IMPACTA LAW’s White-Collar Crime and Investigations practice has secured the full lifting of an imposed arrest on 140 land plots that had remained under arrest for more than five years in the course of criminal proceedings.

The client in the matter was a major foreign investor in the agricultural sector operating in Ukraine, using the relevant land plots as a key component of its land bank. Although the plots formally belong to individual landowners, the client was responsible for cultivating the land, planning sowing campaigns, and implementing its long-term business strategy. The prolonged arrest created significant risks to the client’s operational stability and investment plans.

The case was complicated by the procedural history of the proceedings, including the separation of materials from one criminal case into another, as well as by the legal nature of the arrest: the land plots had been recognised as physical evidence. In practice, such imposed arrests are among the most resilient, as courts traditionally apply a particularly cautious approach and tend to maintain restrictions even after extended periods of time and changes in the procedural context.

Following a comprehensive review of the criminal case materials, the procedure for separating the files, and the grounds for imposing the arrest, the team developed a clear and structured legal position demonstrating the absence of lawful grounds for maintaining the restrictions. The court agreed with the arguments presented and found the continued arrest unjustified, ordering the full release of all 140 land plots.

The project team included: Partner Oleksandr Onishchenko, Counsel Mykola Nychyporuk, Associate Liliia Lavrichenko, Senior Associate Serhii Rymar, Junior Associate Viktoriia Bondar.