Mykolaiv City Council deputy tried for grain fraud worth $800,000

On June 3, the Korabelnyi District Court of Mykolaiv held a hearing in the case of Oleh Afanasiev, a city council deputy from the banned OPFL party. He is accused of involvement in the fraudulent seizure of a batch of soybeans worth more than $800,000.

This was reported by MikVisti.

Before the trial on the merits, the victim's lawyer, Mykhailo Fliashchenko, filed a civil lawsuit against Afanasiev, his alleged accomplice Yevhen Halichenko, and the grain-growing company Samga LLC. According to the lawyer, the lawsuit seeks compensation for damages in the amount of more than 34 million hryvnias, which is approximately 812 thousand US dollars. Also, Solska's expenses for legal support during the investigation are separately stated - about 10 thousand US dollars.

According to the prosecution, back in 2022, the grain was to be shipped abroad under a contract worth almost USD 2 million. The intermediary was Inter TM, which engaged Samga LLC, the beneficiary of which, according to the investigation, is Oleg Afanasiev, to transship the cargo. The loading was planned to take place on the territory of the Ocean shipyard, but it was disrupted by the full-scale war that began on February 24.

In March 2022, the ship remained moored near the plant. The prosecutor said that Afanasiev, together with unidentified persons, allegedly agreed to move the cargo to a warehouse in the port, where he staged a Russian missile strike: he brought some soybeans into the building, scattered the missile debris, and took the rest of the grain out. According to lawyer Yevhen Grushovets, the products were later found in warehouses in Reni, but access to them was blocked.

In June of the same year, Afanasiev, through his lawyer, filed a complaint with the police about the destruction of soybeans as a result of an alleged missile hit. According to the prosecutor, Afanasyev confirmed the fact of staging the damage to the warehouse in a telephone conversation, which was recorded in the case file.

Despite the charges, the court did not impose a preventive measure on the MP. The defendant himself denies his guilt. The case will continue at the next hearing, where written evidence is to be presented.

The official is charged with organizing the seizure of another's property through fraud committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy on a particularly large scale.

The Kherson MP is also suspected of assisting Russians in the theft of Ukrainian grain. In July 2022, the deputy organized the export of harvested agricultural products to Dzhankoy on the temporarily occupied Crimean peninsula, from where they were planned to be transported abroad.

Анна Бальчінос