By Natalia Zinets and Pavel Polityuk
KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine’s third-biggest bank suspended its chairman on Wednesday after a video was aired showing a scuffle in his office with journalists investigating the bank’s lending practices.
State-run lender Ukreximbank said in a statement it had suspended Yevgen Metsger and apologised to the journalists.
“The Supervisory Board of Ukreximbank, as the outcome of an emergency meeting, decided to suspend the powers of the chairman of the board of Ukreximbank Mr. Metsger for the duration of the internal investigation by the Supervisory Board,” it said.
It apologised to the journalists “as well as to the media and civil society for the regrettable and inappropriate behaviour of the chairman of the management board and representatives of the bank.”
Police have launched a criminal investigation into the clash with reporters from Radio Liberty and Metsger said he would resign if police found him guilty of committing a crime.
Metsger could not immediately be reached for comment on the incident but in a statement he said:
“There is no excuse for my overly emotional reaction and unrestrained behaviour towards the journalists. I am fully aware of my responsibility.”
Radio Liberty said staff at the bank attacked the film crew from its programme “Schemes” investigating a loan made by the bank. The bank denied any wrongdoing over loans in a statement and said banking secrecy laws prevented it from discussing the matter.
Radio Liberty said it had managed to restore footage of the confrontation with Metsger despite the bank’s attempt to delete it.
In the video, Metsger is heard refusing to give an interview and ordering staff to seize the cameras and destroy all footage.
“Go to the IT guys, clean up all this shit,” he is heard saying.
The video has gone viral, with more than 343,000 views on YouTube since being posted on Tuesday. The incident also drew criticism from a senior aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
“Freedom of speech belongs to the fundamental values in Ukraine,” said Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the president’s chief of staff.
“The model of behaviour that society has seen from the representatives of the bank is unacceptable”.
(Additional reporting by Valentyn Ogirenko; editing by Matthias Williams and Jon Boyle)
