Doctors in Khmelnytskyi Region Fined for Disability Fraud

The Volochysk District Court has sentenced a paramedic and two doctors who issued fake disability certificates for a bribe of $3,000-8,000. The defendants reached a deal with the investigation and received fines. As stated in the verdict of February 11, in October 2023, Viktor Dyachuk, a paramedic at the Volochysk ambulance substation, promised to issue a disability group II to an acquaintance for $3,600, influencing the head and members of the Khmelnytskyi Regional Medical and Social Expert Commission.

The defendant involved neurologist Snizhana Nazar, who was the deputy head of the VLK, and phthisiologist Volodymyr Balandyuk in the scheme. The defendants took an additional $100 from the woman for not taking the MSEC on her own. The money was transferred in two parts - in December 2023 and February 2024.

The defendants continued to issue fictitious disabilities to their patients. According to the investigation, the paramedic looked for clients, and the doctor registered them for inpatient treatment in the neurological department and prepared medical documents, which became the basis for establishing disability groups.

The phthisiatrician went around to doctors, received recommendations from them for referral to the MSEC without the presence of people who were to receive a disability group, and influenced members of the medical commission of the Volochysk Multi-Profile Hospital.

Law enforcement officers found that a paramedic offered to register a disability group for one woman for $6,700, but later increased the price to $7,500. Another woman had a disability group III, but due to deteriorating health wanted to register a disability group II. The paramedic agreed to help her for $5,000.

Paramedic Viktor Dyachuk was detained on October 10, 2024 during another bribe. During the searches, 182 thousand dollars and 6,500 euros were seized from the suspects, which amounts to almost 8 million UAH. Law enforcement officers also found drafts with the names of clients, diagnoses, amounts, medical documents, etc. All doctors expressed remorse and cooperated with the investigation.

Judge Svitlana Nikolova found Viktor Dyachuk guilty of abuse of influence and organizing an illegal scheme (Part 3 of Article 28, Part 2 of Article 369-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and imposed a fine of UAH 93,500, and Snizhana Nazar and Volodymyr Balandyuk were fined UAH 85,000 each. The decision can still be appealed in the Court of Appeal.

It was previously reported that a district registry office official will be tried in Bukovina for registering a marriage without military registration documents for money. This was reported by the Chernivtsi Regional Prosecutor's Office.

We also wrote that the SAPO demands the confiscation of the property of the former head of the TCP in Kharkiv.