Businessman Mazepa suspected of creating crime ring, seizing 7 ha of land near Kyiv

The head and members of a criminal organisation that illegally seized land near the Kyiv hydroelectric power station dam were exposed.

According to the Prosecutor General's Office, the founder of the investment company, his brother and other members of the criminal organisation, using corrupt connections in government agencies, illegally seized the water fund lands on which the hydraulic structures of the Kyiv HPP are located.

According to media reports, this is the founder and CEO of Concorde Capital, Ihor Mazepa.

He and his accomplices appropriated a 7-hectare plot of land in Vyshhorod district worth more than UAH 20 million between the villages of Khotonivka and Lebedivka.

According to the data, during 2020-2021, members of the criminal organisation were looking for people who received land plots allegedly for gardening. Most of them were students of Kyiv educational institutions who were misled and agreed to the offer due to their difficult financial situation. They were searched for through social media and offered to sign papers for a reward.

The land was then sold to members of a criminal organisation. The latter, in turn, re-registered them to representatives of luxury property developers, who financed the scheme. Some officials of the StateGeoCadastre were also involved in the fraud.

Law enforcement officers conducted searches at the residences and workplaces of the members of the criminal organisation. According to the National Police, the organisation consisted of more than two dozen people, with a clearly defined role of each person.

Mazepa, the founder of the investment company, was detained while trying to leave for Poland at the Shehyni checkpoint. In total, four people were detained in accordance with Article 208 of the CPC of Ukraine.

The issue of serving the detainees with a notice of suspicion of illegal privatisation of state property, legalisation of the proceeds of crime, and for the founder of the investment company, creation, management of and participation in a criminal organisation, is being resolved.

In addition, the issue of serving a notice of suspicion of abuse of power or authority to two former heads of the State Geocadastre in Kyiv Region is being resolved.

In November 2023, eight members of this criminal organisation were served a notice of suspicion of illegal seizure of the Kyiv HPP land. Six of them are in custody.