The Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) served a suspicion notice to Odesa Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov for submitting false information.
“During the investigative actions, Trukhanov on Monday was notified of suspicion under Article 366-1 of the Criminal Code (declaring inaccurate information),” SAPO’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine.
The press service of the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) later in the day said the inaccurate information was reported in Trukhanov’s electronic declarations for 2015 and 2016.
“Investigators have established that the Odesa mayor did not include in his declaration … information about the property and income of an individual who the mayor is connected in daily life with and who he shares mutual rights and responsibilities with. The suspect was in this official marriage from 1985 through 1997. The couple had two children together, one of whom was born in 2000, that is, after their divorce,” NABU said.
NABU said Trukhanov did not declare the following property: an apartment, two parking places, a garage, a summer house, non-residential property, two cars, shares in several businesses and interest on bank deposits.
“The mayor of Odesa in 2015 failed to declare Hr 32.48 million in his declaration in 2015, and Hr 18.81 million in 2016. The amount of undeclared income has been determined by expertise conducted during the pretrial investigation,” NABU said.
Investigators said NABU detectives began investigating the case in November 2017.
NABU said Trukhanov is accused in another crime – embezzling Hr 185 million from the Odesa city budget through the purchase of a building belonging to the Krayan enterprise.
As reported, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine issued a ruling in the case on a constitutional motion filed by 59 Members of Parliament of Ukraine regarding the compliance (constitutionality) of Article 368-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (illicit enrichment) with the Constitution of Ukraine. By this ruling, the Court recognized that Article 368-2 of the Criminal Code does not comply with the Constitution of Ukraine, i.e. it is unconstitutional.
NABU said the court’s decision would mean cases investigated under the article would be closed and it would be impossible to re-open the same investigations in the future.
On March 6, NABU said it closed the criminal investigation into suspected embezzlement by Trukhanov. The bureau said the Odesa mayor “is already accused of embezzling Hr 185 million from the city budget,” and the case is being heard by Odesa’s Malinovsky District Court.
“The ruling of the Constitutional Court declaring Article 368-2 unconstitutional has no bearing on the case, because the official is accused of corruption under Part 5 of Article 191 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code. NABU detectives are continuing to investigate other facts of possible illegal activity by the Odesa mayor,” NABU said.
In September 2016, Odesa City Council purchased a building that earlier belonged to the state-owned enterprise Factory Krayan for Hr 185 million from a private company, which, in turn, in early 2016 paid Hr 11.5 million for the building at an auction organized by the liquidator of the state enterprise.
The seller attempted to transfer the Hr 185 million paid by Odesa City Council to a company that looked fictitious. However, NABU detectives and SAPO agents prevented the sale and succeeded in arresting the account of the seller of the building.
On Feb. 14, 2018, Trukhanov and his deputy Pavlo Vugelman (also spelled Vuhelman) were detained at Boryspil Airport on suspicion of money embezzling using their official position from the local budget and transferring ownership of the former Krayan Factory.
Several officials from Odesa City Council and chiefs and founders of several enterprises were served notices of suspicion under Part 5 of Article 191 (embezzlement using official position), Part 2 of Article 205 (fake entrepreneurship), and Part 3 of Article 209 (legalization of income received illegally).
On Oct. 8, 2018, SAPO sent an indictment against Trukhanov and other employees of Odesa City Council to the court for embezzling funds from the city budget through the purchase of the Factory Krayan building.
Kyiv’s Solomiansky district court on Feb. 16 did not approve a motion by anti-corruption agencies to arrest Trukhanov and set pretrial custody bail at Hr 50 million. Instead, he was released on personal recognizance and guarantees of MP (Bloc of Petro Poroshenko faction) Dmytro Holubov.
The Solomiansky district court in March again seized the Hr 185 million, which was paid from Odesa City Council’s budget for the Factory Krayan building and ruled to transfer the funds to the National Agency of Ukraine for finding, tracing and management of assets derived from corruption and other crimes (ARMA).
