Vladimir Galanternik: will a man without a face become the new owner of Odessa?
In May 2017, news spread across Odessa about the death of the criminal “authority” Alexander Angert, known under the nickname Sasha Angel and who for many years controlled the shadow life of the city – most recently from London. But it was fake. Although several competing candidates immediately set their sights on his place: both possible successors and long-time opponents. For example, Vladimir Galanternik. And Odessa residents started talking about the fact that a change in the “shadow owner” would lead not only to a major redivision of the city, but also, possibly, to the Odessa Maidan and early mayoral elections.
This is quite obvious, because the current Odessa mayor Gennady Trukhanov was Angert’s protege, and 25 years ago he started with him in the same organized crime group of the international oil, weapons and drugs dealer Leonid Minin. And now, when Angert died, Trukhanov’s main supporters were two other close associates of the deceased “authority”: businessmen Alexander Zhukov and Vladimir Galanternik. Those who want to reset Trukhanov will first have to strike at these pieces.
However, Zhukov (father-in-law of the Russian oligarch Abramovich) is also in London and only earns money in Odessa through a joint company with Galanternik and Trukhanov, and no one can get hold of him. But it seems that Galanternik, as one of the potential candidates for the post of “supervisor” in Odessa, has already begun to be tested for strength by his competitors. Thus, in June, activists of right-wing nationalist movements (among Skelet.Info there is information that they are controlled by Oles Yanchuk, considered a person Gurvitsa) staged a raid on the beach in the area of the sanatorium named after. Chkalov, which has long become a place of conflict of interests. This section of the coast was previously captured by an oligarch Vasily Khmelnitskywho began building there either his own dacha or a profitable hotel – not caring about the indignation of Odessa residents. Back in 2015, the then Odessa governor Mikheil Saakashvili tried to stop construction and free the beach for public use by demolishing the fences enclosing it. But Saakashvili left, and the beach was fenced off again – and construction continued until it was suspended again in early June. Then Khmelnitsky sold the territory and the unfinished construction to Galanternik, who was going to build a nightclub on this place – but a few days later, “Odessa social activists” appeared there, breaking the fence.
“Bulb”
Galanternik has one trump card, very unusual for a person who is one of the largest businessmen in Odessa: very few people know him by sight, and he has completely removed his photos from all available sources. There is only one old black and white photograph of a supposedly young Galanternik circulating on the Internet, and even then there is no confirmation that it is he and not someone else.
Vladimir Galanternik (possibly)
Andrei Andreevich Ivancho, another business partner of Galanternik and Trukhanov, did the same. Moreover, what is surprising is not so much that they removed their photos from the media, as well as from all archives (Galanternik was a deputy of the Odessa regional council and ran for people’s deputy – everything has been cleaned up!), but how they manage to avoid the paparazzi today. Agree, if a person of such a social level decides to hide his face from the public, then a photo of this face begins to cost a lot! However, so far no one has been able to photograph Galanternik, at least from afar, or at least leaving the office and getting into the car. And it makes you think!
Along with his photos, Galanternik carefully deleted all information about his past. In the public domain, you can only find out that Vladimir Ilyich Galanternik was born on December 19, 1969 in Odessa, where he grew up on Pirogovskaya Street (he was registered there with his father until recently). But Odessa journalists once wrote that Galanternik’s classmate and childhood friend was Vladimir Andreevich Kurochka, another Odessa businessman whose name has repeatedly surfaced in scandalous stories about land seizures.
But raider seizure of someone else’s property is also the signature business style of Galanternik himself, who has been doing this since the 90s. Well, now we can clarify that I did not study alone, but at least together with my friend Chicken. From that era to Skelet.Info The story has reached us about how Galanternik made his first capital. Since Soviet times, in the center of Odessa (Grecheskaya-Ekaterininskaya) there was an electrical goods store, which Odessa residents called among themselves “Lampochka”. In the early 90s, it was privatized by its director, but he did not do his business for long: one day Galanternik appeared in the store, busily inspecting the premises. According to sources, Galanternik came to Lampochka not with a bat (although a couple of strong “brothers” stood behind him), but with documents about the debt of the store owner: it was, although crude, a classic raider takeover according to the economic scheme. So Galanternik acquired his first real estate, which he then repurposed, but the nickname of the “squeezed out” store stuck with him.
This story well illustrates the role played by Vladimir Galanternik in the criminal world and shadow business of Odessa in the 90s, and which has remained his specialty to this day. And this may explain why he did not immediately appear in Angert’s circle. In the 90s, the Minin-Angert group, which also included Zhukov and Trukhanov, was engaged in Odessa itself mainly in oil, and abroad (where they moved in 1996) in everything in a row, including the arms trade. At that time, Angert did not particularly need the services of the novice raider Galanternik (and his friend and colleague Kurochka), and there is information that Galanternik at that time worked under the “roof” of the Odessa authority Viktor Kulivar (nickname “Karabas”), and only after his murder in In 1997, he began looking for a new boss. Their rapprochement occurred through Trukhanov, who periodically came from Italy to Odessa to look after affairs. And when Angert needed smart “managers” in Odessa, it was here that Galanternik had a chance to make a real career.
