Official of village council in Odesa region pleads guilty to participation in fraud

The Peresypskyi District Court of Odesa approved an agreement between the former chief architect of the Fontansky village council , Viktor Kaplinsky, and the prosecutor on the official's plea of guilty under two articles of the Criminal Code.

This was reported by the Center for Public Investigations with reference to the court's verdict. The architect pleaded guilty to abuse of office and forgery.

Under both articles, he was sentenced to a total of three years' imprisonment, with disqualification to hold positions in government and local self-government bodies related to the exercise of powers in the field of urban planning and architecture for two years, and a fine of UAH 17,000. However, he was released from prison on probation for two years.

The publication "Anti-Corruption Dimension" reported that Viktor Kaplinsky, who headed the community's urban planning and architecture department, repeatedly forged extracts from urban planning documentation in 2022-2024. In these official documents, he deliberately changed the functional purpose of land plots. For example, instead of residential or recreational areas, he indicated "transport land" or "engineering and utility development".

Such changes made it possible to circumvent the requirement to hold land auctions, as plots with technical or transport purposes could be transferred without a tender. In this way, the community lost the opportunity to receive a real market price for land.

The court found that between November 2022 and January 2024, Kaplinsky issued at least eight fake extracts. These included documents on plots in the villages of Vapnyarka, Fontanka, and Kryzhanivka. In the extracts, the official changed the codes of functional zones, writing instead of "residential area" "water supply and sewage area", "electricity supply" or "road transport".

These documents then became the basis for changing the designated purpose of the plots and transferring them to use or ownership without bidding. One such case resulted in the withdrawal of a 0.04-hectare plot in Vapnyarka from municipal ownership. It was sold to an entrepreneur for only 89 thousand hryvnias, although its market value was more than 470 thousand.

The court recognized that the former official's actions had caused serious consequences for the interests of the Fontanska community and the actual loss of communal land. The damages exceeded more than three hundred times the tax-free minimum income. Nevertheless, the court took into account the accused's repentance, compensation for damage and his cooperation with the investigation, as Viktor Kaplinsky agreed to testify against the head of the Fontansky village council, who is being investigated in another criminal proceeding.

Кирило Бойко