Three deputy mayors were declared the suspicion of being members of a criminal organization that controlled the city council of Odesa

Three deputy mayors were declared the suspicion of the case of a criminal organization that controlled the city council of Odesa.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) reported on this on December 9.

It is about:

• the first deputy mayor of Odesa;
• action deputy Mayor of Odesa — Chief of Staff of the Executive Committee of the Odesa City Council;
• the deputy mayor of Odesa.

They appear in the case of a criminal organization that controlled almost all issues of the cityʼs economic life (interaction with developers, purchases, activities of utility companies).

Thus, the head of the city councilʼs staff received $15 000 per month from the organizers of the scheme for the fact that the land commission made decisions on allocating land for construction to the right people, as well as on making changes to the city budget. In total, from November 2021 to August 2022, he received bribes in the amount of 2.4 million hryvnias.

From March to July 2022, the first deputy and deputy mayor of Odesa received 900 and 300 thousand hryvnias, respectively, from the organizers of the scheme. The first deputy mayor of Odesa was responsible for the bills related to the repair of roads in the city: he froze payments so that contractors would pay bribes to continue the work. The official also voted for the establishment of such tariffs for handling solid household waste in Odesa, which corresponded to the interests of the criminal organization.

• Odesa businessmen Boris Kaufman and Oleksandr Hranovskyi are called one of the organizers of the scheme. Kaufman has already been released from the pretrial detention center on bail.