How details of the Odesa airport deal are being concealed

Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies have reached a secret agreement with the defendants in the high-profile case over the seizure of Odesa International Airport and the revenues from its operation. This became known on 24 February. However, the details of the deal remain unknown to this day.

According to the investigation, the organisers of the corrupt scheme are believed to be Boris Kaufman and Alex Borukhovich (also known as Alexander Granovsky).

A court without publicity

The first preparatory hearing in this case was scheduled for 28 February 2025. However, the official channels of the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) did not announce the proceedings, and no live broadcast of the hearing was conducted. What verdict was handed down to the participants of the scheme and what fate awaits the airport remains unknown.

Previously, the NABU and the SAP had charged not only the businessmen but also former Odesa mayor Oleksiy Kostusev and his former deputy.

How was the airport stolen?

According to the investigation, the scheme to seize a strategic asset was launched as early as 2011. At that time, a group of individuals, including the former mayor, his deputy, and businessmen, orchestrated a fraud that resulted in Odesa International Airport passing from city ownership into private hands.

Initially, the asset was transferred to joint ownership by the city and “private investors”, but soon the municipality completely lost control. Subsequently:

• Revenues from the airport’s operations ended up in private pockets.
• The city received no dividends whatsoever.
• All of the enterprise’s assets were pledged to a bank as collateral for a loan that no one intended to repay.

In effect, a state asset was turned into the personal business of a group of entrepreneurs, causing damage to the budget amounting to 118 million hryvnia, while the illegal proceeds of the defendants amounted to over 2.5 billion hryvnia.

According to Absolution