The High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) has chosen a preventive measure for former State Secretary of the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine Vasyl Volodin, who is suspected of corruption in the construction sector.
This was reported by the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutorʼs Office (SAP).
The investigating judge of the Supreme Administrative Court supported the position of the SAP prosecutor and applied a preventive measure to the former State Secretary of the Ministry in the form of detention with the alternative of being released on bail of 20 million hryvnias.
SAP does not disclose the name of the person involved, but Babelʼs sources in law enforcement agencies confirmed that it is Vasyl Volodin.
If the suspect posts bail, he will be required to: not leave Kyiv without the permission of a detective, prosecutor, or court, refrain from communicating with other suspects in the case and witnesses, hand over to the State Migration Service all his passports for travel abroad, other documents giving the right to leave Ukraine and enter Ukraine, and wear an electronic bracelet.
What preceded
In the case of corruption in the construction sector, suspicions were raised against:
- former State Secretary of the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine, current member of the Board of “Naftogaz” of Ukraine;
- former advisor to the Minister of the Ministry of Community and Territories Development of Ukraine;
- former director of a state-owned enterprise;
- developer (scheme organizer);
- construction company employee.
According to the investigation, the developer came up with a scheme to illegally obtain land in Kyiv for the construction of a residential complex. He contacted high-ranking officials from the Ministry of Regional Development, who helped transfer the plot to one of the state-owned enterprises. This enterprise then illegally concluded agreements with the "right" construction company.
Under these contracts, the developer was to transfer a part of the future apartments to the state — depending on the value of the land. In order to give as few apartments as possible, the value of the plot was deliberately lowered by almost five times. The difference between this assessment and the market value exceeded a billion hryvnias. This is the amount by which the state would have received fewer apartments if the contracts had been fulfilled. However, the plot was arrested at the request of NABU and SAP.
By way of a thanks for the help, the developer sold apartments to high-ranking officials and people associated with them at significant discounts — 1000-8000 hryvnias per square meter, although the real market price of such housing is almost 30 000 hryvnias per square meter. The total amount of ill-gotten gains from this amounted to 16.8 million hryvnias. Some of these apartments were also seized.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.