As is well known, a year ago, the Ministry of Infrastructure dismissed Oleksiy Kochanov from his position as CEO of the state-owned Boryspil International Airport. Kochanov was completely under the control of Odesa businessmen Kaufman and Granovskyi and was consistently generating profits for them. But beyond replacing the CEO, the airport didn't undergo any changes. Boryspil's accounts remain in Odesa-based Finbank, which is still controlled by Kaufman and Granovskyi, despite the change in shareholders.
SLED.net.ua reports that Boryspil Airport opened an irrevocable letter of credit with Finbank in late 2012 for UAH 82 million, valid until January 1, 2015. It was opened for the general contractor, Kyiv Construction Department No. 813, for the construction of a parking garage worth UAH 424 million. The deadline for commissioning the facility was continually extended, but before his dismissal, the airport's general director, under Kaufman and Granovsky, paid little attention to this. He regularly transferred funds to the contractor for work he had not actually performed.
When Kochanov was fired, Construction Department No. 813 ran into trouble—the airport's new management stopped signing acceptance certificates for "completed" work. Meanwhile, the letter of credit was expiring. However, in January 2015, Construction Department No. 813 secured a seizure of the funds in the letter of credit account, and a week ago, the Kyiv Regional Commercial Court upheld its claim against Boryspil, ordering the airport to pay nearly 40 million hryvnias. Furthermore, Finbank, which followed SU No. 813's lead in filing a lawsuit in the same court, also decided to sue the airport for another 34 million hryvnias in compensation.
Therefore, if this entire scheme is fully implemented, the airport could be left without funds or parking. The winners, however, are Odesa businessmen, since, according to SLED.net.ua, Construction Department No. 813 has been under the control of partners Kaufman and Granovsky since last year. Several factors indicate this: Construction Department No. 813's bank account is held at Finbank. The owner of Construction Department No. 813, through Alfadorbud LLC, is Fortson Construction, a London company registered in January of last year that also has ties to partners Kaufman and Granovsky.
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