"Master" of Khmelnytskyi region Vadym Leyvi and his center of serfdom and lawlessness

A moratorium on the sale of agricultural land, lack of state support, and chronic economic crisis – this is an incomplete list of reasons why farms in Ukraine are practically struggling for survival every day. However, for some chosen ones, such problems do not exist – they grew rich under the previous government and are now multiplying their fortunes. Their main capital – corrupt officials, judges, and law enforcement officers.

Who is Vadym Leyvi

In the Teofipol district of Khmelnytskyi region, there is someone named Vadym Leyvi – a true big landholder. He owns 15 enterprises, the largest of which are LLC «Ukraine 2001» and PJSC «Teofipol Sugar Plant». Leyvi modestly calls himself the manager of resources of his own farm. He signed 39 land lease agreements with a total area of nearly 1,140 hectares. Their combined estimated value – over 25 million hryvnias. The Ukrainian law, which was in force at the time these agreements were approved by local authorities, defines a farm as a form of business activity for citizens who want to produce commercial agricultural products. It can be created by citizens of Ukraine who are relatives or family members, and the plots should ideally be located contiguously.

However, if we look at Mr. Leyvi’s possessions on the map, we will see that they spread over 16 rural and 1 settlement council in four districts of the Khmelnytskyi region. The distance between some plots extends to over 100 km. Thus, according to the law, Leyvi’s latifundium cannot be considered a farm. And, of course, the vast land area is not cultivated by any member of a single Leyvi family.

Then why did Leyvi need to arrange «his» land in this manner? It’s very simple: this scheme allowed him to lease state-owned land at a preferential rate, that is, without the legally required land auctions. Attempts to challenge this deal in court have so far yielded no results. In a decision of Teofipol district court dated August 17, 2017, it is stated that «… the requirement set by the law for providing land for agricultural purposes as a single plot, not in parts in different locations, is inherently an obligation of the authority granting the land to ensure farmer convenience in conducting their activities».

The panel of judges also concluded that as a «farmer», Leyvi has the right to cooperate with other agricultural entities. The fact that he collaborates with his own (!) companies and uses their resources to cultivate his fields did not persuade the judiciary of the illegality of Leyvi’s activities. For the same reasons, the Khmelnytskyi appellate court on October 25, 2017, denied the prosecutor’s appeal. The case is now in the Supreme Court, but since 2017 there has been no progress. However, this is not Leyvi’s most audacious scheme.

How the Ministry of Defence’s land became Leyvi’s land

In June 2014 (in the midst of the war in Donbas), the Housing and Operational Department (HOD) of Khmelnytskyi city signed an agreement on the joint cultivation of 2303 hectares of Ministry of Defence of Ukraine land with LLC «Ukraine 2001». HOD agreed to provide Leyvi’s enterprise with services for growing agricultural crops in exchange for providing planting materials and other goods and services. According to the agreement, all the crops are managed and harvested by LLC «Ukraine 2001». The enterprise had to pay just over one and a half million hryvnias annually for this.

In June 2015, the military prosecutor’s office filed a lawsuit to terminate this agreement. In the prosecutors’ view, this transaction was intended to conceal a de facto lease, making it sham. Furthermore, the document was signed without the necessary approvals from local authorities, as required by law. The court rejected this lawsuit, and HOD and LLC «Ukraine 2001» immediately extended their agreement for another year!

The military prosecutor’s second attempt to challenge this void agreement in 2016 also failed to yield results. The court again sided with Leyvi, dismissing the suit. According to case materials, the court determined that the land was supposedly not transferred as a lease, and thus approvals from officials were not mandatory. The military prosecutor’s argument about the unfavorable terms of the agreement for the Ministry of Defence was also overlooked, since HOD selected LLC «Ukraine 2001» as a contractor in an «open competition», in which LLC «Im. Chernyakhovskyi» and LLC «Hruzevytsya Agro» also participated.

