Under the procedural guidance of prosecutors from the Office of the Prosecutor General, a suspect has been reported for the organizer and 5 members of an organized group who created an illegal scheme for the registration of land plots in the names of fictitious persons, causing damages to the territorial community amounting to 12 million UAH (Part 3 of Article 27, Part 3 of Article 28, Part 4 of Article 190, Part 3 of Article 27, Part 3 of Article 28, Part 3 of Article 358, Part 3 of Article 27, Part 3 of Article 28, Part 4 of Article 358 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). 

According to the investigation, while being a deputy and simultaneously the secretary of the permanent commission on land relations and environmental protection of one of the village councils in Kyiv region, the suspect involved a private notary, an administrator of the department for the organization of administrative services, and three individuals who allegedly represented the interests of citizens intending to privatize a land plot based on power of attorney.

The illegal scheme involved the administrator receiving requests from citizens with the appropriate package of documents regarding the allocation of land plots in Kyiv region. Subsequently, the package with knowingly forged documents was forwarded to the land department for processing by the decisions of the village council session.

The investigation established that the citizens did not sign any documents and did not submit applications for land allocation.

Having formalized ownership based on forged documents, the perpetrators organized the conclusion and registration of sale contracts for the land plots through their private notary, according to which the new owner became the organizer of the criminal scheme and concurrently a deputy of the village council.

In this way, they seized land plots with a total area of 92 hectares, causing damages to the territorial community amounting to a total of 12 million UAH.

During searches at the places of work and residence of the individuals involved in Kyiv, Kyiv, and Khmelnytskyi regions, documents regarding the illegal alienation of land plots and their subsequent acquisition by the deputy were discovered and seized, including sale contracts, acceptance-transfer acts, state acts, technical documentation regarding the establishment of land plot boundaries, their consolidation, powers of attorney, etc.

The pre-trial investigation is being conducted by investigators of the Main Investigative Department with operational support from the Department of Internal Security of the National Police of Ukraine.

Note: according to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent of committing a crime and cannot be subjected to criminal punishment until their guilt is proven in a lawful manner and established by a guilty verdict of the court.