Lukashenka administration corruption scandal

The presidential administration may appear to have been dragged into a scandal relating to sales of land.

There's little information about the unprecedented scandal, but the sums of money relating to the fraud already look impressive. It goes about selling 279 hectares of land along the Minsk Sea reservoir near the village of Laparovichy in the Minsk district, Yezhednevnik reports.

A mysterious investor is reported to have used the Minsk region executive committee and the Lukashenka administration to receive 279 ha of land near the Minsk Sea with no problems.

The joint limited liability company OKSESinvest was registered in December 2009 on a decision of the Minsk region executive committee. Three months later, in February 2010, the Minsk region executive committee permitted the company to receive 279 ha of land to construct low-rise residential buildings, engineering and communication facilities and community infrastructure near the village of Laparovichy.  

The project provides for construction of utility services, driveways, recreation zones, community infrastructure (schools, nursery schools, a hypermarket, a filling station, a polyclinic, sports facilities, a sewage plant and artesian wells with water treatment equipment), etc. The total volume of investments amounted to 430 million euros, but the investor was to give only about 7 million dollars. The rest sum was expected to be received from interest holders wanting to live in the elite residential community and other investors who would want to construct a hypermarket, a petrol station, sports and other facilities.

Until recently, there was no news about the project for two years since the land allocation and approval of the investment agreement by the Ministry of Economy. The Main Economic Crime Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs thwarted an attempt recently to sell the elite land allocated for implementation of the investment project.

The director of OKSESinvest company, which was to implement the project, induced the director of another foreign private company to give a bribe to officials from the Lukashenka administration and the Minsk city executive committee “for taking a favourable decision on acquiring a plot of land of 279 ha owned by the state and earlier given to OKSESinvest company under the investment agreement”. The amount of the attempted bribe beats all records in Belarus.

The suspect is reported to have demanded 5 million dollars and 17 land lots (which is additional 500,000 dollars) in the elite town.

A criminal case over part 5 of article 16 and part 2 of article 431 of the Criminal Code of Belarus has been initiated against the director of OKSESinvest company in connection with inducing to give a bribe.