Cherkasy real estate developer demands 18000 retract calling him a "cynical vandal" with a debt

Albert Norchenko. Photo by 18000

Cherkasy real estate developer Albert Norchenko is suing a co-founder of the media outlet 18000, Arthur Chemyris, and the website itself, in the Smila City District Court. The hearing is scheduled for late March, reports 18000.

The plaintiff demands retraction of the information in the article which alleges that the companies affiliated with Norchenko owe over 4 million hryvnias in payments to the local budget.

The businessman also demands a retraction of the words "cynical vandal" in reference to him. The media outlet reminds that this description has been used earlier by the Cherkasy Mayor, Anatoliy Bondarenko, to refer to the persons who cut down over 1 hectare of forest in a Cherkasy micro-district. Norchenko himself does not deny his involvement in that conflict.

In addition to retractions, Norchenko also demands 1 hryvnia of compensation.

As the IMI representative in the Cherkasy oblast notes, in early 2023 there was a scandal in Cherkasy involving Albert Norchenko's name. A company affiliated with him cut down over 1 hectare of forest at the intersection of Stepan Bandera St. and Lisova Prosika St. The developer planned to build townhouses on the plot. Following the media attention and protests by locals, a criminal case was opened for illegal forest felling.

Earlier, former deputy head of the presidential administration, Andriy Portnov, sued hromadske for their investigation "How they mugged Crimea from us: exclusive records".