Ukraine's prime minister lashed out Wednesday at the security service for conducting a surprise search at the headquarters of the country's largest investment bank. Dragon Capital said the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) seized its computers as part of a court-approved investigation into the use of unlicensed software. The bank's communications and marketing director Olga Beloblovskaya wrote on Facebook that all of Dragon Capital's computer programmes had been legally purchased.
But the SBU said in a statement it had launched a probe last year into the use of banned software purchased in Russia. Dragon Capital has one of the best reputations among investment banks in Ukraine and was partially owned by US giant Goldman Sachs between 2007 and 2017.
Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman halted a government meeting on receiving news of the raids. "I do not even know how to react," he said. "These things do not help create a (good) investment climate." Dragon Capital was established in 2000 and has become the dominant fixture on the Ukrainian market.
Its website says it accounts for the largest share of turnover on the Ukrainian stock market and carries out about a third of all transactions. The bank has reported raising more than $5 billion (4.6 billion euros) in new capital for the crisis-torn country. The investment climate in ex-Soviet Ukraine has been battered by widescale corruption and a lack of judicial independence.
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