Today, the HACC Appeals Chamber resumed hearings in the case of former Boryspil Airport CEO Yevhenii Dykhne and Head of the Lease Relations Service Olesia Levochko. This was the first hearing after a several-month pause caused by a comprehensive court-ordered valuation/construction and economic expert review.

According to the prosecution, in 2016–2017 the airport concluded lease agreements with Artery Group and Coffee Bar Plus in breach of procedure and at undervalued rates. It is worth noting that among the ultimate beneficial owners of one of the tenants—Coffee Bar Plus LLC—is Timur Mindich, who is a suspect in another criminal proceeding.

The first-instance court had already sentenced the defendants to 5 and 4 years’ imprisonment, but on appeal new calculations were deemed necessary due to inconsistencies in earlier expert conclusions. The defense insisted on a new comprehensive expert review.

Today, the court announced the results of that review.

During examination of the expert opinion, defense counsel argued that the new review is improper and unreliable, and that the calculations were again performed incorrectly. The defense maintained that the experts had again committed violations and requested that they be summoned for questioning in court.

For his part, the prosecutor stated that both the earlier and the new expert reviews show a clear trend: when a competitive procedure is used, the lease price increases.

The court denied the defense motion to summon the experts for questioning and also denied the motion for re-examination of evidence. The court then decided to proceed to the stage of closing arguments.