Minister of Agrarian Policy Charged With Corruption

Officers of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) have presented the current Minister of Agrarian Policy, Mykola Solskyi with a notice of suspicion.

Solskyi is suspected of illegally seizing 2.5 thousand hectares of land in the Sumy region, according to a message posted by the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) on Telegram.

The prosecutor suspects the former chairman of the Agrarian Committee of the Verkhovna Rada and the current Minister of seizing land in the Sumy region – an area of about 2.5 thousand hectares worth Hr.291 million ($7.3 million) – and an attempt to seize land with an area of about 3.3 thousand hectares for another Hr.190 million ($4.8 million).

The report further states that for the implementation of the scheme, its participants first ensured the destruction of documents on the basis of which state-owned enterprises had the right to permanent use of land.

Later, this became the basis for the regional StateGeoCadastre land registry service to draw up an act on the unauthorized occupation of these land plots by state-owned enterprises.