In Kropyvnytskyi, the private enterprise “Elit Invest Agro” has started a legal process against the Municipal Enterprise of the Kirovohrad Regional Council “Regional Center for the Development of Services”, which wants to achieve a change in the monetary value of the land under construction in the city center, which it purchased last year through “Prozorro.Prodazhi”, for further redemption plots, as stipulated in the contract of sale.
This is stated in the materials of the court case, they write “Our money”.
According to court rulings on this case, on October 8, 2021, PE “Elit Invest Agro” entered into an agreement with the balance-holder – a utility company on the purchase of an object under construction in Kropyvnytskyi at 38 Shulginy Street, with an area of 8,356 square meters. This is the incomplete completion of the Center for Children’s Creativity dating back to Soviet times, which was nicknamed the “coliseum” in the city due to its appearance, and a ten-year epic was involved in its completion and sale. Last year, the building was put up for auction at the reduced price by half – 992 thousand hryvnias.
The terms of the contract include clause 7.2, which provides for the purchase of a plot of land with an area of 1.1701 hectares under construction within three months from the moment of its conclusion at a cost determined on the basis of an independent assessment. Even during the auction of the specified real estate object, the Communal Enterprise added an up-to-date Report on the monetary valuation of the land, according to which the value of a plot with an area of more than a hectare in the city center is worth 7,143,000 hryvnias.
In December 2021, PE “Elit Invest Agro” filed a lawsuit with the Kirovohrad Economic Court for the interpretation of the specified clause of the contract in the part of the procedure for determining the purchase price of the land plot. At the same time, the company asked the court to impose legal costs on the utility company.
In his arguments, the plaintiff said that in order to verify the correctness of the calculation of the market value of the plot, he received a certificate of the estimated value of real estate in relation to the land plot. According to the certificate, the land plot is worth 2,119,185 hryvnias.
Considering this difference, the plaintiff ordered a Review of the Expert Evaluation Report. According to the legislation, it is carried out by reviewers of regional branches of the State Property Fund. Already a week after applying for a review, the firm was given a conclusion that the estimate of the site in the amount of 7.1 million hryvnias, which was prepared in the Kirovohrad Regional Council, does not meet the requirements of regulatory and legal acts, is of poor quality and (or) unprofessional and cannot be used.
At the same time, the company asked the court to take measures to secure the lawsuit, which would prohibit the utility company from terminating the contract for the purchase of the Coliseum until the merits of this dispute are resolved. On December 28, 2021, the court refused to satisfy the demands. But the lawyers of “Elit Invest Agro” did not give up and filed a new lawsuit on December 30, where they already asked to stop the clause of the contract on the purchase of unfinished construction, according to which the company is obliged to buy the plot under it within three months. On December 31, the court satisfied this claim, and while the legal process continues, the company may not fulfill the requirements of the contract for the purchase of the plot. The utility tried to appeal this decision, but was unsuccessful.
It is known that an expert from the Kirovohrad scientific-research expert-criminological center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine was also involved during the case review, but the materials do not indicate what land valuation he arrived at. In one of the decisions, it is mentioned that the lawyer of Elite Invest Agro asked to ask the expert to decide the question – why during the evaluation of the land, its value was calculated as being intended for commercial use, and not for the construction of an educational institution, and why the presence on it of project of unfinished construction worth more than 1 million hryvnias.
On December 23, 2022, the Kirovohrad Commercial Court issued a decision in which it refused the company to satisfy the claim. The court explained that the plaintiff is asking for an explanation of the terms of the contract, but all the information was contained in the documents that were submitted to the auction. That is, the plaintiff, when he participated in the bidding for the right to buy the building, knew about all the conditions. This decision also canceled the provision of the claim in the form of suspension of the obligation to buy the land within three months from the date of acquisition of the unfinished building. The decision will enter into force after the expiry of the appeal period.
As for the owners of Elite Invest Agro, according to the material on Bihus.Info, the founder is Olena Volodymyrivna Moschynska. 4 months before the auction for the sale of the “coliseum”, the company “moved” from the office at 6/2 Shevchenko Street to an apartment at 94 Taras Karpa Street, where Moshchinska is “registered”. According to information from the Real Estate Register, the building on Shevchenko Street belongs to the private enterprise “ST-Service”, the beneficial owner of which is Serhiy Tarasov, a well-known latifundist in the region, founder of the agricultural holding “I&U Group”, acting consul of Lithuania in the Kropyvnytskyi and Kirovohrad regions.
In the last local elections, Tarasov financed the political campaign of the regional branch “Servants of the People”, and his son Oleg became a people’s deputy from this political force. Actually, judging by public registers, Tarasov himself was listed as a beneficiary of Elite Invest Agro until at least 2019.
Olena Moshchynska, the current founder of the company, is no stranger to agricultural holdings. It also includes a number of companies, the owner of which was also Serhiy Tarasov. They are still registered at the address of his building on Shevchenko Street. And on Moshchynska’s page in one of the social networks, there is a joint photo of her with Tarasov. On it, a woman holds a pillow for the scissors he used to cut the ribbon at the opening of the consulate of the Republic of Lithuania in Kropyvnytskyi.
We will remind that the Kirovohrad Regional Council, which is the founder of the communal enterprise “Regional Service Development Center”, is headed by Serhiy Shulga, who represents “Servant of the People” and before the elections worked in Tarasov’s security service.
It is worth adding that for the price of 2 million hryvnias, for which PE “Elit Invest Agro” wants to buy more than a hectare of land in the city center, you can buy a 2- or 3-room apartment in the secondary market in Kropyvnytskyi.
Anastasia Zubova
