NABU and SAPO have announced suspicions against the former deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration for seizing land plots using a “toilet scheme”
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office reported on the presentation of new suspicions within the framework of the “Clean City” operation, which investigates corruption schemes in the land sector of Kyiv. This was reported by the press service of the NABU.
According to the investigation, the former deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration and his accomplice came under suspicion. They are accused of attempting to seize two land plots in the capital by using the so-called “toilet scheme”.
Investigators believe that in 2023–2024, the defendants organized a fraudulent scheme, within which objects allegedly built in the early 1990s were initially registered under the names of fake individuals. After that, the companies controlled by them allegedly formalized the purchase of such “buildings” and applied to the Kyiv City Council with a request to provide land plots for their maintenance.
In order to formalize the right to the land, the organizers of the case, together with a deputy of the Kyiv City Council who headed the land commission, allegedly built primitive buildings on the plots – so-called “toilets”. To legalize this construction, technical documentation was prepared and ownership of these structures was registered.
In addition, the investigation claims that the participants in the scheme paid unidentified representatives of law enforcement and control bodies to ignore unauthorized construction. The materials also contain detailed expense records, where the defendants reflected the sources of financing and the amounts of payments. The total amount of potential damage caused to the territorial community of the city of Kyiv, according to the investigation, exceeds 19.5 million hryvnias.
According to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, there are currently nine suspects in the investigation into land corruption in the Kyiv City Council. Two defendants have already appeared in court, and a guilty verdict has already been passed against one person. In early February of this year, large-scale searches were carried out as part of the investigation aimed at exposing an organized group involved in land fraud in the Kyiv City Council and the Kyiv City State Administration.
Investigators established that the activities of the suspects were aimed at seizing valuable capital lands, ensuring control over decision-making on their distribution, and also included abuse in the budget sphere and other offenses.
According to the Anti-Corruption Center, among the persons who appeared in the searches is Kyiv businessman Denys Komarnytsky. The list of defendants also includes Deputy Mayor of Kyiv Petro Olenych, Head of the Land Commission of the Kyiv City Council Mykhailo Terentyev, and member of the same commission Olena Marchenko.
On February 10, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau put Denys Komarnytskyi on the wanted list, the bureau’s leadership reported that he was trying to leave the territory of Ukraine.
