Results of ARMA auction for sale of Borzhava resort land may be canceled – MP

The results of auctions conducted by the Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) for the sale of land plots of the Borzhava and Pylypets ski resorts in Zakarpattia region, with a total area of more than 460 hectares and a total value of nearly UAH 90 million, may be canceled, according to Anastasia Radina, head of the Verkhovna Rada's Anti-Corruption Committee (Servant of the People faction).

"According to my information, the result of these auctions may be canceled by ARMA," Radina wrote on her Facebook page.

According to her, European practice requires the state to take measures to prevent the return of assets into the ownership of convicted persons from whom those assets were confiscated or seized, or of persons associated with them. Radina stressed that subordinate regulations to the ARMA law, which enters into force on January 30, must also establish this principle.

"The by-laws must unequivocally establish that a situation in which land purchased by convicted persons with money stolen from the state is again purchased by convicted persons or persons associated with them is unacceptable. For my part, I have already sent relevant proposals to ARMA," she said.

Radina recalled that the winners of the auctions for the resort land were persons linked to Serhiy Liovochkin and Vladyslav Kaskiv. The assets were put up for sale at least five times, and the starting prices were repeatedly reduced.

As reported, Andriy Vynhranovsky won the auction for the sale of 41 land plots in Zakarpattia Region for UAH 5.4 million (starting price UAH 10.4 million), as well as 208 plots and chairlift cableway stations with a ski lift station for UAH 39.1 million (starting price UAH 75.2 million). Ihor Vlasiuk won the auction for the sale of 245 land plots for UAH 45 million (starting price UAH 88.2 million).

The state began searching for investors to build the Borzhava ski resort back in 2013 to implement the project "Olympic Hope–2022: Creation of Sports and Tourism Infrastructure." However, a number of projects, including Olympic Hope–2022, were not implemented due to the embezzlement of funds by officials of the State Agency for Investments and Management of National Projects, which at the time was headed by Kaskiv, and the state-owned enterprise State Investment Company, as identified by detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine.