Former MP detained for issuing fake disability certificates
7 June 2024 13:23
The SBU and the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office announced the exposure of a large-scale scheme to evade mobilisation and illegally obtain disability groups. The main person involved in the case is a former MP who is currently the deputy director of the Kyiv Institute of Preventive Medicine. This was reported by law enforcement agencies, reports "Komersant Ukrainian"
The authorities did not disclose the name of the former MP, but according to 
it is a member of the Verkhovna Rada of the eighth convocation, Iryna Sysoyenko.
According to the investigation, the former MP, together with five accomplices, organised a criminal group that produced and sold fake documents on disability due to occupational diseases.
The scheme included fictitious registration for outpatient treatment, “diagnosis” of occupational diseases and assignment of disability groups. Doctors, intermediaries and officials of medical and social expert commissions were involved in the criminal activity.
However, the reports of different law enforcement agencies place different emphasis. In particular, the SBU emphasises that the scheme concerned assistance to “evaders” in evading mobilisation.
“The main clients of the criminals were potential conscripts who planned to use a forgery to deregister from the military register and illegally travel abroad. According to available data, the illegal activities of the criminals, led by the former MP, brought a monthly “profit” of almost 100 thousand US dollars,”
– the SBU said in a statement.
The prosecutor’s office said that this illegal scheme was used to help those who were already eligible for disability benefits.
“Two intermediaries were looking for coal industry workers who, due to hazardous working conditions, had the right to obtain a disability group, but could not do so because of bureaucracy. In order to simplify the procedure, they were extorted 3-4 thousand US dollars each. For the money, a fictitious medical examination took only 1-2 days. After that, the patients’ medical documents were sent to Kyiv to a state medical institution, whose employees confirmed the presence of diseases and helped to establish disability based on the lists they had previously received,”
– according to the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office.
This implies that the disability of these workers was genuine, but the MP and her accomplices violated the bureaucratic procedure for its registration for money.
Whatever the case, the organiser of the scheme and her accomplice were detained red-handed while handing over $32,000. During the searches, more than UAH 40 million in cash, medical documents and draft records were seized.
The defendants were served a notice of suspicion under articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which provide for up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property:
- ч. 3 and 4 of Art. 368 (acceptance of an offer or receipt of an unlawful benefit by an official using his/her official position);
- ч. 3 of Art. 369-2 (acceptance of an offer, promise or receipt of an unlawful benefit for oneself or a third party for influencing the decision-making of a person authorised to perform state functions).
The investigation is ongoing.
