Case description
The NABU and SAPO accuse Liudmyla Mazurkevych, secretary of the village council in Vinnytsia region, of misappropriation of a land plot that belonged to the city council.
According to the investigation, Liudmyla Mazurkevych, secretary of the Luka-Meleshivska Village Council, conspired with Dmytro Stepaniuk to unlawfully transfer the land plot into private ownership without complying with legal requirements.
Mazurkevych facilitated the issuance of forged village council decisions confirming Stepaniuk’s ownership of the land. In turn, Stepaniuk handled the preparation and registration of technical documentation, enabling him to sell the illegally acquired land plots.
Mazurkevych allegedly forged a decision from the 13th session of the village council, dated July 7, 2000, granting Stepaniuk 0.4 hectares of land free of charge for personal farming. She signed the document on behalf of the village council head and handed it over to her accomplice. Stepaniuk then applied for the development of technical documentation to establish the land plot’s boundaries. He later submitted these documents to the State Geocadastre in the Vinnytsia district, where cadastral numbers were assigned to the land plots.
Mazurkevych later forged two additional decisions from the 51st session of the 6th convocation, dated September 18, 2015, which approved the technical documentation and issued ownership certificates for the land plots. To cover up the crime, she falsified the session minutes before transferring the documents to the village council head for signature.
Stepaniuk used these forged decisions to obtain ownership certificates from the district justice department’s registration service, ultimately acquiring a 0.4-hectare land plot that belonged to the Vinnytsia City Council.
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In 2021, the HACC released Mazurkevych from liability under Article 366(1) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and Stepaniuk under Article 358(4) due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
On April 22, 2025, the HACC approved a plea agreement. The court found Liudmyla Mazurkevych and Dmytro Stepaniuk guilty of a criminal offense under Article 364(2) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
They were sentenced to four years of imprisonment but were released from serving the sentence under the agreement, with a probation period of one year. In addition, both were ordered to pay a fine of UAH 8,500. The defendants are also required to appear periodically for registration with the probation authority and to report any change of residence, employment, or place of study.
Mazurkevych was further prohibited from holding certain positions involving organizational or administrative responsibilities in private legal entities. She must also compensate UAH 219,000 in damages, while Stepaniuk must reimburse UAH 617,000.
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