Law enforcement agencies in Dnipro have dismantled an organized criminal group specializing in corporate raiding and elite real estate theft. A private notary of the Dnipro City Notarial District, Vladyslava Vynogradova, reportedly played a pivotal role in the scheme. Utilizing her official status and access to state registries, she authenticated forged documents to transfer millions of hryvnias worth of assets and property to straw buyers, causing total damages exceeding 14.2 million UAH.
According to investigators, the notary operated in collusion with Vladyslav Koval, Kostiantyn Naumenko, and an as-yet-unidentified mastermind. The suspects manufactured fraudulent powers of attorney under the names of legitimate business owners to initiate the illicit asset transfer process.
On August 29, 2025, Vladyslava Vynogradova officially certified the falsified documents. Days later, on September 4, Kostiantyn Naumenko, acting without any legal authority, transferred the corporate shares to Vladyslav Koval. As a result of these manipulations, Koval unlawfully obtained majority and sole ownership of two major enterprises.
Investigative Records: «The targets of the corporate raid were ‘Ukraine Development and Consulting Group’ LLC (EDRPOU 44592388) and ‘Vega System D’ LLC (EDRPOU 45595966). The perpetrators illegally seized 90% and 100% of the statutory shares of these companies, respectively. The total value of the stolen corporate assets is estimated at over 4 million UAH, which constitutes grand larceny.»
The criminal syndicate’s second operation involved the brazen theft of residential properties and land plots belonging to an elderly woman, Iryna Smyrna. To execute this phase, the group recruited an additional accomplice, Kateryna Fedosova.
The organizers forged the property owner’s passport by replacing her photograph, subsequently using it to obtain a fraudulent power of attorney from another notary, R.O. Bondarenko, who was misled. Armed with this forgery, Vynogradova executed a sham sale agreement on July 30, 2025, using proxies (Dehtiariova and Riabushko) and made unauthorized alterations to the State Registry of Property Rights.
Through these illegal actions, two residential houses on Nova Street in the village of Novooleksandrivka, along with two land plots, were re-registered to Kateryna Fedosova. The actual market value of these assets exceeds 10.2 million UAH, classified under Ukrainian law as an exceptionally large-scale loss.
Investigative bodies have charged the syndicate members under several severe sections of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Notary V.Y. Vynogradova faces charges of aiding and abetting fraud and corporate raiding (Part 5 of Art. 27, Part 5 of Art. 190, Part 3 of Art. 206-2), forgery of official documents (Part 3 of Art. 358), and unauthorized tampering with automated information systems (Part 3 of Art. 362).
Her accomplice, Vladyslav Koval, is being prosecuted for the unlawful seizure of corporate equity, as well as aiding in document forgery and the utilization of falsified papers.
The pre-trial investigation remains ongoing. Law enforcement officials are currently working to locate remaining suspects and are checking the notary’s involvement in similar fraudulent registration activities across the Dnipropetrovsk region.