How Vladimir Galanternik “ate” the Black Sea Shipping Company
As of August 24, 1991, the Black Sea Shipping Company (BSC) included about 300 sea vessels (total displacement of 5 million tons), 1,100 auxiliary vessels, several ports and repair plants, and a large number of institutions. More than 80 thousand people worked there, 27 thousand of them were sailors. In Soviet times, private enterprises brought the state up to $1 billion in net profit per year, and the total value of the company’s property was estimated at $7 billion (in 1991, the dollar was twice as “heavy” as it is today). Of course, these treasures simply could not remain stolen: the ChMP began to be stolen already in 1992, selling ships at the price of scrap. Alas, if passenger ships and dry cargo ships later sailed under foreign flags, many specialized ships were actually sent for scrap: among them was the research vessel Yuri Gagarin, which, with an estimated cost of 500 million dollars, was sold to India for scrap for just 765 thousand! No one was even reprimanded for this!
By the beginning of the new century, less than a hundred sea vessels remained from the ChMP, and even those were lined up by scammers and embezzlers all the way from Kyiv itself! And this is where the criminal genius of Galanternik came in handy for the Angert organized crime group, who drew attention to the fact that in addition to ships, the ChMP also has coastal real estate, which can also be appropriated. And since September 2001, a new scheme for stealing the remains of the private sector has been launched in Odessa. The key figures in it were Vladimir Galanternik, appointed arbitration manager of the ChMP property, and judge (and then chairman) of the Economic Court of Odessa Valentin Prodaevich. Odessa residents say about the latter that this is a rare case when a surname fully corresponds to the essence of its owner: neither Odessa nor the whole of Ukraine knew a more corrupt judge. According to rumors, Prodaevich allegedly bought his position for 15 million (and kept it until 2012), and very quickly paid for it with interest. But these are not rumors, but facts: in 2005-2007. Valentin Prodaevich, together with his businessman brother Sergei Prodaevich, “squeezed out” kindergarten No. 75 for themselves, throwing the children out onto the street.
Valentin Prodaevich
The new scheme largely repeated the old one: seizure of property for debts, which suggested the idea that Galanternik could have participated in the private sector debit back in the 90s. But now he has the opportunity to dispose of the property of the private shipping company, and his close relationship with Valentin Prodaevich turned this process into a conveyor belt, the speed of which was slowed down only by the appeals of the employees of the bankrupt shipping company and the protests of concerned Ukrainians. In addition, under the pretext of solving the financial problems of the ChMP, Galanternik achieved the leasing and rental of a number of objects and the remaining ships of the shipping company. In reality, this led to the fact that the private enterprise and its divisions acquired even more debt – which accelerated the process of their bankruptcy and “squeezing out” through the Economic Court. Moreover, the entire process was accompanied from start to finish by violations of laws and monstrous corruption: enterprises were sold for next to nothing, and only their own and front companies participated in competitions.
Vladimir Galanternik: will a man without a face become the new owner of Odessa?
The scheme began to yield such good profits that already in 2003 Galanternik became a co-founder of SotsComBank, and he decided to rebuild part of the seized real estate himself – for which he created a number of construction companies, including the notorious Progress-Stroy. It’s sad, because the construction of the Zolotoy Bereg residential complex, which he began in 2008, was suspended and frozen – and more than 500 shareholders were left without housing and without money. Their anger fell on the nominal directors of the company, which Galanternik then bankrupted so as not to pay off its debts. As we can see, in the right hands, the bankruptcy procedure can work both ways!
In 2006, the ChMP’s debts reached 54 million hryvnia, and Vladimir Galanternik was going to pay them off by selling property (objects, territories) estimated at 250 million. And there are only… two ships left under the shipping company’s flag! This was such a blatant plunder that the topic of the emergency situation was again raised in Kyiv, and a special report was placed on Prime Minister Tymoshenko’s desk. However, as a result of the subsequent investigation, the director of the private enterprise, Evgenia Kozhevin, was “assigned” to blame. U Skelet.Info there is information that the people’s deputy of “Batkivshchyna” contributed to this Alexander Dubovoywho had close ties with both Galanternik and Prodaevich, and used their services to purchase real estate. That’s why Vladimir Galanternik safely “moved out” (that’s when he began to clear out all the information about himself), and Vladimir Shnyakin was appointed head of the rehabilitation of the moribund ChMP. No one was embarrassed by the fact that Shnyakin began to sell off the property of the private enterprise again, doing this through the company Hertensteegh BV, which is one of the founders of SotsComBank Galanternik. However, two years later Shnyakin was also replaced, but another business partner of Galanternik was appointed his successor.
Vladimir Galanternik: will a man without a face become the new owner of Odessa?
