Minister Solskyi suspected of land deals worth half a billion hryvnias
23 April 2024 11:10
The Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Mykola Solsky is accused of land fraud. This was reported by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, Komersant ukrainskyi 
reports.
“The former head of the Verkhovna Rada’s Agrarian Committee and current minister was caught in the seizure of state land worth UAH 291 million and an attempt to seize land worth another UAH 190 million,”
– the NABU said in a statement.
Law enforcers did not disclose the identity of the suspect, but Kommersant Ukrayinsky has learned from its own sources that it is the current Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Mykola Solsky.
According to the NABU, the participants in the scheme ensured the destruction of documents on the basis of which two state-owned enterprises in Sumy region had the right to permanently use the land. Due to their absence, the regional StateGeoCadastre drew up an act of unauthorised occupation of these plots.
Subsequently, the plots were transferred to the ownership of pre-determined citizens under the guise of exercising their right to free land. The condition for receiving the land was to sign an agreement on its lease to a private agricultural holding before receiving it.
“As a result of the fraud, in 2017-2021, the scheme participants seized 1250 land plots with a total area of 2493 hectares, the value of which at the time of the crime was over UAH 291 million. They also attempted to seize 3282 hectares of land worth about UAH 190 million, but were prevented by NABU detectives and SAPO prosecutors who conducted searches and seized the plots,”
– nABU said.
According to Ekonomichna Pravda, the scheme was carried out in 2017-2018, when Solsky was a lawyer.
The criminal group headed by the top official included officials of the StateGeoCadastre, as well as the so-called curators of these bodies.
Currently, the organiser of the scheme, the current Minister, two supervisors of the StateGeoCadastre bodies and a person who facilitated the crime have been served with a notice of suspicion.
