The Security Service of Ukraine has exposed another criminal scheme in Kyiv City State Administration. The perpetrators misappropriated almost UAH 60 million (USD 1.4 mln), which were intended for palliative care for seriously ill patients.

The investigation revealed that four persons were involved in the fraud; two of them are deputy heads of the Department of Social and Veterans Policy of the KCSA.

Another person involved is a former top official of the Kyiv City State Administration, and now the head of one of the capital’s psychiatric hospitals and a medical and social company. The SSU recently detained him on his attempt to flee abroad, where he planned to hide from justice.

The fourth participant is the commercial director of the company that won the KCSA tender and belongs to the individual mentioned above.

This group organized a mechanism for embezzling money allocated to finance Kyiv residents suffering from terminal illnesses.

To steal the budget funds, the KCSA officials entered into a contract with the accomplice’s company for a total of UAH 149 million.

For this money, the contractors were supposed to provide daily palliative care for seriously ill citizens, including free medical care, medicines and food.

Instead, the individuals involved spent almost a third of these budget funds on purchase of premium cars and luxury real estate, which ‘on paper’ were used for the patients’ needs.

For example, one of the new Porsche Cayenne SUVs purchased by the company was used by the officials themselves but was formally registered as a vehicle for transporting seriously ill patients.

The owner of the contracting company had also illegally received a group 2 disability certificate. Using the fake document, he got a deferment of mobilization, the possibility to freely cross the border and regular benefits from the state.

It was this ‘medical certificate’ that he tried to use to illegally cross the border to the EU.

Now, the four organizers of the scheme have been notified of suspicion under several Articles of the CCU, according to the actions each of them committed:

• 191.5 (misappropriation, embezzlement or seizure of property through abuse of office, committed on a particularly large scale, by an organized group);
• 190.4 (fraud, committed on a large scale or through illegal operations with the use of electronic computing equipment);
• 358.2, 358.3 (forgery of documents, seals, stamps and forms, sale or use of forged documents, seals, stamps).

The suspects face imprisonment for up to 12 years.

The operation was carried out by the SSU Office in Kyiv and Kyiv region under the procedural supervision of Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office.

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