Odesa Deputy Mykola Derevianko Faces Fraud Charges for ₴240M Land Scam

The High Anti-Corruption Court has scheduled a substantive hearing on the case against Odesa Regional Council deputy Mykola Derevianko.

This decision was made by the HACC on February 25, according to Slovo and Dilo.

The case also involves Volodymyr Barnasevych, former head of the Tsebrykivka village council in Odesa region, and Volodymyr Gerasymchuk, director of Ukrmezhbud LLC, who are accused of abuse.

The hearing in the case is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on March 13.

The deputy and his wife are accused of fraud, which was carried out on the basis of forged decisions of the village council session.

They are accused of stealing 4,000 hectares worth more than 240 million hryvnias.

In May 2023, a deputy of the Odesa Regional Council of the VII and VIII convocations and his co-organizer wife were served with a notice of suspicion on the facts of forgery of documents and their use, fraudulent acquisition of state property, and official forgery.

The MP was imposed a measure of restraint in the form of detention with an alternative of bail in the amount of UAH 24 million 588 thousand, and his wife was imposed a measure of restraint in the form of detention with an alternative of bail in the amount of UAH 8 million.

Earlier, MP Oleksiy Honcharenko reported the detention of a member of the Odesa Regional Council and his wife, according to the politician, the detention is related to the fact that the woman is a distant relative of his.

Mykola Derevyanko is a former director of Ukrmezhbud LLC (formerly known as Koland), and in October 2015 was elected to the Odesa Regional Council of the seventh convocation. He is a member of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc "Solidarity" faction. In October 2020, he was elected a deputy of the Odesa Regional Council from the European Solidarity party.

Кирило Бойко