Seizure of state land worth almost UAH 2 billion: organized criminal group exposed (PHOTOS)

On Aug. 15, 2023, NABU and SAPO exposed 5 participants of an organized group that misappropriated land plots of more than 1200 hectares near Kyiv. Their actions caused over UAH 1.8 billion in losses to the state.

The suspects are:

• former deputy head of the State Enterprise "Main Research and Design Institute of Land Management" - organizer of the scheme;
• two former officials of the Main Department of the State Geocadastre in the Kyiv region - perpetrators of the crime (one of them being the head of a central executive body);
• two persons linked to the ex-management of the State Geocadastre - accomplices to the crime.

Their actions fall under Part 5 Art. 191, Part 3 Art. 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

As established, in 2018-2019, the organizer of the scheme, with influence over officials of the Main Department of the State Geocadastre in the Kyiv region and connections with top officials in various fields, developed a scheme to misappropriate agricultural land that was in permanent use by state-owned enterprises in the Kyiv region. To this end, he involved other accomplices, who searched for Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) fighters entitled to receive a free land plot*. The detectives and prosecutors established two episodes of criminal activity - the seizure of almost 920 hectares of state land in Fastiv and about 284 hectares of the Pushcha-Vodytsia SE near Kyiv.

Fastiv 

The suspects ensured an inventory of land plots in Fastiv that were in permanent use by the State Enterprise "Dmytrivka", which is under the authority of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences. The perpetrators entered false information into the inventory documentation, where they indicated that the right to use the land plots was absent, allegedly due to the liquidation of the state enterprise and the absence of a legal successor, and therefore, the plots were classified as reserve lands.

Further on, the suspects, without the knowledge of the ATO fighters, used a legislative mechanism to allocate the land plots into their private ownership.

Subsequently, after the land was privatized, the plots were officially resold to third parties at a price 10 times lower than the market average. According to expert examination, the land plots were worth nearly UAH 715 million, while private entrepreneurs acquired them for about UAH 85 million.

Pushcha-Vodytsia

This case involves the allocation of plots on the territory of the Sofiivsko-Borshchahivska and Petropavlivsko-Borshchahivska village councils of the former Kyiv-Sviatoshynskyi district of the Kyiv region, with a total area of 284.32 hectares and a market value of almost UAH 1.2 billion.

The peculiarity of this scheme was that Pushcha Voditsa registered the right to use the land plots in 2016 based on the results of the inventory. In 2019, Pushcha Voditsa developed the relevant documentation for the division of some of the plots, which was approved by the Main Department of the State Geocadastre in the Kyiv region.

However, the suspects, in an effort to take possession of the plots, prepared a complaint to the Ministry of Justice on behalf of the Main Department of the State Geocadastre in the Kyiv region to cancel the registration of the right to use the land plots, as they were divided allegedly without the approval of the State Geocadastre as a representative of the state, the owner of the land plots.

After the Commission for Reviewing Complaints in the Field of State Registration of the Ministry of Justice decided to cancel the decision of the state registrar, who registered the right to permanent use of the land by the State Enterprise "Pushcha Voditsa", the right to use the land was not canceled.

However, the suspects later managed to secure the transfer of these plots by the State Geocadastre Department in the Kyiv region into private ownership in the names of the ATO fighters, most of whom were unaware of the fulfillment of their right to the land.

The plan was also to change the purpose of the land and subsequently sell it to private companies.

Thanks to NABU and SAPO, in 2020-2021, all lands were seized by court, and a ban was issued against their development, change of purpose, allowing these plots to be preserved for the Kyiv region community.

Detectives and prosecutors are identifying other possible participants in the crime. NABU and SAPO are investigating the forgery of documents related to the representation of the interests of ATO fighters.

*Persons with the status of combatants have a preferential right to free privatization of land plots in accordance with Articles 116, 118, 121 of the Land Code of Ukraine under the Order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 898 of 19 August 2015 "Issues of providing participants of the anti-terrorist operation and families of deceased participants of the anti-terrorist operation with land plots."