On May 29, 2026, the HACC scheduled and immediately opened the trial in the case against Mukachevo Mayor Andrii Baloha and five other defendants charged with abuse of official position in the sale of a city-center land plot at a significantly undervalued price.
The trial opened on May 29 with the prosecutor reading a summary of the indictment. The case will be heard by a single HACC judge.
The other defendants are:
- Mykhailo Lanio — head of the Mukachevo District Council and former owner of Universal-M LLC
- Artur Samiliak — former head of the land relations department of the Mukachevo City Council's municipal property directorate
- Serhii Fyl — land appraiser, co-founder and director of Binom Group LLC
- Vitalii Zaluzhnyi — co-founder and former director of Binom Group LLC
- Nataliia Cherednychenko — appraiser and employee of Binom Group LLC.
According to the investigation, in 2023 Lanio approached Andrii Baloha to purchase a city-center land plot from municipal ownership for his company. Baloha ensured the adoption of a decision approving the sale. Acting in collusion with Baloha and Lanio, Artur Samiliak paid appraiser Serhii Fyl a UAH 16,000 bribe for a knowingly false valuation of the plot. Businessman Vitalii Zaluzhnyi served as the intermediary in the bribe. Appraiser Natalia Cherednychenko prepared and signed a falsified expert monetary valuation report.
As a result, the Mukachevo community suffered losses of over UAH 81.7 million.
Suspicion notices were served on the defendants in June 2024. All defendants are in Ukraine and participate in hearings either via video link or in person.
Nataliia Cherednychenko was subject to a special pre-trial investigation while she was in Germany. She was extradited to Ukraine in September 2025.
Preparatory proceedings began on July 11, 2025, during which the defense filed a number of motions: to return the indictment on procedural grounds, to close the proceedings due to the expiration of the pre-trial investigation period under the Lozovyi amendments, and complaints regarding detective inaction and investigative actions.
