Land speculator under the cover of the Temporary Investigation Commission: how MP Hunko profited from state-owned fields belonging to the NAAS

Land speculator under the cover of the Temporary Investigation Commission: how MP Hunko profited from state-owned fields belonging to the NAAS

People’s Deputy Anatoliy Hunko was elected to the Verkhovna Rada in 2020 from the "Servant of the People" party, but his political biography began earlier — with campaigns in 2015 and 2019 and involvement in a land-related story in Brovary. As early as 2013, journalists described a scheme of transferring land plots under the guise of personal farming, followed by their transfer to a private company.

The beneficiary of this company was named as Hunko; structures linked to Viktor Polishchuk were involved in the development. In 2019, the episode involving Hunko was closed by the Prosecutor General’s Office, reports BIHUS.

After receiving his mandate, Hunko headed a temporary investigative commission of the Verkhovna Rada to investigate abuses at enterprises of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences. This status provided access to information about state lands and property complexes. According to the investigation, from 2021 to 2023, he and his accomplices organized a scheme involving state-owned lands of NAAS enterprises: controlled companies sowed state fields, harvested crops, transported them to "their" warehouses, and sold them, underreporting volumes in documents. The losses forming the basis of the case amount to nearly 30 million UAH; according to sources, the real losses could be significantly higher.

In 2023, Hunko was detained while receiving $85,000 — the first part of an agreed $221,000. According to the prosecution, he offered an entrepreneur access to NAAS land plots: officially — at $100 per hectare, additionally — $130–150 "under the table," with promises to "resolve issues" with law enforcement and appoint "his" director to a research farm. The first suspicion related to abuse of influence; later, in February, he received a second one — for the episode of misappropriation of agricultural products. The Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court upheld the guilty verdict: four years of imprisonment, a three-year ban on holding public office, and confiscation of property. A separate proceeding on the agrarian scheme is ongoing; the penalty could reach up to 12 years.

Between the first suspicion and his transfer to a pre-trial detention center, Hunko continued his parliamentary activities, including voting on initiatives related to the status of anti-corruption bodies. Simultaneously, his family’s business activities intensified. His wife, Nataliya Hunko, who previously headed the Kyiv Regional Council, joined a new company, Diamant Cor+ (NACE — grain trading), in 2025, and later — the consortium "UK Priority," which participates in ARMA tenders for managing seized assets, including locomotives and railcars. The consortium is managed by Andriy Mykhailovsky, whom the media has linked to the entourage of former Justice Minister Olha Stefanyshyna. Nataliya Hunko’s sister and her husband also established structures and sought ARMA assets, including a transshipment terminal in Zakarpattia and sanatoriums.

Family assets are also evident in the property portfolio: a house of approximately 500 sq. m in a cottage community in Zazymia near Kyiv, vehicles including a Range Rover (2014), BMW X5, Toyota Land Cruiser 200 (2017), and BMW 730LD (2018). On the eve of the first suspicion, according to case materials, the purchase of a Mercedes-Benz G-Class for 230,000 euros was discussed. His son Kostyantyn, who worked at the Ministry of Economy in 2020–2022, left Ukraine on March 14, 2022, and, according to the investigation, is in Austria; his daughter Kateryna is also there. Hunko himself, according to the materials, also visited Vienna during the full-scale war; one of the meetings regarding NAAS lands took place there.

Hunko claims to have health issues and a disability; his defense points to grounds for mitigating the punishment. However, court decisions have already entered into force, and the second case — regarding the misappropriation of agricultural products — remains under investigation. The story of a deputy who simultaneously led a temporary investigative commission on NAAS abuses and, according to the investigation, monetized access to its lands, demonstrates how a parliamentary mandate and control over information can become tools of influence — until the anti-corruption system kicks in.