MOSCOW, May 10 Odessa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov , against whom a criminal case of embezzlement has been initiated in Ukraine, on Tuesday recorded a video message in which he refutes reports that he left for the territory of the Russian Federation.
“We are working for the sake of our city. I am sorry to hear that information is being spread on social networks that I have gone somewhere. An investigation should be carried out who spread this information. If someone jokes like that, then he should be indicated that he is an enemy This is a provocation against Trukhanov,» the mayor said in a video published by Strana.
Earlier, the press secretary of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine, Olga Postolyuk, said that 13.42 million hryvnias (about $380,000) were paid as bail for the previously arrested Trukhanov. On Tuesday, Strana reported that the prosecution at a court hearing asked to increase the amount of bail for the mayor to 50 million hryvnia ($1.4 million), and the appeal in his case was postponed to May 16.
At the end of April, the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine already sent Trukhanov to custody with an alternative in the form of bail in the amount of more than 800 thousand dollars, the obligation to wear an electronic bracelet and a number of other restrictions. Trukhanov was accused of misappropriation of budgetary funds when the city council bought the building of the Krayan plant at an inflated price. Ukrainian law enforcers opened a number of cases against Trukhanov, but the court of first instance acquitted the mayor.
In 2016, the Odessa mayor's office purchased from a private structure for 185 million hryvnias ($6.9 million) a building that was previously part of the integral property complex of the Krayan Plant state enterprise. According to investigators, this private structure acquired the entire complex for auction for 11.5 million hryvnias (430 thousand dollars).The seller company received from the mayor's office 185 million hryvnias tried to transfer the company with an opaque financial condition. The specialized anti-corruption prosecutor's office asked the court to sentence Trukhanov to 12 years in prison.
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