Director of Mykolaiv hospital is suspected of embezzlement

The director of Mykolaiv City Hospital No. 5, Olena Terentyeva, has been officially suspected of involvement in a large-scale scheme to embezzle budget funds. The case is part of a nationwide investigation by the National Police into the misappropriation of money intended to finance healthcare.

This became known from the official website of the National Police.

Currently, 18 people are involved in the case, and about 70 searches were conducted throughout Ukraine as part of the first stage of the investigation. According to the investigation, the official, together with 17 other defendants, set up a scheme to interfere with the electronic healthcare system to artificially inflate the performance of the institution.

Law enforcement officers claim that the offenders entered data on the treatment of non-existent patients, attributed complex cases to themselves and declared fictitious palliative and neonatal care. In addition to direct misappropriation of public funds, the doctors are suspected of extortion for services that have already been paid for by the state.

The total losses from the group's activities are estimated at over UAH 100 million, and servers, financial documents and cash were seized during 70 searches across Ukraine. Despite this scale of embezzlement, Olena Terentyeva's 2024 declaration, which lists an annual salary of over UAH 1 million, two apartments, a house and six land plots, does not officially list any cash savings or bank assets.

A pre-trial investigation is currently underway under a number of articles that provide for up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property. At the same time, according to the Constitution of Ukraine, the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.

Катерина Глушко