Kostusev Oleksiy Oleksiyovych

Former Mayor of Odesa and former head of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, currently hiding from the NABU in the United Kingdom

From 2001 to 2010, he was Chairman of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine; from 2010 to 2013, Mayor of Odesa representing the Party of Regions; in 2010 he was a trusted representative of presidential candidate Yanukovych in the Odesa region. Known for Ukrainianophobic statements. Father of People's Deputy Oleksiy Honcharenko. On 31 October 2013, he submitted a resignation letter as mayor and hurriedly left the country; according to NABU, he resides in the United Kingdom.

Scheme of seizing Odesa Airport worth 2.5 billion UAH and a hotel in Prague for 5.4 million euros

In 2011, two Odesa businessmen — Borys Kaufman and Oleksandr Borukhovych — organized a scheme under which property of the municipal enterprise "International Airport Odesa" worth 118 million UAH was transferred from the ownership of the city community into joint ownership of a private LLC and the city council with ownership shares of 75% and 25%, respectively; the consent of city council deputies was secured by the then mayor Kostusev. For years the airport’s revenues were embezzled, and all its property was mortgaged to a bank against a loan that was not repaid, preventing the return of the asset to the community; total damages exceed 2.5 billion UAH. In August 2023, NABU notified Kostusev of suspicion, and in October announced an international search. In May 2024, a new suspicion was announced against him — for receiving a bribe in the form of a two-story penthouse of 700 sq. m in the center of Odesa worth approximately 16 million UAH (Part 5 Article 191, Part 1 Article 366, Part 4 Article 368 of the Criminal Code). Simultaneously, together with his brother Heorhiy Kostusev-Muromtsev, through front companies Baggy Group and Silenzia Prague, he purchased the luxury Caruso hotel in the center of Prague for 5.4 million euros — a few months after his resignation, having declared about 100 thousand USD in bank accounts with a mayoral salary of about 1,000 USD per month.