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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
A cardboard tube from a premium whiskey bottle instead of a safe, traveling in a black Jaguar XJ and an attempted escape. The story of the arrest of Lviv’s chief land official Andriy Kavetsky while trying to bribe an NACP official reads like a classic detective tale. And this is not the first scandal around the top official: he was dismissed several times over million-hryvnia losses and suspicions of "unfair play," but was returned to his post and courts defended him.
This is reported by the publication "Telegraf."
How to come out clean for 10 years
At the end of 2025, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP), at the initiative of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), began monitoring the lifestyle of the head of the Main Department of the StateGeoCadastre in Lviv region, Andriy Kavetsky. The 42-year-old civil servant has been in the system since July 2015. And over a decade in power he developed an immunity to claims from law enforcement agencies.
Early in Kavetsky’s career he was suspected of illegally transferring state land into private ownership for dacha construction in Skole and Turka districts (places Opir, Piduviz, Kotylnyche). Prosecutors alleged those lands were designated for recreation and therefore Kavetsky exceeded his authority by disposing of them instead of the local district administrations. Amid the investigation the official temporarily lost his position, but managed to be reinstated.
Kavetsky managed to stay in office twice more: in 2020 after a large-scale audit of the Lviv department’s activities and in 2021 over a scandal surrounding decentralization and transfer of lands to communities. Then he beat the system again: he won an appeal against the StateGeoCadastre of Ukraine, and later the Supreme Court closed the proceedings because the agency itself withdrew the complaint, effectively admitting defeat.
Over the years Kavetsky became a true specialist in "procedural kung fu." In May 2025 the Halych District Court found him not guilty of exceeding authority regarding lands in the Opir and Piduviz places, and the appeal in August of the same year confirmed that verdict, finding no "elements of a crime."
At the same time another, larger case collapsed concerning the attempted illegal alienation of 26,7 hectares of municipal land in Zymna Voda, a suburb of Lviv. The case over 113,5 million hryvnias in damages ended with an acquittal in November 2024, in part because the local community unexpectedly withdrew its financial and legal claims.
But the land ghosts of the past continue to haunt the official: the case about fraud in the Kotylnyche area (concerning two plots worth over 480 thousand hryvnias), where Kavetsky was also initially acquitted, went for a new review in July 2026 — now the Supreme Court is examining it following a prosecutor’s appeal.
Why did the official decide to "make a deal" with the NACP?
The paradox is that while courts dragged on for years, the family wealth of the head of the StateGeoCadastre in Lviv region grew. Kavetsky entered the system with virtually nothing — in one of his first declarations an old Toyota Camry, a modest salary of 55 thousand hryvnias and over 200 thousand hryvnias in savings.
In 2025 his official salary amounted to up to 538 thousand hryvnias per year. Even that figure looked modest compared to the earnings of his wife Kateryna, who in May 2019 opened a sole proprietorship in the restaurant business. In 2025 he brought the businesswoman a record 6,4 million hryvnias. Along with this the couple "built up" cash reserves: over 1,6 million hryvnias, almost 100 thousand US dollars and over 62 thousand euros.
Their car fleet changed too, although Kavetsky prudently did not register the cars in his name. He himself used a Lexus LS 460, and his wife an Audi Q8. The declarations stated: the owner of the Lexus — Denys Nakonechnyi — is the beneficiary of LLC "Center of Land Cadastre." This firm, as one might think from its name, does not actually earn on geodesy and land management works. At least "Telegraf" could not find evidence of public activity in that field.
Instead, its main profile in analytical databases is listed as "electrical installation works," which aligns with Nakonechnyi’s core business — construction. His LLCs "Just Profit" and "Etalon House" actively build cottages and residential buildings in Lviv region. And for new projects the companies regularly need land, the allocation of which in the region was significantly influenced by none other than the user of the luxury car — Andriy Kavetsky.
