In Zhytomyr, a man is suspected of illegally appropriating land worth more than 2 million hryvnias
In Zhytomyr, a 36-year-old local resident was notified that he is suspected of illegally appropriating a municipal land plot valued at over 2.18 million hryvnias and of laundering property obtained through criminal means. According to the investigation, the man may have used forged documents to appropriate 1.35 hectares of land.
In 2012, the city council leased this plot to one of Zhytomyr’s enterprises. However, in 2015, the lease agreement was terminated due to the enterprise ceasing operations.
The investigation established that in December 2022, the suspect arranged for the production of forged documents. These documents stated that real estate properties allegedly belonging to him were located on the land plot.
The man is charged with forging and using official documents as part of a premeditated conspiracy by a group of individuals, fraudulent acquisition of property on an especially large scale, and laundering of property obtained by criminal means. The offenses are classified under Parts 3 and 4 of Article 358, Part 5 of Article 190, and Part 1 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Prosecutors from the Zhytomyr Regional Prosecutor’s Office are overseeing the proceedings in this case.
To conceal his illegal activities, the suspect established a company and included nonexistent real estate properties in its authorized capital. This scheme allowed him to purchase a land plot in February 2024 without going through a land auction.
After taking possession of the land, the man legalized the illegally obtained property by mortgaging it to a bank to secure a loan of 6 million hryvnias.
In this way, the suspect made the property appear to have been legally acquired and made it more difficult to return it to the local community’s ownership.
The pretrial investigation is being conducted by investigators from the Main Directorate of the National Police in Zhytomyr Oblast, with operational support from the Security Service of Ukraine’s Zhytomyr Oblast Directorate.
This was reported by the Zhytomyr Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
In the Solomyanskyi District of Kyiv, an attempt was made to illegally appropriate land worth nearly 15 million hryvnias.
In the Khmelnytskyi region, a lawyer and two officials illegally appropriated communal land.
In Kyiv, participants in a land scam involving over 22 million hryvnias will stand trial.
In the Zhytomyr region, criminals appropriated nearly 100 hectares of land.
