Courts examine "toilet schemes" in Kyiv: fictitious buildings pose threat to communal land

Mechanism of illegal land seizure

The so-called "toilet" method of gaining control over land plots has long been known in the capital. The essence of the scheme is that a property right is artificially created for a small utility structure, a toilet, or even an object that physically does not exist, on communal territory. This object is registered as a "non-residential building". Subsequently, citing the registration of such property, interested parties attempt to acquire significant areas of city land, bypassing standard auction procedures.

Currently, the consequences of such actions have become the subject of systematic judicial review. The cases mentioned in the case materials clearly demonstrate how paper "phantoms" nearly deprived Kyiv of millions in assets.

Scheme near Zhuliany Airport: from air houses to judicial arrest

One of the key episodes concerns land plots near a strategic transport hub — Zhuliany Airport. On an undeveloped wasteland at 6-A and 6-B Medova Street, criminals registered property rights to "air" residential houses of the estate type and garages. The aim was to subsequently gain control over 0.6174 hectares of land (cadastral numbers 8000000000:72:260:0014 and 8000000000:72:260:0015) for free or through a simplified procedure.

According to data from criminal case No. 42022102060000026, the initial registration of these non-existent structures was carried out in the summer of 2021. As noted in prosecutors' motions and rulings of the Pechersk and Solomiansk district courts of Kyiv, the basis for entering the phantom objects (allegedly four buildings with an area of 16.6 to 26.1 sq. m in total) into the State Register of Property Rights (SRPR) was technical passports and certificates with the details of LLC "AO 'GROSH TSENA'".

According to YouControl data, the Donetsk company with this name (owner Oleksandr Severyn) has been operating in the market since 2008. On its official resources, it positions itself as an authoritative structure, declaring cooperation with Ukrainian banks, industrial giants, and sports figures. In the summer of 2015, the firm re-registered in the territory controlled by Ukraine — to the settlement of Drobysheve — and added technical inventory services (BTI) to its profile.

It was this toolkit that later formed the basis of the capital's episodes. However, investigators are currently verifying whether the suspicious documents were produced directly by the firm's employees or whether forged duplicates of seals were used for their stamping.

Role of intermediaries and land surveyors

To create the appearance of a "bona fide acquirer", according to law enforcement, the non-existent property (already converted to the status of non-residential buildings) was resold twice through nominee individuals. After that, it was contributed to the charter capital of LLC "Development Estate" and LLC "Holosiievo Real Estate". Both enterprises are controlled by Kyrylo Tarasevych — a former assistant to People's Deputy of the 6th convocation Volodymyr Kapliienko (former BYuT member).

Tarasevych is a known figure in the professional circles of the capital's construction sector. He positions himself as an experienced expert, and the LLC "Ukrainska Budivlana Ekspertyza" under his control is a large licensed organisation that conducts comprehensive expertise of construction projects of high complexity classes (CC2 and CC3), including large residential complexes and state objects (including for NTUU "KPI").

In January 2022, information on the formation of land plots 8000000000:72:260:0014 and 8000000000:72:260:0015 was entered into the State Land Cadastre. This operation was carried out through a unit in Khmelnytskyi Oblast without the approval of the Kyiv City State Administration (KMDA) and decisions of the Kyiv City Council. During that period, this structure was headed by Vasyl Vasylenko, whose activities were later investigated by the National Bureau of Investigation on suspicion of illegal transfer of land to nominee individuals across the country.

Criminal investigation and evidence of forgery

The National Police and the Solomiansk District Prosecutor's Office recorded property manipulations as early as January 2022, opening criminal case No. 42022102060000026. An inspection of plots 6-A and 6-B on Medova Street within the framework of the investigation confirmed that there are no structures on them — only wasteland, shrubs, and garbage.

The case was qualified under articles on fraud (Part 3 of Art. 190), self-help (Art. 356), and document forgery (Parts 1, 4 of Art. 358 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). Subsequently, proceedings regarding fraud on an especially large scale (Part 4 of Art. 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) were added to it.

The criminal track is directed against individuals — organisers, appraisers, land surveyors, and involved private notaries who carried out initial registration in the SRPR in the names of nominee citizens.

During the investigation, the police seized data on IP addresses and registration actions of more than 10 private notaries of the Kyiv City Notarial District and state registrars. They also examined samples of signatures and handwriting of nominee individuals in whose names the property was registered before resale, and conducted a search at the premises of the Main Directorate of the State Geo-Cadastre in Kyiv (69 Velyka Vasylkivska Street), seizing original documents regarding the formation of cadastral numbers in the State Land Cadastre.

Case materials indicate that certified engineer-land surveyor Serhiy Chornokony admitted that he prepared technical documentation for LLC "Development Estate" without conducting an actual survey of the plot. Law enforcement appealed to the Qualification Commission with a request to annul his qualification certificate, but the Commission refused to satisfy the complaint. The final legal assessment of his actions is being resolved within the framework of the criminal investigation.

The plots and phantom buildings are under judicial arrest with a ban on any actions. An attempt by Tarasevych's lawyers to cancel this blocking was rejected by the court in July 2025.

