On October 5, 2018, the indictment as of 8 persons (including Odesa City Mayor) was sent to Malynovsky District Court of Odesa. These persons are accused of embezzlement of 185 million UAH from Odesa Сity budget during purchasing of the buildings of the Open Joint Stock Company (OJSC) «Holding Company «Krayan».Among the suspects there are:
• Odesa City Mayor;
• Deputy Odesa City Mayor;
• Head of the Standing Committee on Communal Property Issues of the Odesa City Council;
• Director of the Communal Property Department of the Odesa City Council;
• Deputy Director of the Communal Property Department of the Odesa City Council;
• Head of a private company-seller of the building;
• Representative of the company-seller;
• Appraiser.
The actions of all these persons are qualified under Part 5 Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine («Misappropriation, embezzlement or conversion of property by abuse of office in particularly large amounts, committed by a group of persons upon prior conspiracy»).
In addition, the Head of a private company-seller of the building is also accused of committing crimes under Part 1 Article 205 and Part 2 Article 15, Part 3 Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (this refers to sham business and to an attempt of laundering proceeds from crime).
The investigation revealed that in the period from July to December 2016 the Odesa City Mayor jointly with other officials of the Odesa City Hall and private company embezzled funds from Odesa city budget in the amount of 185 million UAH. According to the NABU Detectives, the corruption scheme was implemented by buying a building of the bankrupt «Krayan Plant» at inflated prices. Then the officials tried to transfer the received funds to a fictitious company (the owner of the company is being at the uncontrolled territory of the Luhansk Region). But the NABU Detectives and the prosecutors of the SAPO prevented the attempt to legalize the funds and filed the petition for the arrest of 185 million UAH. Since then the attempts to cancel the arrest of funds have continued.
It should be reminded that on February 13, 2018, the NABU Detectives under the guidance of the SAPO prosecutors gave notices of suspicion to participants of the crime. Four of them, whose location was unknown at that moment – according to Article 278, Article 135 of the Criminal Procedural Code of Ukraine. On February 14, 2018, the NABU Detectives and the prosecutors of the SAPO detained the Odessa City Mayor and his Deputy in the Kyiv Boryspil Airport.
The NABU Detectives started the pre-trial investigation of the criminal proceeding in November 2016.
In May 2018 8 suspects and their lawyers were granted with access to the materials of the criminal proceeding for review. On September 28 - October 3, 2018, they were given an indictment.
According to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine a person is considered not-guilty in commission of crime and cannot be a subject to criminal punishment, until he or she is found guilty by the court