On June 12, the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) approved a plea agreement for seven members of the organization that established control over the Odesa City Council.
This was reported by the press service of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutorʼs Office (SAP).
The participants in the scheme are former heads of local government bodies. They were, in particular, accused of seizing property of the Odesa International Airport worth over 118 million hryvnias in 2011. The investigation considers businessman Borys Kaufman, in particular, to be the organizer of the scheme.
Now the defendants are obliged to fully compensate the damage caused to the Odesa City Council. They must pay 150 million hryvnias to its account, as well as return 2 488 units of property to the territorial community. Under the terms of the agreement, the Odesa City Council will continue to be the owner of the airport, its share in the authorized capital will not decrease.
The participants were sentenced to 7 to 8 years in prison and fines. For certain crimes, the participants in the scheme were released from serving their sentences because the statute of limitations had expired, SAP informed.
For the first time, the maximum fine set by law was applied: 204 million hryvnias. Another defendant must additionally pay a fine of 102 million, and two more people must pay more than 30 million hryvnias each.
More than 6 million hryvnias, over 582 thousand dollars and 6 thousand euros, as well as six real estate objects, including a 700 m² apartment in the center of Odessa, were confiscated from the state as state income. Special confiscation was applied to funds in the amount of $20 thousand.
In addition, the convicts transferred 20 million hryvnias and are obliged to transfer another 106 million to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the press release says. Under the terms of the approved agreement, the defendants must pay or transfer property in the amount exceeding 1 billion hryvnias — this is the largest among all plea agreements.
- Borys Kaufman is a Ukrainian millionaire, businessman, former deputy of the Odesa City Council, owner of the “Vertex United” group and majority owner of the tobacco giant “Tedis-Ukraine”.
- The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) detained him in the case of establishing control over the Odesa City Council and building issues on December 5, 2022. A few days later, on December 8, Kaufman was released from pre-trial detention on bail.
- On August 29, 2023, law enforcement officers reported suspicions of misappropriation of the property of the Odesa International Airport and 2.5 billion hryvnias of income from its activities to five individuals. Among them were the former mayor of Odesa Oleksiy Kostusyev, his deputy, the head of one of the LLCs, and businessmen Borys Kaufman and Oleksandr Hranovsky.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.