The Appellate Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court decided to keep the owners of the “Binom Group” company, Vitaliy Zaluzhny and Serhiy Fil, in custody. According to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, these persons were used in the case related to the mayor of Mukachevo of Zakarpattia Oblast.
About this informs press service of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.
“On November 19, 2024, the AP VAKS supported the position of the prosecutor of the SAP and refused to satisfy the appeals of the defense against the decision of the investigative judges of the VAKS, which changed the preventive measures against two founders of a private company – suspects in the case of the sale at an undervalued land plot of communal property with an area of more than 3 hectares in Transcarpathia. After considering the arguments of the prosecutor, the AP VAKS left the decision of the court of first instance unchanged, namely to charge UAH 908,000 and UAH 900,000 bail, respectively, and to apply preventive measures to the suspects in the form of detention with the alternative of paying UAH 10 million bail for each.”, – informs SAP.
We will remind that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) together with the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) announced suspicion to the mayor of Mukachevo Andrii Baloza and former People’s Deputy Mykhailo Lanyo. According to the investigation, Andrii Baloga initiated and ensured the adoption of a decision at a meeting of the city council to sell a plot of land to a private company at a price that is nine times lower than its real value. The owner and actual controller of this enterprise turned out to be Mykhailo Lanyo, who currently holds the position of the head of the district council.
As the investigation established, the key basis for the sale was the expert assessment of the land plot, the value of which was significantly underestimated. Representatives of the appraising company received a bribe for carrying out such an assessment. As a result, the market price of the land was 84.6 million hryvnias, it was sold for only 9.6 million hryvnias.
However, even at such an understated price, the mayor of Mukacheva decided to grant the buyer company an additional benefit — payment in installments for a period of six months. The total damage caused to the territorial community was estimated at UAH 74.9 million.
