Position: Director of the Professional College of Beauty Industry and Technologies of the city of Zhytomyr.
Sphere of corruption: education.
Region of corruption activity: Zhytomyr city.
Qualification: Part 5 of Article 191 "Obtaining someone else's property through abuse of official position"; Part 1 of Article 366 "Official forgery"; Part 4 of Article 358 "Use of a knowingly forged document".
Status: The suspect was placed under 24-hour house arrest by the court and suspended from his position.
Case story: Zhytomyr region police investigators reported suspicions against a 60-year-old director of an educational institution in organizing a scheme to illegally charge salaries from the state budget in the amount of 3 million hryvnias. In a comment to Sospil, the director of the Professional College of Beauty Industry and Technologies in Zhytomyr, Oleg Starynets, confirmed that he was the subject of the case, but said that the case was far-fetched.
Ivanna Siletska, a press officer for the Zhytomyr region police, told Suspilny that, according to the investigation, since April 2022, the director of the educational institution initiated the enrollment of at least 13 people who did not perform their duties and did not appear at their workplaces, but received a salary.
The director of the educational institution personally conducted "interviews", signed applications for employment and issued relevant orders. Employees were formally hired for the positions of production shop foreman, computer science teacher, legal advisor, methodologist and a number of others. The period of their so-called employment lasted from several months to several years. As a result, the state budget suffered losses in the amount of almost 3 million hryvnias
Anna Ostrovska, a spokeswoman for the Zhytomyr Regional Prosecutor's Office, noted that according to the investigation, the employees handed over their bank cards, to which their salaries were credited, to the director of the educational institution.
The director independently withdrew money from various ATMs in the city and disposed of it at his own discretion. During this time, he took possession of funds in the amount of more than 2 million 877 thousand hryvnias.
The director of the institution was informed of suspicion under three articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: Part 5 of Article 191 "Obtaining someone else's property by abuse of official position"; Part 1 of Article 366 "Official forgery"; Part 4 of Article 358 "Use of a knowingly forged document".
The sanction of the incriminated articles provides for a penalty of imprisonment for a term of 7 to 12 years with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for a term of up to 3 years and confiscation of property.
The court placed the suspect under 24-hour house arrest and suspended him from his position.
The pre-trial investigation into the case is being carried out with operational support from the Strategic Investigations Department of the National Police. In the photos published by the Zhytomyr region police, there is a man who visually resembles Oleg Starynets — former deputy to the former Zhytomyr city mayor Vira Sheludchenko — who currently holds the position of director of the Professional College of Beauty Industry and Technologies of the city of Zhytomyr.
In a comment to Suspilny, Oleg Starynets confirmed that the case concerns him, however, he said that he did not violate anything, and the case against him itself is fabricated.
This case really concerns me — I don’t hide it. There is suspicion, the trial is underway, I was sent under house arrest, not into custody, as law enforcement agencies wanted. I have been on vacation since February 6 — I went on vacation so as not to influence either the staff of my institution or anyone else. Today was the court, and I was suspended from my position for 60 days. The investigative actions were on January 20, but only now, after the court refused the law enforcement officers, they decided to take revenge on me by posting a photo. As for the information published by the police about me, I refute it and officially declare that I did not violate any labor, financial, or any other legislation. All of my people are officially registered, I did not force anyone to do anything. Everyone worked — some remotely, some in person. And the fact that they selected those aged 25 and over means you know what is happening in the country now. All of our employees had to pass the MMC. I could not hire them in violation of the legislation during martial law. They were all registered, they all passed the commissions, had all the appointments and went through all the procedures related to the requirements of the TCP.
Persons potentially involved in corruption schemes: being identified.
Assets: in his 2019 declaration, Starynets indicated that he owns a room in Zhytomyr, purchased in 2015, as well as an apartment in the city of Ukrainka, Kyiv region, purchased in 2009. In addition, the official owns a 2008 Mitsubishi Galant car, purchased in the same year. The declaration also states that his wife, Svitlana Mykolaivna Starynets, owns a 2019 CHERY Tiggo 8 car, purchased in 2019.
Starynets' income for 2019 amounted to UAH 298,124 in salary received at his main place of work. His wife declared UAH 232,919 in income for the same period, of which UAH 209,048 was salary in the executive committee of the Bohunsk district council of Zhytomyr, UAH 9,269 was salary in the executive committee of the Zhytomyr city council, and UAH 14,602 was insurance payments.
Persons who should have reacted: in the case of Starynets, law enforcement officers reacted in a timely manner.
Scandals: There is no information in open sources about other scandals in which Starynets would appear.
Sources:
https://public.nazk.gov.ua/documents/53e8e63f-c28c-4df6-aa34-e5cd092b865c