Case description
On March 8, 2024, the HACC approved a plea deal and found Yurii Yurlov, former director of SE State Building Combine, guilty of illegally planning to transfer state-owned land to a private investor for residential development in collusion with former MP Isaienko and the then Deputy Chief of Staff of the Verkhovna Rada.
In early 2020, Yurlov learned about the plan of Dmytro Isaienko, MP from the Opposition Party—For Life, to seize the 8.11-hectare land on which SE State Building Combine was located for the further construction of an apartment complex. Yurlov, as an accomplice, created favorable conditions for the conclusion of an investment agreement with the company controlled by Isaienko for the development of a land plot.
Yurlov also facilitated the transfer of a land plot for construction at a reduced cost. Thus, the former director accepted a report on the evaluation of the market value of the contribution to the investment agreement in the form of the right to permanent use of a land plot. In this report, the market value of the land plot is stated at over UAH 229 mln, and the average cost of 1 hectare is estimated at USD 10,000. At the same time, the report notes that the prices for 1 hectare ranged from USD 16,000 to 24,000 in the advertisements.
Under the guise of measures to optimize the activities of the state-owned enterprise and rationalize the use of its resources, the perpetrators planned to demolish the “outdated and faulty” buildings of the combine and to deprive employees of their jobs. Law enforcement officers prevented this plan and seized the land plot. If the crime had been completed, it could have resulted in more than UAH 330 million in losses for the state.
Yurlov’s actions were qualified under Article 364, part 2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. He concluded a plea agreement, therefore, he was exempted from serving 3 years in prison and was sentenced to one year of probation, a UAH 8,500 fine, and was banned from managing the state-owned enterprise for one year.
The pre-trial investigation against MP Isaienko is pending. In May 2013, the HACC Appeals Chamber imposed an interim measure in the form of bail of over UAH 26 million on the MP.
Another perpetrator involved in the case was Eduard Bahdasarian, the Chief of Staff of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. In July 2023, the NABU put him on the wanted list because his whereabouts were unknown.
