The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) have completed the pre-trial investigation into the seizure and subsequent legalization of 18 hectares of state-owned land worth more than UAH 160 million at market value, NABU reported.
"In the spring of 2021, amid a corporate conflict between a former Party of Regions MP and a Kyiv-based developer for control of a wholesale agricultural produce market on the outskirts of Kyiv, the developer formed an intent to transfer the market’s assets to individuals and legal entities under her control," NABU said on its Telegram channel on Wednesday.
According to the bureau, in furtherance of the scheme, officials at the State Geocadastre’s Main Directorate in Kyiv region made unauthorized changes to the State Land Cadastre, allowing the directorate to dispose of the land tract on which the wholesale market, spanning more than 150 hectares, is located.
NABU said the land was then leased to a company controlled by the developer.
The head of that company subsequently waived part of the leased land in favor of nine predetermined individuals, who, based on an order signed by the acting head of the State Geocadastre’s Kyiv region directorate and in violation of land legislation, obtained ownership of nine land plots totaling 18 hectares, NABU said.
Those plots were later sold, through sham transactions, to three companies linked to the developer.
"In the course of settling the conflict, the developer and the former MP signed a memorandum (‘ponyatiyka’) on the joint use of the land tract, including for development. And in September 2021, a trusted associate of the former MP became a beneficiary of the companies owning the land plots," the statement said.
