Court releases defendants in the case of embezzlement of 500 hectares of land in Dnipropetrovs’k region on minimum bail
31 August 13:18
Kyiv’s Pechersk District Court has released on bail of UAH 600,000 former officials of the StateGeoCadastre suspected of large-scale embezzlement of state land in Dnipropetrovs’k region, reports
The theft scheme
According to the Office of the Prosecutor General and the State Bureau of Investigation, at the end of August 2025, law enforcement officers exposed a scheme for the illegal alienation of more than 500 hectares of land of the state enterprise “Experimental Farm Dnipro of the Institute of Irrigated Agriculture of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine” in the Dnipro region.
– 239 hectares were transferred to private ownership through front companies.
– Most of the land was concentrated in the ownership of one beneficiary and related parties.
– In total, they received 106 plots of 206 hectares.
– The value of only a part of the plots is estimated at UAH 24 million.
Court decision
Despite the gravity of the alleged crimes, the court chose mild preventive measures for the suspects – a bail of UAH 600 thousand and a ban on traveling abroad, the publication says.
It is noted that prosecutors insisted on stricter restrictions and asked to set bail at UAH 6 million. However, the court reduced the amount tenfold, arguing that several years had passed since the crime was committed, and the suspects had not been hiding from the investigation, the journalists said.
It is also noted that the prosecutor’s office has not yet appealed the decision to impose a “soft” measure of restraint.
The defendants in the case
Among the suspects:
– Dmytro Sverdlin, a deputy of the Dnipro City Council (“Servant of the People”), former head of the State Geocadastre in the Dnipro region. He is charged with misappropriation of state property (Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code).
– Oleksandr Ovsiuk – former head of the State Enterprise “Dnipro”.
– V. Havrylenko – former head of the district department of the State Geocadastre (part 5 of article 191 of the Criminal Code).
– Roman Leshchenko – former head of the State Geocadastre of Ukraine. He is charged with negligence (Part 2 of Article 367 of the Criminal Code).
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