The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) stated that former MP Andriy Derkach is involved in a scheme to appropriate protected lands in Kyiv worth over UAH 595 million.
SBU reported this.
According to the investigation, by 2019, Derkach, together with his accomplices, had seized 41.5 hectares of land from the nature reserve fund. This is almost half of the entire area of this territory.
According to SBU, the then head of the Obukhiv regional department of the State Land Committee and the head of the Obukhiv regional state administration participated in the scheme.
According to the investigation, they forged land management documents and entered false data into the state land cadastre. After that, the land was divided, combined, and resold to hide its origin.
In the end, the plots were registered in the names of relatives and acquaintances of Derkach and his entourage. Investigators reported suspicion to three suspects. They are charged with embezzlement of property on a particularly large scale and money laundering.
One of the organizers, the former head of the Obukhiv Regional State Administration, has already been detained. He faces up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property. Derkach himself and another defendant, the former head of the regional department of the State Land Committee, are abroad. They were charged in absentia.
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