A member of the Uzhhorod City Council is to stand trial for concealing assets worth 13.8 million hryvnias
The Transcarpathian Regional Prosecutor’s Office has filed a case in court against a sitting member of the Uzhhorod City Council (8th convocation) over fraud involving his financial disclosure statement and money laundering.
The official is accused of concealing property and financial obligations totaling over 13.8 million hryvnias, according to the Office of the Prosecutor General. The investigation established that in his 2022 financial disclosure report, the council member “forgot” to list a 360-square-meter house in Uzhhorod, real estate in Kyiv, and over $315,000 in cash.
A separate charge involves the laundering of 11.5 million hryvnias, which the defendant attempted to launder by arranging a fictitious loan to a third party. In addition to foreign currency savings, the declaration omitted information regarding funds in bank accounts, significant debts, and a portion of the income received. Currently, the defendant is free on bail of 11.5 million UAH, which he posted after a pretrial detention order was issued.
As part of the criminal proceedings, law enforcement officials seized assets belonging to the deputy and his wife with a total value of approximately 69.4 million UAH. The seized assets include two apartments in the center of Uzhhorod, five land plots, corporate rights, luxury cars, and a collection of nine paintings. The court proceedings are expected to determine the final punishment for entering false information into state registries and illegal enrichment.
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 differ significantly 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.
