Odesa exposes multimillion-dollar scheme to make money on fictitious disability
30 October 2024 05:29
Employees of the State Bureau of Investigation have exposed doctors who helped men of conscription age obtain medical documents that allowed the Medical and Social Expert Commission to declare them unfit for service. This was reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to the State Bureau of Investigation and the Office of the Prosecutor General.
According to the investigation, in the spring of 2024, a doctor at the Odesa Regional Clinical Hospital began providing “paid services” to men who tried to avoid mobilization.
He involved 12 doctors from different institutions in the city, officials of the Odesa Regional Center for Medical and Social Expertise, and their relatives who acted as intermediaries in his illegal scheme.
The doctors made up diagnoses for healthy men and produced the necessary medical documentation to confirm the “medical history.” Later, conscripts with a package of ready-made documents went to the MSEC, where they were met by “trained” members of the commission to be assigned a disability group.
The cost of the service ranged from $6,000 to $12,000, depending on the complexity of the diagnosis and the required disability group. So far, 42 persons liable for military service have been identified as beneficiaries of this scheme.
SBI officers conducted 28 searches at the officials’ places of work and residence. Medical records, over $80,000 in cash and three premium cars were seized.
During a search of the Center for Medical and Social Expertise, the SBI found and detained two servicemen wanted for unauthorized departure from the military unit and five “clients” of military age who were wanted for evading military service and trying to obtain fictitious disability.
The doctor who organized the scheme was detained and served a notice of suspicion of receiving an unlawful benefit. The issue of serving notices of suspicion to other participants of the scheme is being resolved.
The sanction of the article provides for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
