On September 2, the Supreme Court of Ukraine will hear a case regarding the ownership of Odessa's "7th Kilometer." But the plaintiffs, apparently aware of the court's decision, are already planning a hostile takeover of the market on September 5.
The litigation over Promtovary Rynok LLC (operator of the 7th Kilometer) has been ongoing for four years. The Supreme Commercial Court of Ukraine has issued several rulings. But only now, following the change of power, has the trial entered its decisive phase, with the Supreme Court taking up the case.
In February 2014, Denis Voloshin, one of the former co-owners of Odessa's largest market and now a regional council member, announced his desire to reclaim the business. However, the businessman had not been listed as a shareholder of the company since 2010.
Voloshin's partner in the seizure of the property is another regional council member, Viktor Dobryansky. Despite this duo's strong connections in both Odesa and Kyiv, they are unsure of a favorable Supreme Court ruling. Therefore, according to sources close to them, they are planning a raid on the coveted market on September 5th. A squad of nearly a thousand "titushki" (illegal hitmen), mostly from Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Mykolaiv, has already been assembled for this purpose (in Odesa, even militants don't want to mess with the raiding deputies).
It's possible that the takeover will be preceded by a massive PR campaign in paid media. Specifically, information had previously been circulated (later unconfirmed) that the current owners of the 7th Kilometer were training 4 militants for deployment to Crimea and were also involved in the deaths of people on May 2 in Odessa.
However, even more vile acts can be expected from Voloshin and Dobryansky. Both are said to have been involved in various business scams that have caused quite a stir in Odessa. For example, according to sources, Voloshin was once excluded from the founding members of 7th Kilometer for a reason—he hid a tidy sum from his partners and recruited his brother, who was later arrested by the Odessa Department for Economic Security and Anti-Corruption (OBEP) for accepting a $1 million bribe to allocate a market plot without the consent of the shareholders.
Dobryansky's track record is even more shameful. Specifically, he managed to cheat... his mother and grandmother! The fact is, his late grandfather, Viktor Leontyevich Dobryansky, was the founder of the 7th Kilometer market. In his will, he divided the shares of his company, Viktor-D, between his wife and daughter—that is, the grandmother and mother of our heroic businessman. His grandfather never gave Dobryansky Jr. a single penny. Rumor has it, this is because he was an incompetent businessman and an immoral man. For this disgrace, the grandson took vengeance on the entire family: one day, his mother and grandmother learned that they were no longer the founders of Viktor-D, and that Dobryansky Jr. had become the sole owner.
Given such "passages" from Voloshin and Dobryansky, one can only wonder what will happen to the 7th Kilometer market and its 60 employees if these raider-deputies get their way. In recent years, the company has been actively developing and expanding, and the founders have not raised the LLC's fees for many years. However, people who regularly break the law and steal from partners and relatives certainly won't care about the market's prosperity, much less its employees. They have already been hinted that if new owners take over, the harsh extortion schemes in place before 2010 will be reinstated. This money is needed to "thank" all those involved in the raid, including law enforcement agencies and the media. They have also been promised a share of the market's profits.
Moreover, Voloshin and Dobryansky have recently started boasting about running for parliament. And that requires considerable resources. It's not a given that any party would risk taking such odious figures under its wing. However, if they have the money, these businessmen will certainly squander it.
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