Large-scale corruption schemes for illegal seizure of real estate have been uncovered in Kharkiv, involving lawyers, officials, and state registrars. As journalists from the StopKor project found out, the key figures in these schemes are Kharkiv lawyer Valentyn Melnyk and Ministry of Justice official Dmytro Volyk.
The essence of the fraud is document falsification and collusion with "black registrars". With the help of fake technical passports, fictitious court decisions and official loyalty, property passes into the wrong hands in a few days. The victims are not only private individuals or businesses, but also state structures: the buildings of the Security Service of Ukraine, the police and the prosecutor's office.
One of the most striking examples was a building on Kharkiv Highway. In 2024, dozens of apartments were illegally registered there — all using falsified documents. The registration took place without checks, and the city property ended up in the hands of raiders without a fight.
Valentyn Melnyk, who positions himself as a successful lawyer, recently found himself in another scandal - he used an artificially generated face of Volodymyr Zelensky (a deepfake) in a commercial for his law firm. This move caused outrage and became evidence of disregard for ethical and legal norms.
His accomplice, Justice Ministry official Dmytro Volyk, who was supposed to be on guard to protect the registers, instead coordinated the actions of the registrars under his control. They made decisions in favor of fictitious owners, covering up the tracks of the real owner.
Despite the open criminal proceedings, there has still been no verdict in the cases. Court hearings are systematically postponed, judges are changed, and key figures involved evade responsibility.
The StopKor investigation exposes not only a specific scheme, but also a systemic problem: the vulnerability of the state registry and the indifference of the law enforcement and judicial systems to raiding. Ukrainians are losing their property not because of an enemy from outside, but because of an alliance of evil within the country - lawyers, officials, and corrupt registrars.
Journalists call on the Ministry of Justice, the Prosecutor's Office, and law enforcement agencies to immediately respond to the facts of corruption and begin a public purge in the state registration system. After all, as long as property can be "rewritten" in a few days, the law in Ukraine exists only on paper.
