An Odessa City Council member disposed of his assets prior to extradition due to a corruption scheme
Oleksandr Matveev, an Odessa-based lawmaker from the “Trust the Deeds” party, is suspected of orchestrating a scheme to embezzle municipal real estate worth 11 million hryvnias, which he carried out through front men and the forgery of documents. While law enforcement agencies are trying to bring the fugitive back from the EU, most of his assets have been transferred to relatives through a sham divorce.
“Anticorruption Dimension” reports on the investigation into the fraud and asset stripping.
According to the investigation, the deputy, together with his accomplices, rented premises in the center of Odesa, bought them out at below-market prices, and then illegally increased the floor area by incorporating attics and basements. After registering ownership rights, the non-residential properties were converted into apartments and sold. In June 2024, Matveev fled Ukraine, after which his wife Tetyana initiated a division of property, as a result of which she received three apartments, an office-store, a country house, and a luxury SUV.
A comparison of the official’s declarations indicates his complete “impoverishment”: while in 2023 he owned real estate in Ukraine and Spain worth tens of millions of hryvnias, in 2025 he declared only cash balances. Despite the deputy’s detention in the EU in the summer of 2025, experts warn that any potential confiscation will be largely ineffective due to the preemptive re-registration of assets. Law enforcement agencies are continuing the extradition process to hold Matveev accountable for crimes committed to the detriment of the local community amid Russian aggression.
Ihor Litsur, Executive Director of the state-owned enterprise “Forests of Ukraine,” declared an annual salary of nearly 19 million hryvnias, as well as significant additional income and cash savings. At the same time, his declaration includes real estate purchased at prices that significantly differ from market rates. Separately, the official had previously been charged with official negligence.
Also in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, the prosecutor’s office is seeking through the courts to recover nearly 387 million hryvnias in damages caused by logging in the “Hutsulshchyna” National Park. The investigation claims that under the guise of sanitary work, over 9,000 trees were destroyed there without the necessary permits and approvals. Now, authorities are attempting to hold the state-owned enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” responsible, to which the relevant forestry enterprise was later merged.