Commercial track: returning land to the city

In parallel with the criminal investigation, the Solomiansk District Prosecutor's Office initiated the process of legal cleansing of property registers. In June 2026, prosecutors filed a lawsuit with the Commercial Court of the City of Kyiv in the interests of the capital's community (case No. 910/6938/26). The prosecution demands:

• cancellation of the state registration of property rights to the phantom square metres and land plots in the State Land Cadastre (SLC) with the closure of the Land Book;
• closing of the corresponding sections in the State Register of Property Rights (SRPR).

This process concerns only one of the plots at 6-B Medova Street (8000000000:72:260:0015) and is directed directly against the legal entity-acquirer – LLC "Holosiievo Real Estate". Hearings continued in court from July to September 2026, but a final decision has not yet been issued.

While the police gather evidence to charge specific executors of the scheme, the commercial court must finally return the land near Zhuliany Airport to the disposal of the Kyiv City Council.

Raiding attempt on Maksymovycha Street

Documents with the details of the same firm from Donetsk Oblast, LLC "AO 'GROSH TSENA'", appeared in another high-profile Kyiv story. Whether this involves the conscious participation of the enterprise's management or the shadow use of its brand and seals in the capital is currently being established by the investigation. Meanwhile, in response to an information request, LLC "AO 'GROSH TSENA'" denied any connection to the manipulations, stating that they "have nothing to do with this".

If in the case on Medova Street the criminals attempted to privatise a wasteland near the airport "from scratch", then in Holosiivka an "air" technical passport was used to attempt a raiding seizure of land that has an official tenant.

This concerns a land plot of 1.2689 hectares (cadastral number 8000000000:72:277:0006) at 22/1 Mykhaila Maksymovycha Street in the Holosiivskyi district of the capital.

Unlike the situation on Medova Street, where the property existed only on paper, here there is a real non-residential building, letter "G" (the letter indicates the sequential number of the structure in the plot's technical passport), with an area of 70 sq. m. It was purchased in 2017 by LLC "High-Tech Building" (owned in equal shares by Kostiantyn Malunov and Oleksandr Kaidan) for 2.91 million UAH. Subsequently, based on a decision of the Kyiv City Council dated 3 October 2023, the company became the official tenant of this land.

Regarding this territory, the city authorities are carrying out planned development of official urban planning documentation. The draft decision of the Kyiv City Council on the development of the Detailed Territory Plan (DTP) No. 08/231-1973/PR was submitted and approved by the Deputy Mayor – Secretary of the Kyiv City Council Volodymyr Bondarenko, signed by Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko, and approved by the relevant standing committee chaired by Mykhailo Terentieiev.

Proposals to the draft were submitted by deputy Viktoriia Ptashnyk, who proposed to oblige the KMDA Department of Urban Planning and Architecture to take into account the impossibility of changing the target designation of this land plot (i.e., to leave it "for other agricultural purposes"), ensure compliance with these conditions, and notify the DTP developer in writing of this requirement.

The target "for agricultural purposes" in the city looks strange, but it is a legal remnant of former city state farms or institutes, fixed by the cadastre for the plot. Deputy Ptashnyk's amendment fixes this status quo in the new DTP so that tenants cannot turn 1.2689 hectares of capital land with a building of only 70 sq. m into another high-rise development of significantly larger area.

Legal carousel and seizure of evidence

While the legal tenant was processing urban planning papers, an attempt was made to create an alternative registration history for the same territory. And again through the "toilet scheme".

In January 2022, as recorded in the materials of the criminal case, a technical passport and certificate with the details and seals of LLC "AO 'GROSH TSENA'" were produced for that same 1.2689-hectare plot (cadastral number 8000000000:72:277:0006). In these documents, the executors arbitrarily indicated a "recommended postal address": 24-D Mykhaila Maksymovycha Street for an allegedly existing 70 sq. m structure there.

Based on these papers, a private notary of the Kyiv City Notarial District opened a new section in the State Register of Property Rights for the virtual object on 11 February 2022. Just six days later (16.02.2022, contract No. 95), the phantom structure was re-registered to a nominee individual upon resale, and in August 2023, an additional mortgage agreement for 350,000 UAH was concluded to create an artificial encumbrance. As investigators established, the capital firm LLC "Rikk" headed by Ruslan Kyrychenko may have been behind this legal carousel.

At the end of 2024, representatives of the nominee owners moved to active action: they sent requests to the KMDA Department of Land Resources, demanding the issuance of documents for 1.2689 hectares of communal land under their "own" building No. 24-D.

However, they received a refusal, and the legal tenant of the plot, LLC "High-Tech Building", appealed to the police. Criminal case No. 42024102090000164 was opened under articles on fraud on an especially large scale and unauthorised actions with information in registers (Part 4 of Art. 190, Part 3 of Art. 362 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Law enforcement has already established that there are no third-party development objects on the plot, except for the structure owned by LLC "High-Tech Building". The KMDA Department of Urban Planning also officially stated that the address 24-D Mykhaila Maksymovycha Street in Kyiv has never been assigned.

The main evidence of the functioning of this scheme was found by law enforcement directly at the premises of its possible organiser – the founder of LLC "Rikk". This includes an archive with copies of inventory files for real estate objects from 2015–2017, unfilled forms, stamps, and seals with the signatures of officials of LLC "AO 'GROSH TSENA'", mobile phones with correspondence regarding land registration, etc.