The National Police of Ukraine is investigating a high-profile corruption scheme involving the illegal appropriation of crops and land belonging to the state-owned agricultural enterprise «Chaika,» which operates under the State Management of Affairs (DMA). According to investigators, private agricultural companies used state-owned fields free of charge for years while writing off harvested agricultural products through fraudulent schemes. Estimated losses to the state budget from this illegal activity are valued at 109 million hryvnias.
Law enforcement authorities have uncovered a precise illicit mechanism that was widely employed between 2024 and 2025 on the fertile lands of SE «Chaika» in the Boryspil district of the Kyiv region. The actual beneficiary of two commercial structures from the Chernihiv region entered into formal agreements with the management of the state enterprise for the cultivation and sowing of the plots.
Under the terms of the contracts, the state enterprise allegedly failed to pay the contractors in cash, artificially accumulating debt owed by «Chaika» to the commercial entities. Subsequently, this outstanding balance was settled using actual harvests, which were documented at undervalued rates as so-called «un-grown production» or unfinished manufacturing.
«Officials of the state enterprise and private firms organized a stable illegal mechanism for the gratuitous use of land and the underpricing of agricultural products,» the official investigative materials state.
Criminal proceedings (Case No. 42026000000000274) were officially launched on March 3, 2026, under Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (appropriation, embezzlement of property, or acquisition thereof through abuse of official position on an especially large scale).
Investigators point out that two closely affiliated companies from the town of Nosivka—LLC «Nosivka Agrolider» and PJSC «Nosivka-Servis»—are implicated in the scheme, effectively forming a single family business contour managed by the Baryshovets family.
LLC «Nosivka Agrolider,» established in 2021 (headed and owned by Serhii Baryshovets), demonstrated colossal and rapid growth in financial indicators. While its turnover in 2022 was nearly 9 million UAH, it climbed to 34 million UAH in 2023, 171 million UAH in 2024, and reached nearly 294 million UAH in 2025, with a net profit exceeding 72 million UAH.
PJSC «Nosivka-Servis,» registered in 1996 (headed by Taisiia Baryshovets, who also acts as the ultimate beneficiary holding a 92.6% stake), reported a net profit of 233 million UAH for 2025, which was even proposed to remain undistributed among shareholders.
In sharp contrast, the state enterprise «Chaika,» registered in November 2000 in the village of Dudarkiv, presents a starkly different financial reality. The enterprise has been embroiled in hundreds of lawsuits, accumulated tax debts, and dozens of active enforcement proceedings. Due to a deep financial crisis, it entered liquidation via reorganization in March 2026. Oleksandr Radchenko and, starting in February 2025, Bohdan Ryaboshapko served as its directors at various times.
The described scheme serves as a textbook example of how corruption schemes in the agricultural sector undermine the state economy. Initially, a private structure infiltrates state fields under the guise of a profitable contractor, building up a paper debt. The state enterprise then settles the debt not with funds or market rates, but with liquid grain priced below market value in the execution acts. The difference between the actual market value of the harvested crops and the undervalued figures in the documents forms the exact loss amount for the state that investigators are currently calculating.
Such abuses deal a devastating blow to food security and the efficiency of state property management, forcing regulatory bodies to tighten oversight over state-owned enterprises possessing valuable land funds.