The High Anti-Corruption Court’s appeal chamber on Feb. 11 overturned the acquittal of Odesa Mayor Hennady Trukhanov in a Hr 185 million, or $6.6 million, embezzlement case.
Now the case will be considered again by the High Anti-Corruption Court, which may result in either a conviction or acquittal.
In July 2019, Odesa’s Malinovsky District Court acquitted Trukhanov in the embezzlement case.
Trukhanov is accused of organizing a city council vote to buy the old Krayan factory administrative building for Hr 185 million in September 2016, when it had been purchased at the beginning of the year by another firm for only Hr 4 million, suggesting the deal was a scheme to embezzle money from the city. He denies the accusations.
Local anti-corruption activists lambasted the 2019 court ruling as a political bargain aimed at whitewashing Trukhanov. They argue that the Odesa court was biased in his favor.
Trukhanov has also been charged and tried for failing to declare the property of his common-law wife Tetiana Koltunova. However, the case was closed in November due to a controversial Constitutional Court ruling that effectively destroyed Ukraine’s asset declaration system.
In another corruption case, Trukhanov and Odesa City Council are accused of embezzling funds during the purchase of the Zastava military airfield, according to the court register.
Trukhanov, then head of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions’ faction on the Odesa City Council, is also under investigation by the NABU for allegedly unlawfully selling Odesa International Airport in 2011.
Moreover, Trukhanov is under investigation over allegedly embezzling funds by inflating the price of road repairs and channeling the proceeds to offshore firms, a NABU source who was not authorized to speak to the press told the Kyiv Post.
