“NABU chief Kryvonos is a suspect in a case involving extortion of a $120,000 bribe for land,” – a former SAPO prosecutor said

The Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), Semen Kryvonos, is a figure in criminal proceedings in a case involving extortion of a bribe for the allocation of a land plot in the village of Stari Bezradychinear Kyiv in 2014.

According to information from former SAPO prosecutor Stanislav Bronevytskyi, at that time Kryvonos worked as the head of the registration service of the Obukhiv City District Department of Justice of Kyiv region.

Bronevytskyi notes that in 2014 the head of the Stari Bezradychi village council, Petro Horbachenko, entered into a criminal conspiracy with the head of the State Land Agency office in Obukhiv district and Semen Kryvonos. They extorted $120,000 from a citizen for allocating a 0.25-hectare land plot in Stari Bezradychi for the construction of a residential house.

The land was allocated and registered in the name of a front person whom Kryvonos found. He also, as head of the registration service of the Obukhiv City District Department of Justice, facilitated the unhindered registration of ownership rights to this front person.

“Kryvonos S.Yu. selects front persons in whose names land plots are subsequently registered, and also facilitates the fast and unhindered processing of documents for them in the registration service of Obukhiv district,” Bronevytskyi quoted from the case materials.

According to him, in December 2014 searches were conducted at the suspects’ premises, including at Semen Kryvonos’s. The searches were carried out at his place of residence, workplace, and in his Hyundai Santa Fe car. During the investigative actions, mobile phones and other material evidence were seized.

The former prosecutor published a link to the relevant court ruling dated 08.12.2014, in which Kryvonos’s surname is clearly mentioned.

According to Bronevytskyi, information about the criminal case was deliberately concealed during the competition for the position of NABU director by Semen Kryvonos himself.

Recall that NABU director Semen Kryvonos is also accused of adopting a child in order to avoid going to prison for voter bribery after the relevant court verdict. After receiving an amnesty, he allegedly renounced the adoption, using the child and the mother as a tool to evade criminal liability for the offense.