However, there are groups of people who influence local self-government in a certain way in every region.
In every region of Ukraine there are more or less influential players who influence the local authorities, but in Odessa the criminal formation is actually monopolized power in the city. At the same time, as Andrii Kaluzhynskyi, head of the NABU's main detective unit, claims in an interview with Inna Vedernikova for ZN.UA, this is the only such large-scale scheme in Ukraine.
“In each of the regions have their own more or less influential players, but we do not have information that someone has “monopolized” the local government as much as in Odesa.”, the bureau representative said, adding that detectives are monitoring the situation throughout the country.
What about Odesa, where local businessmen Boris Kaufman and Oleksandr Borukhovich-Granovskyi, three deputies of the mayor Gennady Trukhanov and a number of other persons were accused of creating a criminal organization that completely controlled financial flows in the city, then, according to Kaluzhynskyi, the profits from their scam were so big ones that exceeded the fear of being exposedand pushed the suspects to increasingly monopolize their own influence.
At the same time the NABU knew about the activities of this group about a year and a half ago, when the investigation into the previous big scam in Odessa was still ongoing with the participation of the city mayor Gennady Trukhanov and Volodymyr Galanternyk, who profited from the city budget and land. At the same time, NABU says that there are still many proceedings in Odesa, and only in relation to some suspects it was possible to collect a sufficient evidence base.
“In addition to the previous case about the activities of a criminal group in Odessa, which NABU is really still investigating, there is another several things In our opinion, we have collected enough evidence to prosecute the top officials of the local self-government for the discovered facts of corruption. But you probably know that at the time, for example, when the so-called “Krayan plant case” was referred to the court on the charge of the current mayor of Odesa and other officials, the VAKS had not yet been created. Therefore, we referred the case to the local court (Malinovsky district court of Odesa. — ed.), which considered it at a “Stakhanov” pace and acquitted our defendants. Apparently, this is also not the kind of signal that contributes to the fact that other people do not have the desire to do similar things. But this acquittal was subsequently overturned, and now this case is being considered by the High Anti-Corruption Court. I hope that VAKS will make a legal decision,” Kaluzhynskyi said.
As for Kaufman-Granovsky's group, its members tried to conspire as much as possible, created special rooms equipped with eavesdropping protection, where they held the most important meetings and meetings, and their so-called “security service” included about a hundred people.
At the same time, the NABU noted that they were able to collect enough evidence for those persons who were notified of the suspicion, but the pre-trial investigation is ongoing, so new extraditions are possible.
To a clarifying question, how despite all this Gennadiy Trukhanov continues to rule Odesa, Kalujynskyi emphasized that the justice system must work first.
“If it is confirmed that a person has committed a crime, then he must be responsible , and will answer. And if it is not confirmed, then all charges should be dropped. In general, we currently have a lot of proceedings in Odesa, which relate to various schemes. Detectives are also constantly monitoring whether similar schemes are used in other regions,” he emphasized.
The representative of the bureau noted that corruption schemes in Ukraine are quite intricate and twisted.
Yes, real estate of a small area was bought up in Odesa, and huge tracts of land were taken out of communal ownership under this real estate. (We are talking about the case of Galanternyk, where he is being held as an organizer, and among fifteen other suspects is the mayor of the city Genadiy Trukhanov, ed.).
Also, sometimes companies are given the right to develop liquid plots of communal property at no cost to the territorial community, although the developers paid the “coordinators” the market price for the right to develop.
So-called joint venture schemes are also quite common, when commercial enterprises sign various contracts with some utility companies and actually receive all the profits from their property. Instead, the territorial community is left with nothing, or even with debts.
And the simplest scheme is the privatization of real estate or property complexes of enterprises at an undervalued price.
“Since the sums are impressive, the attractiveness of the vacant place of the “looker” exceeds the fear of being exposed. This fear, rather, encourages more resources to be allocated to security measures against exposure by law enforcement agencies,” Kaluzhynskyi noted.
Read also: Zelenskyy appealed to the Security Service of Ukraine and the Ministry of Internal Affairs regarding Trukhanov's pro-Russian statements
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