The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) declared a wanted list for the former mayor of Odesa Oleksiy Kostusev in the case of the illegal takeover of the “Odesa” International Airport.
In August 2023, Kostusev, businessman Borys Kaufman and two other people were suspected in this case. According to the investigation, they created a scheme according to which the airport was jointly owned by the city and private investors. Therefore, the city completely lost any control over the airport and did not receive any profits from its activities. Income from airport activities was received by these persons.
In order to prevent the airport from being returned to the ownership of the city, all its property was pledged to the bank for a loan, which was not repaid at all. This caused losses to the local budget totaling more than 2.5 billion hryvnias, of which 118 million is the cost of the airport, and the rest is misappropriated profits.
Businessman Borys Kaufman is currently in a pre-trial detention center.