Kyiv's real estate mafia: indictment against nine, alleged organizer is in Vienna

The Ukrainian anti-corruption agency NABU and the Special Prosecutor's Office SAP filed charges against nine people on October 6, 2026. At the centre of the case with number 52023000000000154 is an alleged system by which a group is said to have controlled land decisions in Kyiv for years.

The organiser is identified as former Kyiv City Council deputy Denys K., who, according to research by Ukrainian media, is staying in Vienna.

A toilet as a door‑opener for million‑value assets

The core of the investigation is a method that Ukrainian media refer to as the „toilet scheme“:

On coveted plots a simple or even non‑existent building was registered, such as a toilet or a technical building. With this registration the surrounding land could be transferred without a tender, officially for the „preservation“ of the property.

According to investigators, this way parcels worth 11.6 million hryvnia (approximately €260,000) were actually transferred, the transfer of six further plots worth 83.7 million hryvnia (about €1.9 million) was stopped. Another attempt to acquire municipal land worth over 70 million hryvnia between 2023 and 2024 is being investigated separately.

In addition to the land deals, investigators cited by NABU also document a bribe offer of $100,000 to a deputy and pressure on a private company to obtain a plot for future development. The group is also said to have used encryption technology, cover names and counter‑measures against surveillance, and to have prepared decisions deliberately outside official council meetings.

Raids, bail and a man who disappeared

On February 6, 2025 a large‑scale operation took place: over 90 house searches, seven arrests, ten suspects. Among those affected were the former deputy head of the Kyiv city administration, Petro O., who was released on bail of 15 million UAH, and the former head of the city council's land commission, Mychajlo T., whose bail was almost 20 million hryvnia. In bank safe‑deposit boxes investigators found more than $6.4 million, €630,000 and 800,000 UAH in cash.

The main suspect could not be arrested. On February 10, 2025 NABU placed him on the wanted list. Ukrainian journalists later reconstructed his departure: accompanied by persons holding IDs from the Ukrainian domestic intelligence service SBU, two employees of the investigative authority of the Transcarpathian oblast and a local MP, he is said to have been driven to the border in a convoy that included a vehicle with the licence plate „200“.

Shortly thereafter he turned up in Vienna, where NABU subsequently carried out its own investigative actions in coordination with Austrian authorities. He is also now facing a separate case for allegedly evaded taxes of roughly 12 million UAH.

From the investigative act to the court trial

On January 20, 2026 NABU and SAP declared the investigations closed. By that time three participants had already been sentenced, while nine defendants remained in the main trial. With the indictment dated October 6, the case now proceeds formally to court, bringing the full evidentiary burden of more than two and a half years of investigative work.

The case is especially relevant for Austria because K. continues to stay in Vienna while the criminal proceedings against him run in Ukraine. NABU's investigative actions on Austrian soil raise questions about Vienna's role as a place of residence for individuals against whom anti‑corruption proceedings are pending in their home countries – a pattern repeatedly observed in connection with Ukrainian reconstruction and administrative reforms.

International partners of Ukraine, including the EU, tie support payments and reform progress, among other things, to the functioning of NABU and SAP, making the outcome of this case also significant for assessing the Ukrainian justice reform.