The participants in the special operation of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) "Clean City" to eradicate corruption in the land and budget sectors of Kyiv have been released from custody — bail has been posted for them.
Bihus.Info reports this, citing sources in the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC).
Hereʼs who got out and on what bail:
- Kyiv City Council (KCC) deputy Olena Marchenko — 50 million hryvnias;
- Deputy and Chairman of the Land Commission of the Kyiv City Council Mykhailo Terentyev — almost 20 million hryvnias;
- Deputy Mayor of Kyiv Petro Olenych — 15 million hryvnias;
- Deputy Director of the Kyiv Public Enterprise "Kyivblahoustriy" Oleksiy Mushta — 7 million hryvnias;
- First Deputy Director of the Special Housing Fund Yuriy Leonov — 4.5 million hryvnias.
The case also involves four citizens whose positions are not disclosed by law enforcement agencies.
All participants in the case are suspected of seizing valuable capital land for development and fully influencing the local authoritiesʼ decisions on granting land rights. Thus, during 2023-2024, the defendants illegally took land in the city center worth 11.6 million hryvnias from the property of the territorial community of Kyiv.
How the scheme worked
The scheme consisted of the suspects looking for promising land plots and registering ownership rights to non-existent buildings supposedly on these territories for fake people. They then submitted applications to the city council to grant them ownership rights to the land plots for servicing these structures — thus avoiding auctions.
The RCC deputies and the Kyiv City State Administration officials, some of whom were members of the criminal organization and some of whom were under its influence, influenced positive decisions on such applications. In return, they received bribes in the form of money and real estate.
These decisions were fully controlled by the members of the criminal organization: the "right" people received land rights, while the rest faced artificial obstacles and had to turn to the members of the criminal organization for help.
The head of the criminal organization had a significant influence on processes within the Kyiv Metropolitan Municipality and Kyiv City State Administration, in particular on the actions of officials, the appointment of loyal individuals to high positions, the dismissal of subordinate employees, and the allocation of budget funds in the interests of the criminal scheme.
He also had connections with deputy heads of the Kyiv City State Administration, deputies, and the head of the Kyiv City Municipal Land Commission. To hide their activities, the suspects used special mobile terminals, pseudonyms, etc.
Thanks to the fact that law enforcement officers exposed the scheme, the defendants did not seize six more land plots in the capital with a total value of 83.7 million hryvnias. These are the results of the operation of NABU and SAP "Clean City" to eliminate corruption in the land and budget sectors of Kyiv.
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