Now attention! The founders of LLC «Ukraine 2001» today include the Estonian «VL Nordik Trade» and residents of Teofipol, Oleksandr Kaminskyi… and Oleh Leyvi – Vadym Leyvi’s brother. Together with LLC «Ukraine 2001», he is a founder of LLC «Im. Chernyakhovskyi», which participated in the competition to select a contractor for HOD’s services. The beneficiary of another competition participant – LLC «Hruzevytsya Agro» – is once again Vadym Leyvi. This kind of «openness» of the competition completely satisfied the court.

«I worked and will work»…

Oleksiy Nechyporuk got in the way of fate’s favorite Vadym Leyvi by accident. In 2015, Nechyporuk rented 42 hectares of unclaimed shares. However, Nechyporuk was not destined even to become a small farmer. It turned out that LLC «Ukraine 2001» continued to cultivate this land even though the term of their lease agreement for these plots expired back in 2012. Needless to say, the local government did not receive any rental payments for the use of the site for the next three years? Therefore, agricultural activities on it were completely illegal.

Nechyporuk decided to speak personally with Leyvi. He later outlined the details of this conversation to journalists: “We talked, and he told me that he worked and would work on this land.”

Nechyporuk and the district administration lost the lawsuit in the court of first instance. Following the appeal, the court decided to return the case for revision due to an alleged lack of evidence. Big greetings to our much-vaunted judiciary reform.

Oleksiy Nechyporuk continued to fight for his rights: he submitted complaints to the local police and prosecutor’s office when he saw Leyvi’s combines arrive to harvest on his land. The pre-trial investigation was again delayed, which is not surprising at all. «The case category, as it were, requires a significant number of investigative actions; besides, a land expert examination is also necessary. Currently, the proceedings are under review at the regional prosecutor’s office,» explained the lengthy investigation Serhiy Stuchynskyi, the head of the Teofipol police department.

Connections decide everything

The head of the Teofipol district, Yuriy Mayevskyi, tirelessly pretends to have no relation to Mr. Leyvi’s activities. However, data from the analytical system Youcontrol indicates quite the opposite. Mayevskyi’s father, Frants, is a co-founder of LLC «Hydroplast». The ultimate beneficiary of this company is the Estonian offshore «VL Nordik Trade», whose owner is Vadym Leyvi himself.

According to media reports, at least 15 of the 34 deputies of the local district council have ties with Leyvi. They or their relatives work in the businessman’s enterprises. Moreover, Leyvi’s connections have long gone beyond the Khmelnytskyi region. As a result, pre-trial investigation bodies delay cases against Leyvi, shifting responsibility from one to another. In the meantime, courts of various levels, instead of serving justice, legitimize his schemes. Ordinary farmers, whose rights were violated, and even representatives of the military prosecutor’s office, can’t find leverage over Leyvi. Leyvi acts like a feudal lord: he gives direct orders to prosecutors, controls the entire local government, has businesses connected with the leadership of the Teofipol district, and continues to illegally work on someone else’s land. Meanwhile, earning millions, he can even afford not to pay for land rent to the local budget! Multiply all this by Leyvi’s connections with national deputies and even the entourage of a former prime minister, and before you lies the classic formula of success for those Ukrainian farmers who sow everything around them with corruption and reap its fruits for years.

With the start of the war in Donbas, the «land issue» in Ukraine has become extremely acute. According to the Law of Ukraine «On the Status of War Veterans and Guarantees of Their Social Protection», the primary right to land allocation was granted to ATO veterans. Besides them, small farmers, whose constitutional property rights are still limited by the current moratorium, have been waiting for the opportunity to acquire leased plots for more than 15 years. They no longer expect any real state support (such as receiving preferential loans for business development or leasing agricultural machinery).

Instead, for landlords like Vadym Leyvi (and they exist in almost every district across all regions), the key has been and remains maintaining and strengthening their corrupt influence at all levels – no Maidans, wars, or reforms change anything for them, and any government accepts it. Ukraine remains a country that has not realized its vast agricultural and transit potential but has become a world-leading haven of corruption.

Mykhailo Bobrovskyi, for Resonance