More than two years ago, NABU and SAP began the process of putting on the wanted list the “gray eminence” of Odessa, Vladimir Galanternik.
This man is suspected of creating an organized criminal group in the city, which had the goal of seizing public property, that is, banal raiding under the guise of city council officials led by Gennady Trukhanov.
This is reported by 368.media
Many media outlets write about some mysterious halo around Galanternik. It was noted that the man diligently avoids publishing his own images on the Internet. In 2021, the first official photo of a man appeared on the Forbes website. He was added to 10th place in the list of the 25 largest rentiers. Then they said that he ordered publication in a famous magazine.
Vladimir Ilyich was born on December 19, 1969 in Odessa, where he grew up on Pirogovskaya Street (he was recently registered there with his father). But Odessa journalists wrote that Galanternik’s classmate and childhood friend was Vladimir Andreevich Kurochka, another Odessa businessman whose name has repeatedly appeared in scandalous stories about land seizures. The raider seizure of someone else's property is also the signature business style of Galanternik himself, who has been doing this since the 90s.
The man did not have any specialized education. Vladimir Galanternik made his first capital very simply. Since Soviet times, in the center of Odessa (Grecheskaya-Ekaterininskaya) there was an electrical goods store, which Odessa residents called among themselves “Lampochka”. In the early 90s, it was privatized by its director under the name Edison, but he did not run his business for long. The haberdasher seemed to work there or was a business partner. One day he came to the owner with documents about the alleged existence of a debt and “squeezed out” the premises. Vladimir Galanternik at that time worked under the “roof” of Odessa authority Viktor Kulivar (nickname “Karabas”), and only after his murder in 1997 began to look for a new boss).
Next, Galanternik became involved with the judge of the Economic Court of Odessa, Valentin Prodaevich. They say about the last Odessa resident that this is a rare case when the surname fully corresponds to the essence of its owner: neither Odessa nor the whole of Ukraine knew a more corrupt judge. According to rumors, Prodaevich allegedly bought his post for $15 million (and kept it until 2012) and very quickly paid for it with interest. But these are not rumors, but facts: in 2005-2007, Prodaevich, together with his businessman brother Sergei, “squeezed out” kindergarten No. 75 for themselves, throwing the children out onto the street.
The new scheme largely repeated the old one: seizure of property for debts, which led to the idea that Vladimir Galanternik could have participated in the debit of the Black Sea Shipping Company back in the 1990s. But now he has the opportunity to dispose of the property of the shipping company, and his close relationship with Valentin Prodaevich turned this process into a conveyor belt, the speed of which was slowed down only by the appeals of the collapsing workers of the shipping company and the protests of concerned Ukrainians. In addition, under the pretext of solving the financial problems of the ChMP, Vladimir Galanternik achieved the leasing and rental of a number of the remaining facilities and vessels of the shipping company.
False authority: the story of the “gray eminence” of Odessa Galanternik
More than two years have passed since NABU and SAPO managed to put the so-called “gray eminence” of Odessa, Vladimir Galanternik, on the wanted list.
This man is suspected of creating an organized criminal group in the city, which had the goal of seizing public property, that is, banal raiding under the guise of city council officials led by Gennady Trukhanov.
Many media outlets write about some mysterious halo around Galanternik. It was noted that the man diligently avoids publishing his own images on the Internet. In 2021, the first official photo of a man appeared on the Forbes website. He was added to 10th place in the list of the 25 largest rentiers. Then they said that he ordered publication in a famous magazine.
The editors of 368.media researched the biography of Vladimir Galanternik and discovered that he is the most common fraudster and executor of other people’s decisions. He began raiding in the early 1990s.
"Light Bulb" and Chicken
Vladimir Ilyich was born on December 19, 1969 in Odessa, where he grew up on Pirogovskaya Street (he was recently registered there with his father). But Odessa journalists wrote that Galanternik’s classmate and childhood friend was Vladimir Andreevich Kurochka, another Odessa businessman whose name has repeatedly appeared in scandalous stories about land seizures. The raider seizure of someone else's property is also the signature business style of Galanternik himself, who has been doing this since the 90s.
The man did not have any specialized education. Vladimir Galanternik made his first capital very simply. Since Soviet times, in the center of Odessa (Grecheskaya-Ekaterininskaya) there was an electrical goods store, which Odessa residents called among themselves “Lampochka”. In the early 90s, it was privatized by its director under the name Edison, but he did not run his business for long. The haberdasher seemed to work there or was a business partner. One day he came to the owner with documents about the alleged existence of a debt and “squeezed out” the premises. Vladimir Galanternik at that time worked under the “roof” of Odessa authority Viktor Kulivar (nickname “Karabas”), and only after his murder in 1997 began to look for a new boss).
