Trukhanov is next? On the detention of Kaufman-Granovsky
Odessa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov was under attack due to a new NABU case, Strana writes
Yesterday, on the day of a new rocket attack on Ukrainian cities, Odessa was particularly affected, where energy infrastructure facilities were hit, after which electricity, water and heat disappeared in the city.
At about the same time, when Russian missiles fell on Odessa, a large criminal -political intrigue.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) conducted large-scale searches, which resulted in the arrests of major local businessmen Boris Kaufman and Alexander Granovsky.
Kaufman is considered close to the mayor of Odessa, Gennady Trukhanov, on whom NABU also “works” closely. Therefore, it is believed that Trukhanov is next.
Apparently, the Odessa mayor also somehow appears in the new investigation of the Bureau, whose representatives came with a search to the city hall and, according to local media reports, even to the offices of Trukhanov and his deputies.
In political circles Kaufman is considered to be “looking” from the President’s Office for the Odessa region, supporting, among other things, Bankova’s communication with Mayor Trukhanov. .
Trukhanov next? Visiting the mayor again
The threat of a new missile attack on Ukraine, and then the strike itself on December 5, did not become a reason for NABU to abandon a series of searches in Odessa. One of the venues was the City Council. According to the Dumskaya publication, representatives of the bureau seized documents in the legal and financial departments, as well as in the offices of the city mayor Gennady Trukhanov and his deputies. source of “Strana” in law enforcement agencies.
However, even more unexpected – especially in terms of the result – was the visit of NAB officers to other Odessa addresses. As the Bureau later reported, its employees detained three persons on suspicion of creating a “criminal organization and committing corruption crimes.”
According to NABU, the investigation found that in the fall of 2021, after the anti-corruption authorities exposed a certain criminal organization that specialized in corruption schemes for the illegal exclusion of property from the communal property of Odessa, a new one appeared in the city.
“This criminal organization took control of almost all issues of the economic life of the city, among which [were] interaction with developers, purchases at the expense of the local budget, the activities of public utilities, and other aspects of interaction with business. To ensure the uninterrupted implementation of the goals set, the organizers have established a process of systemic bribery of officials and deputies of the local council, as evidenced by the evidence obtained by NABU and SAPO during the investigation,” the Bureau said.
They clarified: the detainees are two certain organizers of the scheme and their confidant. Pre-qualification – part 1 of Art. 255 “Creation, management of a criminal community or a criminal organization, as well as participation in it” (punishable by imprisonment for a term of seven to twelve years with confiscation of property) and part 3 of Art. 369 “Offering, promising or providing an unlawful benefit to an official” (in the event that an unlawful benefit was provided to a high official or a group of persons participated in a crime, the punishment is imprisonment for a term of four to eight years with or without confiscation of property) of the Criminal Code Ukraine.
At the same time, the investigation is also identifying other “members of the criminal organization.”
According to the Strana’s source in law enforcement agencies, two detained “organizers of the scheme” (according to NABU) — these are big businessman Boris Kaufman and his business partner Alexander Granovsky.
Information about Kaufman’s detention was confirmed on his Facebook page by NABU agent Yevgeny Shevchenko.
A friend of the presidents
Why is this an important matter, which in peacetime could well become news No. 1 exactly in Odessa , and, perhaps, in the country?
Here you need to understand who Boris Kaufman is and what is his role in the Odessa political and business layouts.
Kaufman is the beneficiary of the Vertex United group (interests include, in particular, the hotel business in Odessa and Kyiv, Odessa Airport) and the majority owner of the largest cigarette distributor in Ukraine TEDIS Ukraine, which is considered the main asset of the businessman.
In 2021 Kaufman, with a fortune of $220 million, took 46th place in the list of 100 richest Ukrainians, according to the Ukrainian version of Forbes magazine. One of the keys to his success was the ability to negotiate with any Ukrainian authorities.
He was in contact with the team of Viktor Yanukovych, then found a common language with Petro Poroshenko.
And since 2019, Kaufman, according to a widespread opinion in political circles, has established strong contacts with the team of the new President Vladimir Zelensky and, especially, with Andrei Yermak.
And, from about the same time, Kaufman began to be considered the main Mayor Trukhanov's support both in the urban business environment and at the national political level.
“After Trukhanov had disagreements with Galanternik (an influential Odessa businessman Vladimir Galanternik, on whom Trukhanov relied in his first term as mayor – Ed.), it was believed that it was Kaufman and Granovsky who sponsored Trukhanov's election campaign in 2020. That is, this situation directly concerns the mayor, even if he is not yet mentioned in this story, ”comments the head of the Odessa branch of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine (CVU) Anatoly Boyko to the Strana.
