Case description
On March 29, 2024, the HACC convicted Anatolii Orlovskyi, former acting deputy mayor of Odesa, who took part in the seizure of property at Odesa Airport. The ex-official received 3 years of probation instead of 4.5 years in prison, as he pleaded guilty and concluded a plea agreement.
According to the investigation, in the period from December 2009 to April 2011, Orlovskyi, together with businessmen Borys Kaufman and Oleksandr Borukhovych, conspired to organize a scheme to misappropriate the property and income from the activities of ME Odesa International Airport. To do this, they established a legal entity through controlled offshore companies, with which the Odesa City Council created a joint venture company, Odesa International Airport LLC, out of which only 25% belonged to the city. The relevant resolution in the city council was ensured by Oleksii Kostusiev, its former chairman.
Anatolii Orlovskyi was appointed Director of Odesa Airport Development, which later acquired 75% of the company that managed the airport. In order to bring the crime to an end, Kostusiev promoted Orlovskyi to the position of acting deputy mayor of Odesa in 2011. While working in the mayor's office, he signed all the necessary documents, which allowed the defendants to embezzle the airport property. To prevent the assets from being returned to the city, the airport property was pledged to a bank in 2013 to obtain a USD 30 million loan. Over 10 years, only USD 2 million on the loan was paid.
The Prosecutor's Office estimates that the local budget suffered losses of more than UAH 2.5 billion, UAH 118 million of which is the value of the airport and the rest is misappropriated profits.
Orlovskyi's actions were classified under Article 191(5) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. He concluded a plea agreement, so the court imposed a 3-year probationary period on him with additional recognizances.
