Ukrainian anti -corruption bodies have concluded an agreement with the persons involved in the theft of the International Airport of Odessa , but the circumstances of the agreement are carefully hidden from society.
How the airport was stolen
In 2011, a group of influential businessmen and officials , including exmer Odessa Alexei Kostusev , his deputy, as well as entrepreneurs Boris Kaufman and Alex Borukhovich (Alexander Granovsky) , implemented a corruption scheme.
According to the investigation, they removed the city's airport : formally transferred it to the joint ownership of the territorial community and "private investors". In practice, the city lost control of the strategic object and has not received any profit from it .
The actual owners of the airport have appropriated the income from its activities , and so that the city could not return the property back, they made it in a bank for obtaining a loan, which was not even about to pay .
Total damage from the scheme:
- 118 million UAH - the cost of assigned property,
- UAH 2.5 billion - illegally received profits.
Hidden justice
The National Anti -Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti -Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) raised the suspicions of Kaufman, Borukhovich and the city extent. However, on February 24, 2025, it became known that the SAP entered into with them agreements on the plea .
Important details of the case remain a secret:
- Open Court of Justice, appointed on February 28 , was not announced ,
- There was no online meeting of the meeting,
- What punishment was received by RAM members - not known,
- What is the fate of the airport - too unknown.
Earlier, the court had already approved an agreement with the exvister Odessa Anatoly Orlovsky , imposing him a conditional punishment . There are reasons to believe that other participants in the criminal scheme can receive a similar soft sentence.
What's next?
Society still does not know if the airport will be returned to the community and what real punishment will be guilty . The lack of transparency and publicity in this case once again demonstrates that the fight against firework in Ukraine remains more declarative than effective.
