As it turned out, based on the results of an inspection by the State Audit Service, water is supplied to Odessa residents by a private company owned by Nikolai Zlochevsky, accused by NABU of bribery.
The scheme is ingenious: in 2003, the Odessa City Council leased Odessavodokanal to Nikolai Zlochevsky for 49 years, and he supplies water to Odessa residents through gasket companies. The overall result is that every Odessa resident who has a water tap in his home pays Nikolai Zlochevsky monthly for the water he uses.
Although water was supposed to be supplied by a utility company owned by the city council, since 2003, the water supplier and provider of other services related to water and sewerage has been the Infoxvodokanal branch, owned by Infox LLC.
In turn, the owner of Infox LLC is the Cypriot Virmanto Limited. And the owners of this Cypriot offshore are Karina and Anna Zlochevsky, to whom Nikolai Zlochevsky recently ceded his share. Although this does not change the essence of the matter.
Everything ingenious, as you see, is simple - the profit for supplying Ukrainian water to Ukrainian citizens living in Odessa does not go to the city’s treasury, but to the Cypriot offshore, behind which is Nikolai Zlochevsky.
There are more than half a million water utility subscribers in Odessa. And all of them are now subscribers of Infoxvodokanal, and everyone pays for water, use of the water supply system, installation and verification of meters, repairs, and so on to Nikolai Zlochevsky. The fact that the recipient of the profit is a Cypriot offshore does not concern the Odessa city council.
However, the matter is not limited only to subscribers' money. Here are the income from tenders that Infoxvodokanal has won over the past four years. During this period there were more than three thousand, and the total profit of Infoxvodokanal amounted to 649,079,348 hryvnia. And this money also came from the pockets of Ukrainians - Infoxvodokanal supplied services and goods to state and municipal enterprises.
The parent company, Infox LLC, does not lag behind its branch. During this period, she won 110 tenders with a total value of 77,763,977 hryvnia.
A total of 726,843,325 budget hryvnias have ended up in the pockets of Mykola Zlochevsky over the past four years. This is only for won tenders.
Ukraine is a rich country, we can afford it. And then we’ll go with outstretched hands and ask for money from our Western partners. So far they are giving, but how long will this continue? If someone thinks that there are fools in Europe and the USA and they do not see all these schemes, then this is precisely a mistake. When the help runs out. But Zlochevsky will be left with budget money siphoned to his offshore, and Ukrainians will be left with debts that will need to be paid to their grandchildren.
And all this is happening despite the fact that back in December 2019, criminal proceedings No. 42019160000000808 were initiated against officials of Infox LLC and its branch Infoxvodokanal. The amount of damage caused to the city was estimated at at least 718 million hryvnia.
But there were no consequences - the last hearing on the case took place back in 2020, after which the case hung tightly in the bowels of the law enforcement system. And Nikolai Zlochevsky’s income only grew - from tenders alone, as noted above, he received three quarters of a billion hryvnia. There was also a monthly fee, a fee for the delivery of water and drainage, repairs, installation, replacement and verification of meters, and so on.
Therefore, we can safely say that we are talking about billions of hryvnia. Which Nikolai Zlochevsky has pumped out of the pockets of Odessa residents in the twenty years that have passed since the Vodokanal was leased to him. And there are still thirty years ahead. How much he will earn during this time is anyone's guess. And then he will give back to Odessa the leased and squeezed out to the last drop water utility with worn-out networks and destroyed infrastructure. Which Odessa will repair at its own expense and lease to the duty officer Zlochevsky. And so on ad infinitum. Everything ingenious is simple.
Let us remind you: Nikolai Zlochevsky is the owner of the largest private gas production company in Ukraine, Burisma. Former member of the Party of Regions. Former people's deputy of Ukraine, former deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council. Since November 2019, he has been wanted as part of an investigation into the activities of the Burisma company, a person involved in the case of a record bribe of $6 million for NABU and SAPO, which they tried to give for closing the case against Burisma.
