In Odesa region, officials handed over state-owned ships for a paltry price

In Odesa region, two officials of state-owned enterprises are suspected of multimillion-dollar fraud with the lease of tankers and a boat. State assets ended up in private hands for a pittance.

This was reported by the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office.

Two officials of the state-owned enterprises Service and the Maritime Administration of the Black Sea Fishing Port were notified of suspicion. In 2020, they transferred state-owned tankers and a boat to a private company, setting the rent at UAH 16 million below market value.

According to the investigation, the officials signed lease agreements that deliberately underestimated the value of the vessels, allowing the private company to use state assets for almost nothing. To create the appearance of legality, they engaged a controlled appraisal firm that prepared fake reports on the value of the vessels.

As a result, the prices of state-owned vessels "sank" several times:

• Tamansky tanker - from over UAH 35 million to UAH 4.2 million;
• "Vostochny - from UAH 19 million to UAH 3.6 million;
• "Yuzhny - from UAH 16 million to UAH 1.8 million;
• the boat Sadko-2 - from over UAH 1.2 million to UAH 396 thousand.

Law enforcement officers classified the actions of the officials under Part 2 of Art. 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - abuse of office, which caused grave consequences.

The investigation is being conducted by the Main Investigation Department of the National Police under the supervision of the Prosecutor General's Office.

At the same time, in September, a court in Odesa ruled to close the proceedings against the former deputy head of the Odesa port, who was previously suspected of negligence. According to the investigation, the official allowed a private company to use state warehouses for almost free.

In March 2019, the official signed an agreement with Sanmobil, which actually allowed the company to use almost 7,000 square meters of warehouse space - the so-called Red Warehouses on Mytna Square - for free. Officially, the document provided for the provision of cargo storage services, but in practice it was a lease of huge areas for a meager fee.

Анна Бальчінос