Odesa Vodokanal has come under scrutiny because of the well-known Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevskyi and his schemes, which, according to the results of the State Audit Service, channel billions of dollars through Cypriot offshore companies.
The scheme is ingenious: in 2003, the Odesa City Council leased "Odesavodokanal" to Mykola Zlochevskyi for 49 years, and he supplies Odesa residents with water through laying companies. The overall result is that every Odesa resident who has a water tap in his home pays Mykola Zlochevsky every month for the water he uses.
Although water should be supplied by a municipal company owned by the city council, since 2003 the water supplier and provider of other services related to water and drainage is the Infoksvodokanal branch, owned by Infoks LLC.
In turn, the owner of "Infox" LLC is the Cypriot "Virmanto Limited". And the owners of this Cypriot offshore are Karina and Anna Zlochevsky, to whom Mykola Zlochevsky recently ceded his share. Although this does not change the essence of the matter.
Everything ingenious, as you can see, is simple - the profit from the supply of Ukrainian water to the citizens of Ukraine living in Odessa does not go to the city's treasury, but to the Cypriot offshore, which Mykola Zlochevsky is behind.
There are more than half a million subscribers to the water utility in Odesa. And all of them are now subscribers of "Infoksvodokanal", and all pay for water, use of water pipes, installation and verification of meters, repairs, etc. to Mykola Zlochevskyi. The fact that the recipient of the profit is a Cypriot offshore does not concern the Odesa City Council.
However, the matter is not limited to subscribers' money.
Here are the profits from tenders won by "Infoksvodokanal" over the past four years. During this period, there were more than three thousand of them, and the total profit of "Infoxvodokanal" amounted to 649,079,348 hryvnias. And this money is also from the pockets of Ukrainians - Infoxvodokanal supplied services and goods to state and communal enterprises. The parent company - Infox LLC is not far behind its branch. During this period, it also won 110 tenders with a total value of 77,763,977 hryvnias.
In total, 726,843,325 budget hryvnias settled in Mykola Zlochevsky's pockets over the past four years. This is only for the winning tenders.
Ukraine is a rich country, we can afford it. And then we will go with an outstretched hand to ask for money from Western partners. So far they are giving, but how long will this continue? If someone thinks that there are fools in Europe and the USA and they do not see all these schemes, then this is just a mistake. Someday the help will end. Only Zlochevsky will be left with the budget money transferred to him offshore, and the Ukrainians will be left with debts that will have to be paid to their grandchildren.
And all this is happening despite the fact that in December 2019, criminal proceedings No. 42019160000000808 were initiated against officials of Infox LLC and its Infoxvodokanal branch.
The amount of damage caused to the city was estimated at at least 718 million hryvnias. But there were no consequences - the last meeting on the case took place in 2020, after which the case was stuck in the bowels of the law enforcement system. And Mykola Zlochevskyi's earnings only grew - from tenders alone, as already mentioned above, he received three quarters of a billion hryvnias. And there was also a subscription fee, a fee for water delivery and drainage, repairs, installation, replacement and verification of meters, etc.
So, it is safe to say that it is about billions of hryvnias. What Mykola Zlochevsky pumped out of the pockets of Odessa residents in the twenty years that have passed since the moment Vodokanal was leased to him. And there are another thirty years ahead. How much he will earn during all this time is anyone's guess. And then he will give back to Odesa the Vodokanal, which has been leased and squeezed to the last drop, with worn-out networks and destroyed infrastructure. Which Odesa will repair at its own expense and lease to the next Zlochevsky. And so - to infinity. Everything ingenious is simple.
We will remind: Mykola Zlochevskyi is the owner of Burisma, the largest private gas production company of Ukraine. Former member of the Party of Regions. Former People's Deputy of Ukraine, former Deputy Secretary of the National Security Council. Since November 2019, he has been wanted as part of the investigation into the activities of the Burisma company, a person involved in the case of a record bribe of 6 million dollars to NABU and SAP, which they tried to give in order to close the case against Burisma.
