KIEV, May 18 - A Ukrainian court has approved a central bank request to freeze the real estate and moveable property of Ukrainian businessman Oleg Bakhmatyuk in connection with the failure by a bank owned by him to repay loans of about $160 million, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing the regulator.

Last year parliament introduced laws making owners of banks accountable if their institutions collapse, prompted by an economic crisis that pushed scores of lenders in Ukraine's overpopulated and shadowy banking sector into bankruptcy.