The Odessa Port Plant Case: Defendants to Pay Over 127 Million Hryvnias in Restitution
2 April 19:38
The High Anti-Corruption Court has approved a plea agreement in the case involving corruption at the Odesa Port Plant in 2015. The state will be reimbursed 77.5 million hryvnias in damages, and an additional 50 million hryvnias will go toward supporting the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office announced this on Telegram, reports "Komersant Ukrainian".
“The High Anti-Corruption Court has approved a plea agreement in the case of corruption at the Odesa Port Plant. This concerns a 2015 scheme—the sale of the plant’s products at prices below market value,” the SAP reported.
Under the terms of the agreement, over 77.5 million hryvnias in damages will be fully reimbursed to the state; the defendants will allocate another 50 million hryvnias to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine through the UNITED24 fundraising platform.
The defendants fully admitted their guilt and agreed to the agreed-upon punishment.
The following received court sentences:
— a member of the Ukrainian Parliament of the 8th convocation — a fine of 300 non-taxable minimum incomes;
— former deputy director and former head of the OPZ department — three years’ imprisonment, a one-year ban on holding public office, and a fine;
— co-organizers of the scheme (a former member of the OPZ board and the owner of an intermediary company) — three years’ imprisonment, a one-year ban on holding public office, and a fine.
The SAPO does not name the MP, but the circumstances of the case indicate that it is Oleksandr Granovsky.
The SAP also noted that some of the defendants were exempted from punishment due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, while the rest received a two-year probationary period.
“More than 10 years have passed since the crime was committed; some of the defendants are abroad (Austria, the United Kingdom), and extradition requests regarding them were not granted. At the same time, three of the defendants were already entitled to have the case closed due to the statute of limitations. Despite all these circumstances, as part of the plea agreement, they waived the right to have the case dismissed; pleaded guilty; and committed to compensating for the damages and supporting the military,” the SAP stated.
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As reported, in October 2024, NABU concluded its investigation into the corruption case at OPZ. The investigation established that a criminal scheme was implemented at the enterprise, resulting in OPZ suffering losses of over 94 million UAH. Between March and December 2015, the plant sold ammonia and urea to an intermediary company at prices below market value. Subsequently, this company resold the fertilizers to the plant’s actual customers at market prices, pocketing the difference in profit.
In October 2022, the scheme’s organizer, Granovsky, was notified of suspicion of abuse of authority (Part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), and he faced up to six years in prison. He was subsequently placed on the wanted list and, in December 2022, arrested in absentia.
