The High Anti-Corruption Court has seized the premises and other property of the 'Odesa' airport within the case of illegal purchase of the airport's property and misappropriation of UAH 2.5 billion in revenue from its activities. The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office reported this.
This includes the old terminal building and 2,488 units of airport property, as well as 75% of the rights to 'International Airport Odesa' in the LLC 'Odesa Airport Development' and the new terminal building with a total area of 26,700 square meters.
The arrest was imposed with a prohibition on alienation and disposal.
According to the investigation, in 2011, two well-known Odessa businessmen organized a scheme related to the Odesa airport. Together with the Odessa City Council, they registered a joint venture and intended to obtain ownership of the airport through it.
The local deputies' approval for creating the partnership was ensured by the then-mayor (in 2011, Odessa was led by the "Party of Regions" member Oleksiy Kostusyev). He talked about the alleged plans of the co-founder to invest in the airport's development. According to the agreement, the "investors" were supposed to contribute UAH 355 million as the statutory capital to construct a new terminal and a runway at the airport. However, most of these funds were subject to pledge due to the actions of the scheme's participants and were blocked by the bank.
According to the investigation, all of the airport's property was pledged to the bank to obtain a loan, preventing the return of the airport to the city's ownership. The obtained loan was never repaid. They did manage to construct a new terminal with the loan taken under the pledge of the airport's property. However, the construction of the runway was never initiated.
As indicated by the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, due to this scheme, the city completely lost control over the Odesa airport, and it did not receive any profit from its operations. Instead, the participants in the scheme embezzled income from its activities for years.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau states that the scheme's participants seized the Odesa airport's property worth UAH 118 million and earned over UAH 2.5 billion from its operations during the years 2012-2022.
Within the case, 5 individuals have already been charged, including two local businessmen and the former mayor of Odesa. According to journalist Oleg Novikov, the businessmen involved in the investigation are Boris Kaufman and Alex Borukhovich (formerly known as Oleksandr Granovsky). Kaufman has been placed in custody, while Kostusyev has been declared wanted.
