A practicing lawyer and an employee of one of the law enforcement agencies in Zaporizhzhia have been exposed for attempting to seize the real estate of deceased individuals, the total value of which exceeds 3.6 million UAH.

According to the investigation, in 2021-2022, the suspects acted according to a pre-developed scheme. By establishing the fact of death of citizens who had no heirs, they prepared forged documents about allegedly existing debt obligations and filed lawsuits in court for their collection against the real estate of the deceased.

Such property was supposed to be recognized as unclaimed inheritance and transferred to the housing fund of the Zaporizhzhia city territorial community. Instead, the suspects managed to illegally register one of the apartments in the name of close individuals, after which they legalized the funds by selling it.

Other attempts to seize real estate in this manner were not completed.

The participants in the scheme have been notified of suspicion of fraud, forgery of documents, and legalization of property obtained by criminal means (part 4 of Article 190, part 2 of Article 15, part 3 of Article 15, part 4 of Article 190, part 4 of Article 358, part 2 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

The procedural guidance is carried out by prosecutors of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Prosecutor's Office. The pre-trial investigation is conducted by investigators of the State Bureau of Investigation in Melitopol.

Note: according to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is considered innocent of committing a crime and cannot be subjected to criminal punishment until their guilt is proven in a lawful manner and established by a guilty verdict of the court.