The Ukrainian Bukovel resort area is at the center of a major land fraud investigation. The Office of the Prosecutor General, in cooperation with the National Police, has exposed an organized crime group (OCG) that illegally seized 17 hectares of state forest land near the popular resort. Among the seven newly indicted suspects is an active employee of the prosecutor’s office. The market value of the misappropriated land is estimated at nearly 38 million UAH.
According to investigators, the syndicate illegally acquired 14 land plots located within the Polianytsia forestry of the «Vorohta Forestry» state enterprise. The criminal network consisted of high-profile figures, including the former head of the State Geocadastre department in Yaremche, former law enforcement officers, engineers, geologists, surveyors, and local real estate developers.
The co-conspirators utilized a structured fraudulent system:
forging official documentation;
employing falsified technical data;
assigning fraudulent cadastre numbers to forest plots;
registering titles under straw owners (front persons).
The ultimate goal of the operation was to convert public forest land into private property for future commercial real estate development.
This latest bust is part of a broader, ongoing crackdown on illegal land acquisition in the Carpathian region. Law enforcement had previously brought charges against six other members of the same network, all of whom have since been convicted and sentenced.
«The law makes no distinction between ‘ours’ and ‘theirs.’ Any prosecutor, law enforcement officer, or official involved in a crime will face the exact same legal consequences as anyone else,» stated the Office of the Prosecutor General regarding the involvement of their employee.
To date, 13 indictments have been forwarded to court. Through successful legal interventions, prosecutors have already managed to return 26 illegally seized land plots back to state ownership. The pre-trial investigation remains active as authorities work to identify any remaining accomplices.