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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
A cardboard tube from a premium whiskey bottle used instead of a safe, traveling in a black Jaguar XJ and an attempted escape. The story of the arrest of Lviv’s chief land officer Andriy Kavetskyi 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 multi-million losses and suspicions of "unfair play," but was reinstated and acquitted by courts.
This is reported by the publication "Telegraf."
How to come out unscathed for 10 years
At the end of 2025, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP), at the initiative of the State Bureau of Investigations (DBR), began monitoring the lifestyle of the head of the StateGeoCadastre Main Department in Lviv region, Andriy Kavetskyi. 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 bodies.
Early in his career Kavetskyi was suspected of illegally transferring state land into private ownership for country-house construction in Skole and Turka districts (localities Opir, Piduviz, Kotylnyche). Prosecutors argued that these lands had recreational designation, and therefore Kavetskyi exceeded his powers by disposing of them instead of the local district administrations. During the investigation the official temporarily lost his post, but managed to be reinstated.
Kavetskyi managed to hold his post twice more: in 2020 after a large-scale audit of the Lviv department’s activities and in 2021 amid the scandal around 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 Kavetskyi became a true master of "procedural kung-fu." In May 2025 the Halych District Court found him not guilty of exceeding powers regarding the lands in the Opir and Piduviz localities, and the August appeal that same year confirmed that verdict, finding no "elements of a crime."
At the same time another, much larger case fell apart concerning the attempted illegal alienation of 26,7 hectares of communal land in Zymna Voda, a suburb of Lviv. The case over 113,5 million UAH in damages ended with an acquittal in November 2024, in part because the local community unexpectedly withdrew its financial and legal claims.
Yet the land ghosts of the past continue to haunt the official: the case on schemes in the Kotylnyche locality (regarding two plots valued at over 480 thousand UAH), where Kavetskyi was also initially acquitted, went for a new review in July 2026 — it is now being examined by the Supreme Court on the prosecutor’s appeal.
Why did the official decide to "negotiate" with the NACP?
The paradox is that while courts dragged on for years, the wealth of the head of the StateGeoCadastre in Lviv region’s family grew. Kavetskyi entered the system practically with nothing — in one of his first declarations an old Toyota Camry, a modest salary of 55 thousand UAH and over 200 thousand UAH in savings were listed.
In 2025 his official salary amounted to up to 538 thousand UAH per year. Even that figure looked modest next 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 UAH. At the same time the couple "built up" cash reserves: over 1,6 million UAH, almost 100 thousand US dollars and over 62 thousand euros.
Their car fleet changed as well, although Kavetskyi prudently did not register the cars in his name. However he personally used a Lexus LS 460, and his wife an Audi Q8. The official’s declarations noted: the owner of the Lexus is Denys Nakonechnyi — beneficiary of LLC "Center of Land Cadastre." This company, as one might expect from the name, does not actually earn from geodesy and land management works. At least "Telegraf" could not find evidence of public activity in this field.
Instead, its main profile in analytical systems is listed as "electrical installation works," which aligns with Nakonechnyi’s main 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 distribution of which in the region was influenced by none other than the user of the luxury car — Andriy Kavetskyi.
Symbolically, the developer "Etalon House" was initially the owner of the Audi Q8. Later the crossover was formally transferred to attorney Pavlo Vyhovskyi, but in practice the expensive foreign car was used from the start by Kavetskyi’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 the official also slipped up, because he entrusted the role of car broker to a subordinate — an active employee of the StateGeoCadastre of Lviv region. Proof of this was a personal phone number in the Auto.ria listing.
After years of an official status of "homeless" (according to declarations for 2018–2022, in which mentions of personal housing were absent), in September 2024 the Kavetskyis suddenly registered a house of 218,7 sq. m and a land plot of 942 sq. m. According to documents — this was not a purchase but a generous gift from Olha Moroz (probably the official’s mother-in-law), valued at over 652 thousand UAH, of which 500,4 thousand UAH was the value of the house and 152 thousand UAH — the land. Considering the property is located in Solonka village — one of the most elite and expensive suburbs of Lviv — the declared price seems understated.
The case files emphasize: the actual volume of property acquired by persons "close and related" to Kavetskyi 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 the verification process in motion.
A napkin, whiskey and the fatal "Jaguar"
As soon as Kavetskyi learned of the NACP’s interest in his assets, he resorted to a desperate step — he tried to "close the matter" with a bribe. The low-grade detective scenario unfolded in June 2026, when the head of the StateGeoCadastre Main Department in Lviv region began to persistently seek 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," fearing surveillance, Kavetskyi chose silent conspiracy. Namely: he wrote in red pen on a paper napkin first the numbers "15-20," and then "30." This obviously indicated the amount to be paid for "loyalty" and a favorable lifestyle monitoring conclusion. The official believed he had "arranged it," but he was mistaken: the NACP employee warned his own leadership and the DBR. So all of Kavetskyi’s subsequent "moves" were in plain sight.
The final act of the drama played out in Kyiv on 27 July 2026. Kavetskyi acted like a professional agent: on the way from Lviv he turned off his mobile phone, changed vehicles and arranged a meeting near the restaurant "Kapadokia" on Lesia Ukrainka Boulevard in the capital. He arrived to hand over the money "unnoticed" — in a luxurious black Jaguar XJL. This luxury sedan does not belong to the official but to the aforementioned Lviv businessman Denys Nakonechnyi, whose cars the Kavetskyi family had used for years.
The procedure of handing over the bribe was full of symbolism. The money — 300 bills of 100 dollars each — lay not in an envelope but inside a tube from the premium whiskey "The Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Years Old." Having handed the "gift" to the NACP employee with the remark that "all explanations are there," Kavetskyi tried to make a dramatic getaway, jumping over a road barrier right in the middle of the boulevard. But the escape failed; the official was detained. And in the abandoned car they found an empty bottle of that very whiskey, the packaging of which Kavetskyi had used as a temporary safe.
Now the "land king" of Lviv region faces a real prison term, since Kavetskyi has been charged 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 Pecherskyi District Court, given the risks, has already imposed a preventive measure on Kavetskyi in the form of detention with a record bail — 89,8 million UAH. And here the main question arises: will the official’s wife’s assets help him get out of pretrial detention, and will the businessmen who for years provided the luxury car fleet want to openly 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.
