The Security Service of Ukraine has issued a wanted list for Serhii Tarasov, a businessman and the father of a People's Deputy, who is suspected of illegally appropriating more than 12,000 hectares of state land in the Kirovohrad region. Tarasov, who has a diplomatic passport of Lithuania, went abroad under the guise of treatment and is currently wanted.
The case of Serhiy Tarasov, a businessman from Kirovohrad Oblast and the owner of the agricultural holding "I&U Group" has made almost no progress in two years, according to his own sources.
Since January 2024, the millionaire Tarasov has been officially wanted, where he was announced by the SBU in the Kirovohrad region, but for a year the law enforcement officers have not given any information about his search and the progress of the investigation of this high-profile case.
As Suspilne reported, Serhiy Tarasov is charged with four articles with a maximum penalty of up to 12 years in prison:
Fraud committed on a large scale or through illegal transactions using electronic computing equipment.
Appropriation, embezzlement of property or possession of it by abuse of official position in particularly large amounts or by an organized group.
Legalization (laundering) of property obtained through criminal means, committed by an organized group or in a particularly large amount.
Illegal carrying, storage, acquisition, transfer or sale of firearms (except for smooth-bore hunting), ammunition, explosives or explosive devices without a legal permit.
According to information from the Unified State Register of Court Cases, as part of the investigation of criminal proceedings No. 42023000000000249, it is about the removal of agricultural land from state ownership. "In the period 2015-2021, officials of the State Geocadastral State Administration in the Kirovohrad region, according to a prior collusion with representatives of the group of companies "I&U Group", the beneficiary of which is PERSON_5 (Serhiy Tarasov), as well as persons related to him, carried out an illegal scheme of agricultural lands from the State property", - stated in the court's decision.
In total, the agricultural holding "I&U Group" controls 75 thousand hectares of land, more than 60 enterprises are associated with it, in particular, "Kapitanivsky Sugar Factory", "Novomyrhorodsky Sugar", elevators "Kapitanivske ZZP", "Kutsivske ZZP" and "Novomyrhorod-Agrokontrakt".
According to the version of the investigation, Tarasov involved employees of the land department of the "I&U Group" group of companies under his command, whose role was to search for persons on whom the fictitious registration of land plots in the territory of the Kirovohrad region was subsequently carried out, or to search for passport data of such persons on whose behalf powers of attorney were issued without their knowledge and participation.
According to sources, the criminal group illegally appropriated about 12,000 (!) hectares of land, causing losses to the state of over UAH 400 million. The participants in the case were also not ashamed of the massive forgery of ID cards of participants in hostilities (ATO). For this purpose, a number of private notaries in the territory of Zhytomyr, Rivne, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv and other regions were involved in the illegal scheme, who authenticated known forged certificates of participants in hostilities.
In addition to the officials of the State Geocadastre, as it became known, among the main participants in the case are a private notary from Kropyvnytskyi Lydia Babich, who issued the lion's share of all powers of attorney, her assistant, a land surveying engineer, Oleksandr Veselov, who was responsible for financing all actions, and other persons, including a very close to Serhiy Tarasov, lawyer Alina Burlakova, who is currently hiding outside of Ukraine.
Tarasov himself, according to the data of the court register, "went for treatment" abroad. As an honorary consul of the Republic of Lithuania, he has a diplomatic passport and can move freely between different countries. Currently, there is no information from the law enforcement agencies on where exactly the millionaire, who is wanted in Ukraine, is "being treated".
The suspect's son, Oleg Tarasov, is a current People's Deputy. According to sources, he remains in the country, although he did not vote or was absent at the last meetings of the Verkhovna Rada in December and November.
