Two former Ukrainian billionaires, Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennady Bogolyubov, have been ordered to pay more than $3bn after a London judge found them liable for large-scale fraud that cost state-owned PrivatBank PJSC billions of dollars, reported Bloomberg.

The High Court ruled on November 10 that the businessmen must pay approximately $1.8bn in damages, $1.2bn in interest, and a further £76mn ($100mn) to cover the bank’s legal costs.

The ruling follows a July judgment in which the court concluded that Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov had orchestrated “a highly complex loan recycling scheme” that siphoned funds from PrivatBank prior to its 2016 nationalisation.

PrivatBank filed its claim in 2017, alleging that the two men channelled around $1.9bn through sham loans and falsified trade documents to companies secretly owned by them in the United Kingdom and the British Virgin Islands between 2013 and 2014. The scheme left a multibillion-dollar hole in the bank’s balance sheet, forcing the Ukrainian government to step in with a bailout and eventual takeover.

Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov, who have long denied wrongdoing, said the case was politically motivated. Their lawyers argued during the trial that the claims were “hopelessly vague,” though neither defendant appeared in court to give evidence.

“To the extent that these sums are not paid voluntarily, PrivatBank will immediately commence the recovery stage of the process and seek to enforce the judgment against the former owners’ assets,” a bank spokesperson said after the ruling, according to Bloomberg, adding that compensation would ultimately benefit the Ukrainian government as PrivatBank’s sole shareholder.

Kolomoisky, once one of Ukraine’s most powerful oligarchs and a former business partner of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is currently being held in a Kyiv detention centre on separate charges of fraud and contract murder. Bogolyubov fled Ukraine last year amid reports that he faced impending criminal prosecution.

The judgment marks a major victory for Ukraine’s largest lender, which has spent years pursuing legal claims across multiple jurisdictions in an effort to recover losses linked to its former owners. The London decision could also bolster Ukraine’s broader anti-corruption drive, a key condition for Western financial support and EU accession talks.

Lawyers for Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov did not immediately respond to requests for comment.