An interlocutor from Odessa people’s deputies calls Kaufman and Granovsky “the architects of Trukhanov's victory” in the last mayoral elections.
In addition, as they say in the Odessa political party, it was through Kaufman that Trukhanov maintained communications with the OP. Moreover, the businessman was considered an unspoken representative of the Presidential Office in Odessa.
“Apparently, Kaufman and Granovsky were in close contact with high-ranking people in the OP. What they have been doing and saying lately testified that they were completely executors of the will of the Presidential Office in Odessa. And, thanks to this, they had a very great influence on Mayor Trukhanov, on his personnel policy and on business layouts in the city, ”one of the Odessa parliamentarians tells Strana.
Boris Kaufman The detention of businessman Boris Kaufman may lead to fundamental changes in the system of control over Odessa. Trukhanov next? photo: facebook.com/leshchenko.ukraine
It is not surprising that Kaufman's detention raised logical questions about the background of NABU's actions and their consequences.
There are three main versions. According to one of them, Trukhanov was the main target of the search. Trukhanov is suspected to be next. According to another, the main blow is delivered to the Office of the President (through Kaufman's connections with Yermak). According to the third – a combination of the first and second versions.
The question is also – who was the initiator of these actions.
“The key question is who initiated the searches and arrests. If this is an initiative of NABU, then this is one story. And if there was a team from the OP – another. In the second case, this may mean the beginning of a redistribution of power in Odessa, which means that Trukhanov has something to fear. Were there signs of conflict between the mayor and the OP? Judging by his relations with the Servant of the People factions in the city council, and in the regional council as well, everything was pretty smooth – at least outwardly, ”comments the head of the Odessa branch of the CVU Boyko.
However, it is worth saying that NABU has been leading Trukhanov for a long time. Serious accusations have been brought against the mayor more than once, for example, in land fraud in the city. He is a defendant in various criminal proceedings, the investigation of which continues. Moreover, the story of the initiation of criminal cases against Trukhanov has been going on for five years. The initiator in almost all cases is NABU.
As Strana has already written, according to one of the versions, this is due to the political orientation of the Americans (guardians of the Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies) to get rid of Trukhanov, who is allegedly suspected in the United States of having links with organized crime. But Trukhanov constantly found protection from the country's top political leadership – first from Poroshenko, and therefore from Zelensky (through Kaufman). And this was one of the main reasons why so far it has not been possible to “knock down” the mayor.
Therefore, there is a version that the current intensification of NABU attention to Trukhanov was not initiated by the President's Office, but vice versa – at its core, it has the desire to hit the key communications of the mayor of Odessa with Bankova (to facilitate the task of bringing him to criminal liability), but at the same time, perhaps, pave the way for an attack on the leadership of the OP.
At least, such a conclusion suggests itself from the Facebook message of the NABU agent Shevchenko, who was the first to report the arrest of Kaufman in public space. He says that this happened as part of an investigation into “corruption schemes that involved not only the mayor and other officials from Odessa, but also some highly respected persons from Bankova.”
“To be continued”, – Shevchenko ended his post with these words.
It should be noted that there were similar threats in his posts dedicated to the NABU investigation into the theft of foreign humanitarian aid, which has been going on since the end of August. Representatives of the presidential vertical in the regions, as well as high-ranking officials, including those close to the OP, appeared there, which is why they suspect that Trukhanov is next.
All this falls into the trend we wrote about: the anti-corruption vertical, patronized by the West, represented by NABU and SAPO, is gradually approaching the key members of Zelensky’s team. This is accompanied by a media company (in particular, publications in the media about the possible frauds of the Dnepropetrovsk governor Valentin Reznichenko with road construction and about cars and houses of the deputy head of the President's Office Kyrylo Tymoshenko).
So far, however, this process is proceeding rather cautiously, adjusted for the wartime situation, when, including Western structures, they are not much interested in “shaking the boat”. On the other hand, the “shells” for anti-corruption investigations, figuratively speaking, fall closer to the country's leadership, which creates the potential for major corruption scandals that can seriously hit the positions of the current government.
Therefore, the reaction will be indicative Bankova to the current criminal cases against Kaufman and Granovsky.
However, there are many options here. From providing tacit support to them in the current situation and trying to put the brakes on the case (as has happened more than once in cases related to Trukhanov). Before trying to “lead the process”, prompting Mayor Trukhanov to resign from his post against the backdrop of yet another criminal trial. In this case, acting Igor Koval, the current secretary of the City Council from the Servant of the People, will become the mayor, which will significantly strengthen the control of the Office of the President over the processes in the city.
We recall that such a scheme was discussed in political circles even before the start of the war.</p
But, of course, wartime can amend all these alignments – it’s not a fact that Kyiv will want to take such drastic steps in a city of strategic importance.
Denis Rafalsky
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