The Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine has sentenced First Deputy Mayor Anatoly Orlovsky (he held the position from 2014 to 2020). It is reported that he reached a plea agreement with the investigation. Orlovsky was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison, but the sentence was later commuted to three years of probation without confiscation of property.
The official was found guilty under Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code – misappropriation, embezzlement of property. 191 of the Criminal Code – misappropriation, embezzlement of property or taking it by abuse of official position. This is a case of taking the property of the Odessa International Airport worth UAH 118 million and income from its ten-year activity in the amount of more than UAH 2.5 billion.
Among the suspects are businessmen Boris Kaufman and Oleksandr Borukhovich (Granovsky), former mayor of Odessa Oleksiy Kostusiev, and former general director of the airport Oleksiy Kochanov.
As the investigation established, in 2011, Kaufman and Granovsky organized a scheme to seize the property of the Odessa airport. To do this, they registered an LLC, which was to establish a joint venture with the Odessa City Council, with a distribution of shares of 75% and 25%, respectively. However, in reality, the defendants intended to acquire ownership and privatize the airport property complex.
Kostusyev secured the consent of the city council deputies, assuring them that the co-founder would invest in the development of the airport. The mayor also committed official forgery, which gave the controlled company the right to form a joint venture with the city council without a competition.
