Borislav Bereza Announced a Probable Scheme for Capital Flight Abroad Through Cash-in-Transit Vehicles

Former Ukrainian Member of Parliament Borislav Bereza has published information about the possible use of cash-in-transit vehicles of a Ukrainian state bank for the covert transfer of millions in assets abroad. According to him, a former head of the Presidential Office, former security officials, and senior officials of the National Bank of Ukraine may be involved in organizing the cash logistics.

Bereza made this statement in his Facebook post, writing DS. news.

As the politician claims, citing sources in the banking sector, the matter concerns a specific European route of Oschadbank's armored vehicles. According to the published version, the armored cars travel on official trips to Vienna, Austria, where they officially purchase cash currency and gold from the local Raiffeisen Bank. Figures such as €35 million, $40 million USD, and 9 kilograms of gold are mentioned as examples.

However, instead of returning directly to Kyiv, the couriers allegedly deviate from their route and stop in Serbia, where they leave the acquired assets in local bank branches.

According to Bereza, the couriers carry official documents and cross the border where neither the Hungarian nor the Ukrainian side typically checks whether funds are actually present in the armored vehicle.

After crossing the border with empty vehicles, already on Ukrainian territory, other shadow cash and gold in equivalent amounts are loaded onto the trucks, which ultimately end up in the bank's vault for official reporting purposes.

The former MP also draws attention to a number of suspicious circumstances surrounding these trips, including an irregular number of couriers per vehicle, despite regulations requiring four per car.

Bereza's main argument is the difference in logistics between Oschadbank and other financial institutions. He asks why, out of four market players — Oschadbank, PrivatBank, Raiffeisen Bank, and PUMB — all of which purchase cash from Raiffeisen Bank in Vienna, Oschadbank is the only one that sends its couriers directly to Austria, while the other three banks receive their currency at the Hungarian-Ukrainian border, where the Austrian side delivers the cash to them directly.

The former MP states that this retired general has a criminal conviction for corruption and was involved in opaque prisoner exchange affairs, yet was appointed as the overseer of the cash transportation process due to his complete loyalty. Bereza also noted the reaction of NBU Governor Andriy Pyshny amid the leak of information about the armored car trips, pointing out that the NBU chief appeared in the media at least five times with what Bereza described as hysterical statements, which looked odd compared to the restrained and calm statement made by Oschadbank's Chairman Katsion.

According to Bereza, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the state bank's cash-in-transit service has conducted more than 15 such trips to Vienna. He is calling on the relevant anti-corruption bodies, in particular NABU, to investigate this information and shut down the alleged channel of shadow capital flight.