Case description
On July 4, 2019, the Malynovskyi District Court of Odesa acquitted Odesa Mayor Hennadii Trukhanov and 7 other defendants in the case of the Krayan plant regarding the conversion of over UAH 92 million of budget funds. However, the HACC overturned this verdict, and the case is still being considered on the merits.
The events that led to the opening of criminal proceedings against Trukhanov and a number of others took place in 2016. The investigation believes that in early 2016, Trukhanov agreed with several companies to seize funds from the Odesa budget. Specifically, Trukhanov planned to buy one of the buildings of the former Krayan plant at twice the price: the seller purchased the entire complex of buildings for UAH 11.5 million, and the Odesa City Council purchased a part of the buildings for UAH 185 million.
In order to pull off the scheme, they even engaged a third-party appraiser, who determined the significantly inflated price of the Krayan building. The NABU also reported that the head of this appraiser company had already been prosecuted for unreliable property valuations.
Development Elite LLC, which received the funds from the Odesa City Council, in turn, tried to withdraw them to the accounts of the allegedly fictitious A Motors Plus company by concluding contracts for the alleged supply of combine harvesters.
How were council members convinced to vote for this idea? According to the detectives, Trukhanov and Vuhelman, his deputy, misled the city council members. They said that the vote for the purchase of the Krayan building was a priority, the price was reasonable, and the building itself was described in a completely different way than the conditions in it actually were. Trukhanov also told council members that the project was jointly funded by local and national budgets.
As a result, the following officials are accused in this case:
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Hennadii Trukhanov, Mayor of Odesa.
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Pavlo Vuhelman, Deputy Mayor of Odesa. The investigation believes that he involved Odesa City Council officials in the scheme.
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Vasyl Shkriabai, head of the Standing Committee on Municipal Property of the Odesa City Council. The investigation believes that it was he who provided a positive assessment and submitted the draft decision on the purchase to the extraordinary session.
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Petro Zahodirenko, Director of Development Elite
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Oleksii Spektor, former director of the Department of Municipal Property of Odesa City Council
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Volodymyr Radionov, Deputy Director of the Department of Municipal Property of Odesa City Council
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Ihor Kravchenko, lawyer
The case against Halyna Bohdanova, the appraiser of Krayan's buildings, was closed due to the death of the accused.
The Malynovskyi District Court of Odesa, which was the first to hear the case, found no conspiracy between the defendants to buy the plant. Therefore, all of them were acquitted: the actions of the majority were qualified under Article 191, part 5 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
However, the HACC Appeals Chambers overturned the acquittal and ordered a new trial in the HACC for all but Halyna Bohdanova in 2021. Since the fall of 2021, the HACC could not hold a single preparatory hearing in this case, as there have been constant illnesses, vacations, absences of participants, and judges' recusal.
Finally, in April 2023, everyone attended the hearing, and Trukhanov was ordered to pay more than UAH 30 million in bail. He failed to do so and was taken into custody with the alternative of bail, although Kyiv Mayor Klitschko and MP Anton Kisse were ready to bail Trukhanov out. The next day, Dmytro Tantsiura, member of the pro-mayor faction, posted bail for Trukhanov, and the mayor was then forced to wear an electronic bracelet.
In July 2023, the term of Trukhanov's duties expired because the judges did not have time to consider the SAPO's motion to extend these duties due to summer leaves. The case is currently being considered on the merits.
