The case of Sergey Tarasov, a businessman from the Kirovohrad region and owner of the agricultural holding "I&U Group" for two years has not progressed much, writes UNN with reference to its own sources.
Since January 2024, millionaire Tarasov has been on the official wanted list, where he was announced by the SBU in the Kirovohrad region, but for a year now, law enforcement officers have not given any information about his search and the progress of the investigation of this high-profile case.
As reported by Suspilne, Sergei Tarasov is charged with four articles with a maximum penalty of up to 12 years in prison:
- Fraud committed on a large scale, or through illegal operations using electronic computing equipment.
- Misappropriation, embezzlement of property or taking possession of it by abusing official position on a particularly large scale or by an organized group.
- Legalization (laundering) of property obtained by criminal means, committed by an organized group or on a particularly large scale.
- Illegal carrying, storage, acquisition, transfer or sale of firearms (other than smoothbore hunting weapons), military supplies, explosives or explosive devices without a legal permit.
According to information from the Unified State Register of court cases, as part of the investigation of criminal proceedings No. 42023000000000249, it is said about the withdrawal of agricultural land from state ownership. "In the period 2015-2021, officials of the state Geocadastre in the Kirovohrad region, by prior agreement with representatives of the group of companies "I&U Group", the beneficiary of which is OSOBA_5 (Sergey Tarasov), as well as related persons, according to an illegal scheme, the withdrawal of agricultural land from state ownership was carried out," the court ruling says.
In general, the agricultural holding "I&u Group" controls 75 thousand hectares of land, more than 60 enterprises are connected with it, in particular "Kapitanovsky sugar plant", "Novomirgorod sugar", elevators "Kapitanovsky ZZP", "Kutsovskoe ZZP" and "Novomirgorod-Agrocontract".
According to investigators, Tarasov involved in the transactions subordinate to him employees of the Land Department of the group of companies "I&U Group", whose role was to search for persons who later carried out fictitious registration of land plots in the territory of the Kirovograd region, or search for passport data of such persons, on whose behalf power of attorney was issued without their knowledge and participation.
According to sources UNN the criminal group illegally appropriated about 12 thousand (!) hectares of land that caused damage to the state for more than 400 million UAH. the defendants in the case did not disdain the mass forgery of certificates of participants in military operations (ATO). For this purpose, a number of private notaries in Zhytomyr, Rivne, Dnipropetrovsk, Kiev and other regions were involved in the illegal scheme, which were used to certify deliberately forged certificates of participants in military operations.
In addition to officials of the state Geocadastre, as it became known UNN, among the main defendants in the case are a private notary from Kropyvnytskyi Lydia Babich, who issued the lion's share of all powers of attorney, her assistant, Land Management Engineer, O. Veselov, who was responsible for financing all actions and other persons, including lawyer Alina Burlakova, who is now hiding outside of Ukraine, who is very close to Sergey Tarasov.
Tarasov himself, according to the judicial register, "went for treatment" abroad. As an honorary consul of the Republic of Lithuania, he has a diplomatic passport and can move freely between different countries. Currently, there is no information from law enforcement agencies where exactly the millionaire who is put on the Wanted list in Ukraine is being "treated".
The suspect's son Oleg Tarasov is an active MP. According to sources UNN, he remains in Ukraine, although he did not vote or was absent from the last sessions of the Verkhovna Rada in December and November.