Former head of forestry department in Odesa region detained for bribe of $25,000

Environmental prosecutors of the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office have served a notice of suspicion to the former head of the Southern Interregional Forestry and Hunting Department of extortion of an undue advantage on a particularly large scale.

According to the press service of the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office, investigators found that while in office, the official created conditions and incited the head of one of the hunting organizations to give him USD 25 thousand.

In exchange for this amount, the official promised to help the organization obtain 13,000 hectares of hunting grounds in one of the districts of Odesa region. After receiving this land, the organization's members would be able to hunt there without hindrance.

Since the approval procedure had several stages, this is how the official justified the amount of the illegal benefit. According to him, part of the money had to be given to his friends from the leadership of the State Forestry Agency and the state enterprise "Forests of Ukraine".

The prosecutor's office has already filed a motion with the court to impose a custodial measure of restraint on the suspect.

Earlier, the entrepreneurs were accused of seizing 4.3 hectares of land that were in use by the Velykomykhailiv forestry of the Odesa forestry branch of the Southern Forest Office of the state enterprise Forests of Ukraine. At the end of August, an entrepreneur from Podilskyi district of Odesa region was sentenced to one year in prison, which was immediately replaced by a probationary period of one year for unauthorized occupation of a land plot in a protected zone.

In May, the Tarutino District Court of Odesa Oblast found a Sarata native guilty of illegal seizure of the surface layer of water fund lands on a particularly large scale and fined him UAH 17,000. The man illegally dug a pond near the Chiligider River and filled it with its waters.

Кирило Бойко