The SSU is systemically exposing officials who harm Ukraine’s state interests and engage in corruption schemes abusing their senior positions.

The SSU documented the unlawful activity of a former official who previously headed the Main Department of the State Service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre in a region in central Ukraine. After resignation, he organized an illegal mechanism for misappropriation of state forest land in Zhytomyr oblast.

The offender illegally withdrew almost 2,000 hectares of land worth a total of UAH 70 mln (USD 1.8 mln) from communal ownership. This equals a third of the land in Barashivka territorial community.

To implement the scheme, the organizer engaged four state registrars and land surveyors, the head of a local agricultural enterprise and his former driver.

The group illegally re-registered hectares of forest land to controlled private agricultural entities.

To do this, they entered false data into the state databases and property registers.

During the searches at the StateGeoCadastre regional office and in a suspect’s company, investigators found documents with evidence of the fraud.

Based on the collected evidence, the organizer of the scheme and six of his accomplices were notified of suspicion under Articles 27.3 and 190.4 of the CCU (fraud, on a large scale by an organized group).

The investigation is ongoing. The suspects are facing up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.

At the SSU’s initiative, the court arrested assets of the involved agricultural enterprise. Motions to seize property of other participants are being prepared.

The SSU Office in Zhytomyr region carried out the investigation jointly with the National Police under the procedural supervision of the regional Prosecutor’s Office.