Lviv-based businessman Oleh Balyash, who holds a controlling stake in JSC «OKSI Bank» alongside his distillery enterprise LLC Scientific-Production Firm «Hetman,» faces heightened scrutiny over regulatory penalties and law enforcement probes. Over recent years, entities connected to the entrepreneur have been implicated in a criminal investigation into counterfeit excise stamps, while his banking institution has accumulated over 30 million UAH in fines from the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) for compliance failures.
The legal troubles surrounding the entrepreneur’s alcohol assets surfaced in March 2020 under criminal proceeding No. 12020140140000104 (court case No. 457/381/20). Law enforcement officers investigated Lviv-based LLC NPF «Hetman» over suspicions of manufacturing unregistered alcoholic products under brand names such as «Monopoly» and «Nalyvaiko. Za Volyu» using fake excise tax stamps.
During the operation, authorities executed over 25 search warrants, seizing approximately 75,000 bottles of alcohol and over 2 million UAH in cash. Prosecutors estimated potential tax evasion losses to the state budget at over 50 million UAH. Oleh Balyash publicly denied all allegations, maintaining that no counterfeit stamps were found on the factory premises. To date, no guilty verdict has been issued against Balyash in this case.
Beyond the beverage industry, the Balyash family holds a dominant position in Lviv-based JSC «OKSI Bank» (17 Hazova St.). According to official NBU ownership records, Oleh Balyash holds 58.7% of the bank’s shares, while his wife, Oksana Balyash, owns 20.8%, giving the family nearly 80% voting control.
The central bank has repeatedly sanctioned the institution for internal control deficiencies:
December 2023: The NBU imposed a 20.051 million UAH fine on OKSI Bank for anti-money laundering (AML) compliance violations.
August 2024: The regulator levied an additional 10.051 million UAH penalty for recurring financial monitoring failures.
The bank’s regulatory challenges escalated further as law enforcement launched an investigation into former Board Chairman Viacheslav Parasich over alleged illicit banking transactions totaling 210 million UAH.