SBU prevented unlawful alienation from the community of historic building in the center of Ternopil worth over UAH 15 million.

Special service operatives found that the officials of the Ternopil City Council planned to privatize the historic building of the former railway hospital for a substantially understated price in the interests of the current renter.

To reduce the value of the building, the attackers forged the documentation that gave evidence of allegedly completed work by the renter on reconstruction of separate premises in a building. This, in particular, allowed the dealers artificially reduce its price and minimize the cost of buying a building.

Law-enforcement officers documented that in September 2017, the City Council's executive committee allowed to a private entity affiliated with a local ex-senior official to reconstruct the rented property. After the sham completion of the construction works, the contracting authority provided documents that allegedly showed "investments" in the reconstruction of the building for almost UAH 4 million. SBU officers established that reconstruction works didn’t take place in rented premises. At present the court has seized the municipal property. Under the SBU materials, the actions of the City Council officials involved in illegal deal are checked by the Ternopil Local Prosecutor's Office within the framework of criminal proceeding initiated under Art. 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The pre-trial investigation is under way.