Kyiv developer Vlada Molchanova and former lawmaker Yuriy Ivanyushchenko face trial after anti-corruption detectives completed an investigation into an 18-hectare land scheme.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine announced that the pre-trial investigation into the illegal takeover of property at the Stolychnyi wholesale agricultural market is finished and ready for court proceedings.
Official notices detailing the conclusion of the probe were posted on the bureau website, while the Office of the Prosecutor General published an updated notice of suspicion against Ivanyushchenko.
The bureau, known as NABU, is Ukraine's executive law enforcement agency tasked with investigating high-level corruption and white-collar crime among public officials and major economic figures. The investigation targets Molchanova, a prominent business figure tied to Kyiv real estate firm Stolitsa Group, and Ivanyushchenko, an influential former member of parliament who held significant political clout during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych.
Stolychnyi market land lease
The criminal case focuses on valuable agricultural market territory situated on the southern periphery of Kyiv, near the Teremky metro station in the Holosiivskyi district. Stolychnyi market serves as a primary wholesale trade hub for fresh produce and agricultural goods supplied to the Ukrainian capital.
Since 2012, a major land plot measuring 157.42 hectares had been leased for a 25-year term to Market of Agricultural Products Stolychnyi LLC. The territory was designated under official land registers for residential and public construction, specifically set aside for developing commercial market infrastructure.
Anti-corruption investigators allege that in the spring of 2021, a bitter corporate conflict broke out between Molchanova and Ivanyushchenko for operational control of the wholesale trading enterprise.
Corporate conflict and land transfers
During the dispute over corporate control, ownership rights to the land plot were re-registered, transferring authority from the Kyiv-Svyatoshyn District State Administration to the Main Directorate of StateGeoCadastre in Kyiv Oblast. StateGeoCadastre serves as Ukraine's state agency responsible for managing government land reserves and geographic cadastres. The plot was subsequently leased to a commercial entity under the developer's control.
In May 2021, nine separate parcels measuring two hectares each were carved out of the broader leased site. These nine plots, totaling 18 hectares, were initially transferred into the private ownership of nine individual citizens.
According to bureau findings, the nine individuals then executed purchase and sale contracts that transferred ownership of the 18 hectares to three separate corporate entities linked directly to Molchanova.
Detectives stated that as part of settling their corporate dispute, the developer and the former lawmaker signed an informal agreement, locally referred to as a ponyatyka, outlining joint usage and future building construction across the land mass.
By September 2021, an authorized proxy acting on behalf of Ivanyushchenko was formally added to the official register of beneficial owners for the companies holding title to the land.
Developer denial and fugitive status
Molchanova has denied all allegations of illegal activity and any business connection with the former lawmaker. In an interview with news outlet LIGA.net, Molchanova said she was not acquainted with Yuriy Ivanyushchenko, had never met him in person, and had not signed any agreements with him.
Ivanyushchenko has lived outside Ukrainian jurisdiction for more than a decade. Records from the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine confirm that Ivanyushchenko departed the country on a flight from Kyiv on December 15, 2014, and has not returned since.
Ukrainian authorities placed the former lawmaker on an official wanted list in January 2015. In August 2023, a court ordered his arrest in absentia, nine years after a notice of suspicion was issued in a separate case handled by the Bureau of Economic Security, Ukraine's financial crime agency.
In 2025, Ivanyushchenko was subject to another arrest order in absentia specifically tied to the NABU investigation. With the pre-trial phase now concluded, prosecutors are preparing to present the indictment to the court.
