The mayor of Mukachevo and the head of the Mukachevo District Council were arrested for land fraud

The law enforcement officers suspect the mayor and the head of the district council of the city in Transcarpathia of abuses for the sale of land in the city center at an undervalued price.

The SBU writes about this.

The head of the district council is called the organizer of the scheme in the SBU, who is an "influential authority in the criminal environment of the region", and in the past was twice a peopleʼs deputy from the now banned “Party of Regions”.

Babelʼs sources in the law enforcement agencies confirmed that we are talking about the mayor of Mukachevo Andriy Baloha and the head of the Mukachevo district council Mykhailo Lan.

According to the investigation, at the session of the city council, the mayor ensured that the decision to sell the plot was made at an almost 9 times lower price. The land was bought by a private company controlled by the head of the district council.

The basis for the sale was an appropriate expert assessment, for which the owners of the assessment company were given a bribe.

As a result of such arrangements, land with a market value of 84.6 million hryvnias was sold for 9.6 million hryvnias.

In addition, the mayor, by a personal decision, granted the company a 6-month delay in payment.

Law enforcement officers detained Baloha, Lan and the former head of the municipal property and land relations department of the city council.

A notice of suspicion under the following articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine is being prepared for the officials, as well as the two owners of the appraising company and the appraiser:

• Art. 358 (forgery of documents);
• Art. 364 (abuse of power or official position);
• Art. 368-4 (bribery of a person who provides public services).

The maximum punishment under these articles is six years in prison.