Law enforcement officers have uncovered a large-scale land scam in the Kyiv region. Suspicions have been raised against a deputy of one of the village councils and five other individuals. According to the investigation, an organized group seized land with an area of 92 hectares, causing losses to the territorial community of over UAH 12 million.
How the scheme worked
According to the Prosecutor General's Office, the deputy, who was also the secretary of the standing committee on land relations and environmental protection, involved a private notary, an administrator of the Central Administrative Center, and three front persons in the transaction.
The scheme worked as follows:
-
the administrator allegedly received applications from citizens about the privatization of land;
-
a package of documents with forged signatures was transferred to the land department;
-
the village council session adopted a decision on the allocation of plots;
-
A private notary drew up purchase and sale agreements, according to which the deputy herself became the new owner.
In reality, citizens did not write any statements and did not sign any documents.
Thanks to forged documents and subsequent dealings, the organizers of the scheme acquired 92 hectares of land. The losses for the local community were estimated at UAH 12 million.
During searches in Kyiv, Kyiv and Khmelnytskyi regions, law enforcement officers seized documents confirming the illegal alienation of land: purchase and sale agreements, acceptance and transfer certificates, state acts, technical documentation regarding the boundaries of land plots, powers of attorney, etc.
The organizer and five of her accomplices were notified of suspicion under the following articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:
-
Part 4 of Article 190 (fraud committed by an organized group, on a particularly large scale),
-
Part 3 of Article 358 (forgery of documents),
-
as well as a number of articles regarding organization and complicity in a crime.
The articles carry long prison sentences.
