Police Detain Village Council Chairman in the Odesa Region Over Land Fraud

Police have detained the head of one of the village councils in the Berezivsky District of the Odesa Region on suspicion of fraud involving communal land.

According to the press office of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Odesa Oblast, police officers determined that in 2021, the head of one of the agricultural enterprises approached the village council with requests to approve land management documentation regarding the division of a communal land plot covering more than 40 hectares—which he was using—into seven parts and the free transfer of these parts to him and other members of the agricultural enterprise.

At the village council’s plenary session, the council members rejected the man’s request. However, the village head used his official position to serve the farmers’ interests. He personally signed and stamped a false session resolution regarding the alleged division of the land and its transfer free of charge into private ownership. Subsequently, based on the falsified session resolution, the land plots were registered and removed from communal ownership. The total value of the land illegally transferred to the farmers exceeds 1.8 million hryvnias. The fraud took place between 2021 and 2023.

As part of the investigation, law enforcement officials seized the falsified documentation and submitted it for forensic examination—which experts have already confirmed—and placed a lien on the illegally alienated property.

The village head is currently suspected of: abuse of official position, that is, the intentional use by a public official of his official position, contrary to the interests of the service and with the aim of obtaining any unlawful benefit for another individual, which caused serious consequences to public interests protected by law; official forgery, that is, the drafting or issuance by a public official of knowingly false official documents, which resulted in serious consequences.

The maximum penalty for these crimes is imprisonment for up to six years, along with disqualification from holding certain positions or engaging in certain activities for up to three years. The court ordered the suspect’s pretrial detention, with the option to post bail in the amount of nearly 2 million hryvnias, which he exercised.

Кирило Бойко