"Scheme" for 50 million dollars in cash every month: how Bolokhovets, Zubovych, and Kucher extorted "levies" from the management of "Forests of Ukraine"

$50 million cash per month — such an informal “plan” was allegedly discussed inside the forest hierarchy. Separately, another $5–10 million were supposed to go to the team. At the same time, this is not an established fact by the investigation, but information from sources; however, several individuals in this story already feature in real criminal proceedings.

This is reported by “Whistleblower” citing sources in law enforcement.

In July 2025 of the year, the State Bureau of Investigation detained the former head of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine,” Yuriy Bolokho vets. He was suspected of illegal enrichment within criminal proceeding ¹62023000000001002.

According to the investigation, Bolokhovets had assets totaling 10,4 million UAH, while at least 7,9 million UAH of the difference between income and property he could not explain. Among the assets was an apartment in Kyiv worth over 9 million UAH and 8 hectares of land plots.

Separately, NGL.media reported a farm near Ivanhorod associated with Bolokhovets’ relatives and friends, covering over 80 hectares. The area included lakes and a stable.

Initially the court set Bolokho vets’ bail at almost 91 million UAH, but later the amount was reduced. In 2026 year the charges were canceled due to a procedural issue with the recording of the court session. Meanwhile, the criminal proceeding itself did not cease to exist.

After Bolokhovets, the state enterprise was headed by former Deputy Minister of Economy Ihor Zubovych. According to sources, the new management was allegedly passed the same informal financial target, but in practice the collections, according to them, turned out to be much smaller than expected.

Moreover, for the first full month of Zubovych’s work, he was officially credited with 732 thousand UAH in salary.

Another surname appearing in this story is Oleksiy Kucher, former head of Kharkiv Oblast State Administration and head of the State Regulatory Service.

In April 2025 year Kucher chaired the Supervisory Board of “Forests of Ukraine,” and in February 2026 he left that post. Simultaneously, a possible illegal payment to members of the Supervisory Board of over 6 million UAH is being investigated. Public reports mention criminal proceeding ¹42025000000001058 under part 5 of article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Kucher himself denied illegality of the payments and called the criminal proceeding pressure. His simultaneous tenure as head of the DRS and work on the Supervisory Board also became subjects of public allegations due to possible restrictions provided by anti-corruption legislation.

In the same vein, Taras Vysotsky is mentioned. NABU and SAPO referred his case to court regarding state procurement of food. According to the investigation, intermediaries used inflated prices, and the possible losses are estimated at approximately 64 million UAH.

In one episode, according to the investigation, the price per kilogram of the product rose from about 30 to 75 UAH.

At the regional level, sources also name the head of the Slobozhansky Forest Office, Oleksandr Lysenko. This concerns a possible story with industrial timber and cash. However, there are no open data about a specific criminal case number for this episode yet, so presenting it as a proven scheme is not warranted.

As a result, two distinct parts of this story emerge.

On the one hand — information from sources about allegedly informal plan of $50 million in cash per month and an additional $5–10 million “for the team.” This is not an established fact by the investigation, but a claim by sources that still needs to be verified or refuted.

On the other hand — real criminal cases and claims by law enforcement: Bolokhovets’ case ¹62023000000001002, the property story of over 80 hectares, proceeding ¹42025000000001058 regarding payments to the Supervisory Board and the Vysotsky case, where possible losses amount to 64 million UAH.

And that is why the main question now is: who established the mentioned, by sources, plan in $50 million, to whom were these funds intended, and how much money, if such a scheme really existed, managed to be gathered before the forest sector’s activities drew more attention from NABU and other law enforcement agencies.