The return of Odesa airport ended with a loud “fizzle”: how the prosecutor’s office left “Yanukovych’s friends” alone

The return of Odesa airport ended with a loud “fizzle”: how the prosecutor’s office left “Yanukovych’s friends” alone

Kaufman and Granovsky have no reason to worry: no one will take Odesa airport away from them now. Although just three months ago everyone thought there were solid grounds to resolve the matter differently, writes Delovaya Stolitsa in its print edition. Boris Kaufman and his partner Oleksandr Granovsky managed to avoid losing assets “acquired through hard-toil” during Viktor Yanukovych’s rule. A few months ago it seemed that the collapse of the Odesa businessmen’s corporate empire—those considered close to “Sasha the dentist”—was imminent. In spring, at the suggestion of People’s Deputy Oleksandr Dubovyi, Odesa’s UBOP took up investigating Kaufman’s and Granovsky’s business. Its officers even discovered a conversion center in the Finbank building in Odesa, determining that its operations were directly overseen by the bank’s co-owners (at that time Kaufman and Granovsky were among them). The criminal proceeding opened by the Interior Ministry also involved 000 “International Airport ‘Odesa’.” That company was created in mid-2011 by a Finbank-affiliated structure, “Odesa Airport Development,” together with the Odesa City Council, which contributed the municipal enterprise of the same name to the firm in exchange for a 25% stake in the capital. And last year the Ministry of Infrastructure created the state enterprise “Directorate for the Construction of the International Airport ‘Odesa,’” headed by Odesa native Ihor Chernyk, who was considered Kaufman’s protégé. A couple of weeks later the state enterprise announced a tender to build the aerodrome complex (including a new runway) of the International Airport ‘Odesa.’ Only two little-known companies participated — Odesa’s 000 “Projecty-Ka,” which proposed to carry out the work for 1,64 billion UAH, and Simferopol’s 000 “Spetsrembud,” which asked for 1,63 billion UAH. Both entities, with authorized capitals of 884 UAH and 20,5 thousand UAH respectively, allegedly acted in the interests of the Odesa friends of the “family,” who had secured for themselves a large state contract. Which indeed happened in December 2013, when the Directorate for the Construction of the International Airport ‘Odesa’ signed a general contractor agreement with Spetsrembud. However, the company did not have time to spend those funds. After the change of power, funding for the infrastructure project was frozen, and in July the prosecutor’s office of Odesa region began an offensive against the general contractor’s position. That agency filed a lawsuit in the Commercial Court of Odesa region on behalf of the Ministry of Infrastructure against the Directorate for the Construction of the International Airport ‘Odesa’ and the company Spetsrembud, requesting that the results of the tender and the general contractor agreement between them be declared invalid. For several months both defendants ignored court hearings, until at the end of September the Commercial Court of Odesa region issued a ruling in the case. It completely dismissed the prosecutor’s claims, which had argued that the bids of both tender participants should be rejected for failing to meet qualification requirements (they lacked construction work experience, and the necessary equipment had been rented only in October–November of 2013), as well as for violations of public procurement law. “The prosecutor did not prove to the court the existence of circumstances showing violations committed by the defendants,” the court stated. Apparently, the prosecutor’s office of Odesa region found that argument very convincing. As journalists found out, that agency did not even appeal the verdict, and in October it took legal effect. What does this give Kaufman and Granovsky? At minimum, the ability to consolidate their hold on the main stronghold of their “air” business and to continue pushing for the coveted funding from the state budget. Fortunately, the owners of Vetrex Group have apparently found points of contact with the Odesa city authorities. At the end of October, the temporary commission of the Odesa City Council for checking the owner’s fulfillment of obligations regarding 000 “International Airport ‘Odesa’” reported that the investor “fulfilled them in full.” Thus the question raised in August about the city council’s withdrawal from the company’s participants and returning the city the intact property complex of Odesa airport was removed.

Prokurorska Pravda