontareva as NBU Governor and supported her in that position. It was Makар Paseniuk who was reportedly involved in establishing Poroshenko’s “blind” trust managed by Rothschild, resolving the Lipetsk confectionery factory issue and matters involving Poroshenko’s Russian assets, negotiations over the acquisition of television channels, energy-sector deals, and many other transactions. For this reason, Makар Paseniuk was often described as “Poroshenko’s financial shadow.”

Lyamets cites court documents alleging that Gontareva formally relinquished her ownership stake in ICU but maintained contacts with the group while serving as head of the National Bank.

“There are reasonable grounds to believe that Valeria O. Gontareva, while serving as Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, abused her official position, acted contrary to the interests of public service, and, with the aim of obtaining unlawful benefits for herself and other individuals and legal entities, facilitated the illegal issuance of stabilization loans to commercial banks between 2014 and 2018,” Lyamets quotes from court materials in a case involving former and current ICU owners.

In particular, the author writes that Gontareva’s name appeared in connection with allegations of possible involvement in money laundering and the embezzlement of public funds. In this context, ICU is mentioned as an organization associated with her.

“The pre-trial investigation concerns the Board of the National Bank of Ukraine, which, under the leadership of Valeria O. Gontareva between 2014 and 2018, allegedly acted in prior collusion with officials of the Investment Capital Ukraine group of companies (Investment Capital Ukraine, or ICU), abused official powers contrary to the interests of public service, and sought to obtain unlawful benefits for themselves by creating the conditions and ensuring the systematic operation of large-scale schemes involving the embezzlement of public funds and the laundering of proceeds obtained through criminal activity,” the former Ekonomichna Pravda editor quotes from the court materials.

According to Lyamets, neither Gontareva, nor Paseniuk, nor any of the other individuals involved in the case have received formal notices of suspicion so far. However, he notes that their legal status could change at any moment, as the investigation remains open despite considerable efforts allegedly made by ICU to have it closed.

In Lyamets’s opinion, they may have had an interest in amplifying the scandal surrounding Ruslan Kravchenko’s departure from the position of Prosecutor General.

“Has the investigation into ICU gone so far that it has begun to pose a genuine threat to Gontareva, Poroshenko, and the group they created to manage the financial flows of government officials under the name ICU, which is now formally registered under Makар Paseniuk and Kostiantyn Stetsenko? Could this, in turn, have been one of the reasons why pressure at some point began to shift toward Kravchenko himself? [...]

“Valeria Gontareva and the people whose interests she is serving by opening a family office in Cyprus have absolutely no interest in the successful completion of the investigation by the SBI and the Prosecutor General’s Office. They need to be certain that Ukraine will drop its claims against Gontareva,” the author stated.

The author separately emphasized that he does not consider ICU powerful enough to have brought down Kravchenko by involving the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and civil society activists. In his view, ICU is likely just one of many similar parties involved in investigations overseen by the Prosecutor General’s Office.

Since the case could not be closed under Kravchenko, Lyamets sees some hope that the next Prosecutor General may prove more accommodating.

In Lyamets’s opinion, the criminal case poses a threat to the future projects of Gontareva, Paseniuk, and Stetsenko, particularly the planned family office in Cyprus.

Lyamets cites the following facts:

• The case in question is No. 62025000000000954, opened in September 2025. Its subjects include Gontareva, current ICU co-owners Makар Paseniuk and Kostiantyn Stetsenko, as well as legal entities associated with them.
• A family office is a private organization that professionally manages the financial affairs of one or several families. It provides services related to investments, taxation, and wealth management. The identities of its beneficiaries are generally not publicly disclosed.
• Official court documents related to the investigation mention Paseniuk, Stetsenko, Gontareva, and numerous companies in Ukraine, Cyprus, and the British Virgin Islands (BVI) belonging to the Investment Capital Ukraine group. These include well-known entities such as ICU Trading, ICU Holdings, ICU Investment Management, CIS Opportunities Fund, and JSC Bank Avangard, among more than a dozen other structures. Prosecutors and investigators examined not only the group’s Ukrainian operations but also its offshore corporate structure.
• In July 2026, reports emerged that the Prosecutor General’s Office’s international requests may have been withdrawn. According to sources cited by the author, in February 2026 the Prosecutor General, with the support of Aidyn Khudiiev, Head of the Department for Ensuring the Exercise of the Prosecutor General’s Powers in Criminal Proceedings, ordered the removal of the entire group of prosecutors working on the investigation, including those handling international legal assistance requests.
• “The Investment Capital Ukraine group of companies has maintained longstanding financial ties with financial companies in the aggressor state, the Russian Federation, since its establishment, and continues to maintain them despite Russia’s full-scale armed aggression against Ukraine and the national and international sanctions imposed in response,” states a ruling of the Pecherskyi District Court dated December 11, 2025.

In particular, the investigation reportedly examines cooperation between Gontareva, Paseniuk, and Stetsenko and representatives of Russia’s VTB Bank (Vneshtorgbank). The family of a senior VTB executive was once among ICU’s co-owners.

Following the events of 2014, ICU also became the owner of a 35.02% stake in Burger King Russia (Cyprus) Ltd, having purchased the shareholding from VTB, which was subject to sanctions.

ICU is also known to have cooperated with sanctioned Russian oligarch Konstantin Grigorishin.

These circumstances could become subjects of the ongoing investigation or provide grounds for the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) to examine the possibility of imposing sanctions on the group’s co-owners.