Next, Galanternik became involved with the judge of the Economic Court of Odessa, Valentin Prodaevich. They say about the last Odessa resident that this is a rare case when the surname fully corresponds to the essence of its owner: neither Odessa nor the whole of Ukraine knew a more corrupt judge. According to rumors, Prodaevich allegedly bought his post for $15 million (and kept it until 2012) and very quickly paid for it with interest. But these are not rumors, but facts: in 2005-2007, Prodaevich, together with his businessman brother Sergei, “squeezed out” kindergarten No. 75 for themselves, throwing the children out onto the street.
The new scheme largely repeated the old one: seizure of property for debts, which led to the idea that Vladimir Galanternik could have participated in the debit of the Black Sea Shipping Company back in the 1990s. But now he has the opportunity to dispose of the property of the shipping company, and his close relationship with Valentin Prodaevich turned this process into a conveyor belt, the speed of which was slowed down only by the appeals of the collapsing workers of the shipping company and the protests of concerned Ukrainians. In addition, under the pretext of solving the financial problems of the ChMP, Vladimir Galanternik achieved the leasing and rental of a number of the remaining facilities and vessels of the shipping company.
Developer and banker
In 2006, ChMP’s debts reached 54 million hryvnia, and Galanternik was going to pay them off by selling property (facilities, territories), which is estimated at 250 million hryvnia. And there are only... two ships left under the shipping company’s flag! It was such a blatant plunder that the topic of the emergency situation was raised again in Kyiv, and a special report was placed on the desk of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. However, as a result of the next investigation, the director of the private enterprise, Evgeniy Kozhevin, was “assigned” to blame.
Vladimir Galanternik safely “left” (that’s when he began to clear out all the information about himself), and Vladimir Shnyakin was appointed as the main reorganizer of the moribund ChMP.
No one was embarrassed by the fact that Shnyakin again began to sell off the property of the private enterprise, doing this through the company Hertensteegh BV, which is one of the founders of Vladimir Galanternik’s SotsComBank. However, two years later Shnyakin was also replaced, but another business partner, Vladimir Galanternik, was appointed his successor. The haberdasher fraudulently took possession of the Privoz market and the land underneath it. In 2006 (when Odessa was governed by mayors Vladimir Bodelan and Eduard Gurvits), the city authorities entered into an agreement with the company of Vladimir Galanternik on the reconstruction of the market, the payment for which was its share in the commercial enterprise “Rynok Privoz”. Then, with the help of the bankruptcy system for debts and Judge Prodaevich, the market was transferred to Privoz LLC, which, in turn, belonged to one of the founding companies of SotsComBank. And in 2010, the LLC resold the market shares to Fresh Export-LTD LLC. Attempts by Odessa residents to return the property to city ownership continued for almost four years; a special commission of the Verkhovna Rada even came to Odessa on this occasion - however, deputies of the regional council took the side of the Fresh Export company, which allowed them to begin land acquisition and privatize the market territory.
By the way, SotsComBank was another scam. It was liquidated in 2011, leaving investors without money. In the 2000s, Galanternik also created a number of construction companies, including the notorious Progress-Stroy. There his manager was the so-called developer Alexander Seleznev (now leading Galanternika projects under the brand Space).
The construction of the Zolotoy Bereg residential complex, which he began in 2008, was stopped and frozen - and more than 500 shareholders were left without housing and without money. Their anger fell on the nominal directors of the company, which Vladimir Galanternik later went bankrupt so as not to pay off its debts. As we can see, in the right hands, bankruptcy can work for both parties!
"Huckster"
All this time, Vladimir Galanternik wanted to impress others and Ukrainians as a real businessman and a successful corrupt official.
However, this man was one of the managers of the criminal kings of Odessa. To show off, Galanternik made himself a residence in the former mansion of ex-People's Deputy Vasily Khmelnytsky on the beach. There he received visitors and resolved issues. However, law enforcement officers from NABU conducted a search there so quickly that security did not have time to stop them, and important documents fell into the hands of detectives. Galanternik himself then hid in London, where his handlers live (criminal king and boss of the mayor of Odessa Alexander Angert).
In recent years, Galenternik has undergone several facial surgeries and bleached his hair. His acquaintances call him “Tanned Shit” for this. He doesn't live in London now because it's too expensive for him. On the contrary, the man often flies to Israel, where he has citizenship. He is also often seen in Vienna in his apartment. Everyone who did business with him is now a suspect or witness in criminal proceedings.
The businessman made all his fortune and influence due not to his own intelligence, but to the stupidity of those around him, who elevated him to the throne of the “gray eminence” of Odessa, although he is not that at all.
Will Galanternik become the heir to the dying “Angel”? It is unlikely. The empire has already begun to be dismantled, but “Lampochka” is not among the heirs.