Symbolically, the developer "Etalon House" was initially the owner of the Audi Q8. Later the crossover was formally transferred to lawyer Pavlo Vyhovskyi, but in practice the expensive foreign car was used from the start by Kavetsky’s wife. Interestingly, when in July 2026 the NACP began checking the official’s lifestyle, the family urgently tried to get rid of the Audi. The car was hastily re-registered and put up for sale for 51 thousand dollars. But here too the official tripped up, because he entrusted the role of car broker to a subordinate — a current employee of the StateGeoCadastre in Lviv region. Proof of this was the personal phone number in the ad on Auto.ria.
After years of an official status of "homeless" (according to declarations for 2018–2022, which lacked mentions of personal housing), in September 2024 the Kavetskys suddenly acquired a house of 218,7 sq. m and a land plot of 942 sq. m. On paper this was not a purchase but a generous gift from Olha Moroz (likely the official’s mother-in-law), valued at over 652 thousand hryvnias, of which 500,4 thousand hryvnias was the house value and 152 thousand hryvnias the land. Given that the property is located in the village of Solonka — one of the most elite and expensive suburbs of Lviv — the stated price appears understated.
The investigation materials emphasize: the actual volume of property acquired by persons "close and connected" to Kavetsky from 2020 to 2025 is not supported by official income sources. It was precisely this gap between the civil servant’s "paper" life and reality that set off the verification process.
The napkin, the whiskey and the fatal "Jaguar"
As soon as Kavetsky learned of the NACP’s interest in his assets, he resorted to a desperate move — he tried to "settle the matter" with a bribe. A low-grade detective scenario unfolded in June 2026, when the head of the Main Department of the StateGeoCadastre in Lviv region began actively seeking a personal meeting with the head of one of the agency’s units.
When the meeting finally took place at the Lviv restaurant "Villa Austria," Kavetsky, fearing wiretapping, chose silent conspiracy. Namely: he wrote in red pen on a paper napkin first the digits "15-20" and then "30." This, apparently, indicated the amount to pay for "loyalty" and a positive lifestyle monitoring conclusion. The official believed they had "agreed," but he was wrong: the NACP employee warned his own leadership and the SBI. So all of Kavetsky’s subsequent "moves" were in plain sight.
The final act of the drama played out in Kyiv on 27 July 2026. Kavetsky acted like a professional agent: on the way from Lviv he turned off his mobile phone, changed vehicles and arranged the meeting near the restaurant "Kappadokia" on Lesia Ukrainka Boulevard in the capital. He arrived to hand over the money "unobtrusively" — in a luxurious black Jaguar XJL. That luxury sedan does not belong to the official but to the aforementioned Lviv businessman Denys Nakonechnyi, whose cars the Kavetsky family had used for years.
The actual procedure for handing over the bribe was full of symbolism. The money — 300 bills of 100 dollars each — lay not in an envelope but inside the tube from the premium whiskey "The Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Years Old." After handing the "gift" to the NACP employee with the remark that it contained "all the explanations," Kavetsky tried to make a dramatic escape, jumping over the road barrier right in the middle of the boulevard. But the escape failed and the official was detained. An empty bottle of that very whiskey was later found in the abandoned car — the packaging Kavetsky had used as a temporary safe.
Now the "land king" of Lviv region faces real jail time: Kavetsky has been notified under Part 3 of Article 369 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (providing an unlawful benefit to an official who occupies a responsible position). The punishment for this type of crime is from 4 to 8 years of imprisonment with possible confiscation of property.
The Pechersky District Court, given the risks, has already ordered preventive detention for Kavetsky with a record bail of 89,8 million hryvnias. And here the main question arises: will the wife’s assets help the official get out of pretrial detention, and will the businessmen who for years provided the luxury car fleet publicly support him?
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Віскі, 30 тисяч доларів і Jaguar: як «земельний магнат» Львівщини Андрій Кавецький викрився на хабарництві НАЗК". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Rozsliduvach.
