The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) has completed a pre-trial investigation against the director of the Kivertsi National Nature Park "Tsumanska Pushcha" and his two accomplices – the founder and director of a woodworking company. They organized the illegal felling of centuries-old oaks in the protected area and caused UAH 16.5 million in damage to the state.
This was reported by the State Bureau of Investigation.
The defendants carried out the illegal demolition of trees in July 2023. Then law enforcement officers found the remains of 48 felled oaks over 165 years old and 42 trees of other species.
Photo: dbr.gov.ua
Another 870 oak logs worth more than UAH 21 million were discovered by the DBR employees at the woodworking enterprise. There were no documents on them that would indicate the legal origin of the wood. At the request of the DBR, the court seized the wood and handed it over to ARMA.
The director together with the founder of the enterprise tried to get back the confiscated oak logs. For this, they provided certificates of origin issued for another batch of wood, and part of the permits the fraudsters received already "retroactively" after the confiscation of timber.
Photo: dbr.gov.ua
The three defendants are charged with the illegal felling of trees on the territory of the nature reserve fund, which caused serious consequences, based on a prior conspiracy by a group of persons (Part 4 of Article 246 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). In addition, the director of the national park is accused of exceeding official powers (Part 3 of Article 365 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). These articles of the Criminal Code provide for punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of up to 10 years.
The director and founder of the woodworking enterprise is also suspected of legalizing property obtained through criminal means (Part 2 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The maximum punishment under this article is imprisonment for up to 8 years.
As a preventive measure, the court chose a personal bond for all the suspects, and suspended the director of the national park from his duties and seized his property worth UAH 1.5 million: a part of the house, a car and a plot of land.
In order to compensate for the damage caused, the prosecutor's office filed a civil lawsuit in the amount of the damage caused.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that in March, EcoPolitics wrote about the fact that the director of Kivertsiiv National Nature Park "Tsumanska Pushcha" prosecutors reported about the suspicion of illegal felling of trees in the amount of more than UAH 16.5 million.
