The participants of a criminal group who were trying to appropriate more than 105 hectares of land will be judged іn Zhytomyr region
The employees of the State Bureau of Investigation have completed the investigation against the members of an organized criminal group that illegally took over a hundred hectares of land on the territory of the Chudnivska and Vilsha territorial communities of the Zhytomyr region. The damages caused to the state are estimated at 4.5 million hryvnias.
The indictment was sent to the court.
It was established that the law enforcement officer has created a plan for the appropriation of land plots and involved four people in its implementation: a judge of one of the district courts of the Zhytomyr region, a state registrar, a director and a lawyer of a private company.
Since June 2022 until they were exposed in July 2023, the criminals illegally had seized 39 land plots with the total area of more than 105 hectares.
The lawyer was looking for lands that weren’t distributed in private ownership. Then the law enforcement officer together with the entrepreneur were looking for “fictitious persons” among their relatives and acquaintances, on whose behalf they were appealing to the court with applications for recognition of ownership of land plots.
At the same time, the statements of claim and attached documents contained false information about the possibility of receiving land as an inheritance. The judge, that was involved in the scheme by the law enforcement officer, made decisions in their favor. Based on those court decisions, the state registrar carried our registration of the ownership of land plots.
After registration, the "“fictitious persons” re-registered the land plots into ownership or provided long-term lease for the private company.
Currently, the Court of Appeal has canceled the decisions of the first-instance court, and the land plots have been returned to territorial communities.
The defendants are accused of:
the Head of one of the district courts of the Zhytomyr region - in aiding fraud committed by an organized group on an especially large scale, as well as official forgery (Part 5 of Article 27, Part 4 of Article 190, Part 1 of Article 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);
the law enforcement officer - in fraud committed by an organized group on an especially large scale (Part 4 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);
the private entrepreneur – in fraud committed by an organized group on an especially large scale, illegal handling of weapons and bribing a person who provides public services upon prior conspiracy by a group of persons (Part 4 of Article 190, Part 1 of Article 263, Part 2 of Article 368 -4 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);
the lawyer of the company - in fraud committed by an organized group, on an especially large scale, bribing a person who provides public services, upon prior conspiracy of a group of persons, as well as in the use of a knowingly forged document (Part 4 of Article 190, Part 4 of Article 358, Part 2 of Article 368-4 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);
the state registrar - in abuse of authority by persons who provide public services that entailed grave consequences, bribing a person who provides public services upon prior conspiracy by a group of persons (Part 3 of Article 365-2, Part 2 of Article 368-4 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
The sanction of the Articles provides for imprisonment for up to 12 years.
The procedural guidance is provided by the Zhytomyr Region Prosecutor`s Office.