“Arcadia” and “Privoz”
Deriban ChMP was not just a grandiose economic crime, becoming the personification of the most boundless corruption, it resulted in an all-Ukrainian political scandal that will not be forgotten for a very long time. I think this is what forced Galanternik to go into the shadows. However, even there, having turned into a faceless Anonymous, he continued his raider activities. In addition, after Angert left for London, a rumor spreads throughout Odessa that he left Galanternik as his “overseer” around the city. After some time, the information was clarified: Galanternik was entrusted with the post of “supervisor” on economic issues, and only within the sphere of influence of Angert himself.
Be that as it may, Vladimir Galanternik made full use of the opportunities he received. And it was quite curious that the name of a man who carefully hid his face and biography did not leave the lips of Odessa residents. First of all, because of his direct guilt in the destruction of two resort attractions of Odessa: Arcadia and the Botanical Garden.
The coastal park of Arcadia, smoothly turning into the beach of the same name, with its famous central alley, which was a place of relaxation, romance and culture, no longer exists. All this was destroyed by Vladimir Galanternik, who built in their place some kind of shopping area “Arcadia City” with poor paving stones and plastic “villages”, and a water park that caused constant criticism. During this so-called reconstruction, which took place in 2013-2015. In Arcadia, more than 300 trees were barbarously cut down, some of which were planted there back in the 19th century when the park was founded. Moreover, after this monstrous reconstruction, the territory of Arcadia became the property of Galanternik’s companies, and now he is “earning money” by renting out plots.
Arcadia to Galanternik
Arcadia to Galanternik
Arcadia City today
Arcadia City today
The Odessa Botanical Garden (founded in 1867) was no less monstrously disfigured by Galanternik. Here the company Greenwood LTD LLC, co-owned by Galanternik, decided to build a high-rise residential complex “Green Wood” on a seized piece of land. At the same time, all the trees around were mercilessly cut down, and a huge pit was dug – which now threatens to cause a massive landslide. According to experts, the construction of a high-rise building in this place without special work strengthening the slope (and no one even thinks of doing it) is fraught with the fact that the constructed building may one day collapse onto the shore. But this doesn’t bother Galanternik at all, who, however, is in no particular hurry to complete the construction. It seems that having barbarously destroyed a piece of the Botanical Garden, he simply decided to turn it into another unfinished construction project.
Odessa Botanical Garden is what it used to be
Galanternik made it this way
Even earlier, Vladimir Galanternik fraudulently took possession of the Privoz market and the land underneath it. In 2006 (when Odessa was ruled Bodelan and Gurvits), the city authorities entered into an agreement with the Galanternika company on the reconstruction of the market, the payment for which was its share in the commercial enterprise “Rynok Privoz”. Then, with the help of the bankruptcy system for debts and Judge Prodaevich, the market was transferred to the ownership of Privoz LLC – which, in turn, belonged to one of the founding companies of SotsComBank. And in 2010, the LLC resold the market shares of Fresh Export-LTD LLC – which is owned by the Cypriot companies Sastapil Investment LTD LLC and Dvelona Constructions Limited LLC, and the British Alko Consulting LTD LLC. Everything is from the circle of Galanternik companies and his business partners. Attempts by Odessa residents to return Privoz to city ownership lasted almost four years; a special commission of the Verkhovna Rada even came to Odessa on this occasion – however, deputies of the regional council sided with the Fresh Export company, who allowed it to begin land acquisition and privatize the market territory. But “Privoz” is not only a “shopping complex” that brings its owners up to 20 million hryvnia per month in rent alone, but also another attraction of Odessa.
So it turns out that first Vladimir Galanternik deprived the residents of Odessa of their steamships, and then of their main attractions: Privoz, Arcadia, the Botanical Garden. What else will he steal from the city? Will it destroy the Potemkin Stairs?
And this is not counting the Longeron beach, which is actually owned by Vladimir Kurochka’s (Galanternik’s friend) SPS-Realt LLC, which is developing it, the “Moldova” and “Chkalov” sanatoriums seized by him, as well as the territory in the protected area on the banks of the Dniester. Interestingly, Kurochka captured these objects with the help of two specially created pocket societies for the disabled, who acted as preferential users of sanatoriums and park areas. What’s even more interesting is that the aforementioned seizure of kindergarten No. 75 by the Prodaevich brothers was also carried out through a fake society for the disabled! What is this: a coincidence, an Odessa tradition, or another proprietary method of Galanternik?
Until today, Galanternik, like his friends and business partners, got away with everything. Largely due to the fact that they were Angert’s people, largely due to the monstrous corruption of the Odessa authorities. But Angert died, and many people appeared who wanted to push him off the cliff of the “observer” along with his pocket mayor Trukhanov. Now the question of who will rule Odessa, both from the City Council and from the shadows, will be decided not only at the level of political agreements and corrupt deals. There is a high probability that the street, the crowd, and not only the “titushki” of the private armies of Odessa barons masquerading as activists, will be used as a weapon of struggle, but also the Odessa public. But she is not in favor of Galanternik and Trukhanov!
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info
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