Illegal construction schemes involving officials exposed in Odesa

An Odesa court has heard a case of illegal construction on the former Lidersivskyi Boulevard. It was a multi-year scheme involving city council officials, officials of the State Geocadastre, and private companies that destroyed tennis courts and started construction of a residential complex without proper permits.

This is stated in the ruling of the Kyiv District Court of Odesa.

The court considered in a closed session a motion to inspect the land plots as part of a criminal case on abuse of power, forgery, fraud, illegal construction and forgery of documents.

The investigation established that officials of the Department of Architecture and Urban Development of Odesa City Council, the Main Department of the State Geocadastre in Odesa Oblast and other state bodies, acting in collusion with developers, illegally changed the designated purpose of land plots at 7 and 9 Lidersivskyi Boulevard. It was there that the Lidersivskyi residential complex was being built under the guise of building a hotel and a sports complex.

The defendants in the case are Sport-Service, Lider-Park, Odesabud, Nayada-Service, and Perch Private Expertise. According to the investigation, they, together with city council officials and cadastral registrars, facilitated unauthorized construction by destroying tennis courts on the leased territory.

According to the investigation, back in 2002, Sport-Service received a 49-year lease for the operation and maintenance of the sports complex. Changing its intended purpose was possible only by a decision of the city council. However, in 2019, the state cadastral registrar, together with officials of the Land Cadastral Bureau, made unauthorized changes to the State Land Cadastre. The sports land was turned into a plot for the construction and maintenance of market infrastructure buildings.

Despite the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate's refusal to issue a construction permit in 2020, developers continued to build facilities and sell apartments in the Lidersivskyi residential complex. In 2021, another SACI inspector issued a building permit under the guise of a hotel with a tourist service center, although the real intention was to build residential buildings.

Prosecutors believe that the scheme was aimed at fraudulently seizing citizens' funds on a particularly large scale. In fact, people were sold apartments in houses built on land plots intended for sports infrastructure, and the construction itself was carried out without proper legal grounds.

The court has now authorized the inspection of the land plots as part of the criminal proceedings, which may become evidence in the case. As well as construction sites, unfinished buildings, structures, premises, construction machinery, materials, equipment and other property are located on these land plots.

Also, an elite residential complex is being built on the site of the Odesa sanatorium"Ukraine" instead of a recreational facility. The court dismissed the local resident's claim, while the investigation points to millions of dollars in losses for the community. The plaintiff demanded to cancel the changes to the building permit, as a 23-story complex of premium apartments is planned instead of the sanatorium

Анна Бальчінос