The National Anti-Corruption Bureau has uncovered a scheme to siphon off UAH 146,85 million paid by the Odesa City Council in 2016 for the property of the former Zastava airfield. The scheme involves companies that media outlets have linked to the informal "master of Odesa." Vladimir Galanternik.
Thus, the Solomensky District Court of Kyiv granted NABU access to documents of the Odessa company Yugtrans-Terminal, revealing the grounds for its receipt of funds in November 2016 from Arcadia-City LLC.
Both of these companies are mentioned in the materials of a criminal case opened by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) in October 2016. NABU is investigating official abuses during the Odesa City Council's acquisition of the buildings and structures of the former Zastava airfield, located on the Tiraspol Highway in Odesa, in September 2016. At the time, the City Council decided to purchase the property, with a total area of 6065 square meters, from Odesa Airlines LLC for UAH 146,85 million, with the intent of subsequently demolishing it to make way for the expansion of the city cemetery.
The purchase and sale agreements were concluded on September 28, 2016, a week after the Odesa City Council approved the purchase. However, as an expert assessment later revealed, the market value of the lion's share of the acquired property (4909 square meters) was only 12,88 million UAH.
NABU investigators discovered that several weeks before the deal with the city council, the seller's founder and director changed. They were replaced by Andriy Virchenko, an Odesa lawyer and head of the Virchenko & Partners law firm.
"The established circumstances of the case provide grounds to believe that officials of the Odesa City Council, in collusion with representatives of commercial enterprises, seized budgetary funds of the Odesa territorial community on an especially large scale," the NABU stated.
"It was easy to guess where the National Anti-Corruption Bureau's attention was focused in the Zastava case. Last year, in a similar case involving the Odesa City Council's acquisition of the Kraian plant's property complex for UAH 185 million, which also took place in September 2016, NABU detectives notified the Odesa mayor of a criminal suspicion." To Gennady Trukhanov "Under Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (misappropriation, embezzlement, or acquisition of property through abuse of office). As it turns out, the seller, Development Elite, purchased this property at auction for 11,5 million hryvnias shortly before the transaction," the media reports.
According to the NABU, Odesa Airlines transferred almost all of the funds received from the Odesa City Council (145,85 million hryvnias) to the account of News York Corporation LLC. This company, in turn, forwarded the funds to Logistic Service Group LLC and Arcadia City LLC. In November 2016, the latter transferred 54 million hryvnias to the account of the aforementioned Yugtrans-Terminal LLC with the payment purpose "repayable financial assistance in accordance with agreement No. 07/11 dated November 7, 2016." Yugtrans-Terminal then used almost the entire amount to purchase foreign currency and sent it to Ukreximbank to pay off loan interest.
"Adding to the intrigue of this case is the fact that those in the know link both Yugtrans-Terminal and Arcadia-City in Odesa to Volodymyr Galanternik, the 'grey cardinal of Odesa,'" Galanternik was cited by Novoye Vremya magazine in its article, "Odessa's Papa." He is also said to be Trukhanov's business partner, suggesting that the deal involving the former Zastava airfield may have been a joint operation, yielding comparable dividends for both the seller and the buyer," the journalists noted.
Ранее SKELET-info reported that Trukhanov faces 12 years in prison in the Krayan plant case.
It was also reported that The haberdasher took a day off celebrated their wedding anniversary in Saint-Tropez in style.
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SKELET-info
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