In Kyiv, authorities uncovered a scheme in which a military-liable man was allegedly helped to obtain a fictitious Group III disability status for $10,000. Two residents of Mykolaiv, including a former member of parliament, were served with notices of suspicion. This was reported by the Office of the Prosecutor General, according to UNN.
Details
It should be noted that the agency did not name the deputy, but UNN learned from sources in law enforcement agencies that the person in question is former MP Vadym Pidberezniak.
According to the investigation, acquaintances offered a Kyiv resident “assistance” in obtaining Group III disability status. This was subsequently supposed to give him the opportunity to receive a deferment from mobilization. To this end, they planned to arrange fictitious inpatient treatment for the man and prepare forged medical certificates and doctors’ conclusions.
The prosecutor’s office notes that the former member of parliament promised to use his connections in medical institutions in Mykolaiv region to implement the scheme.
The military-liable man handed over his documents to the participants in the scheme. About two months later, he was told that he had allegedly received Group III disability status. For this “service,” the man was to pay $10,000. They agreed that the money would be handed over in installments.
During the investigation, law enforcement officers documented two transfers of funds in Kyiv—$5,000 each. Subsequently, the intermediary and the former member of parliament were served with notices of suspicion of abuse of influence committed through extortion by a group of persons acting in prior conspiracy. This concerns Part 2 of Article 28 and Part 3 of Article 369-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
The court remanded both suspects in custody while also determining the possibility of bail. For one of them, the bail amount is more than 260,000 hryvnias, and for the other
What you need to know about Vadym Pidberezniak
Vadym Pidberezniak was born on March 22, 1972, in Mykolaiv. He has a university degree and studied at Mykolaiv National Agrarian University.
Before entering “big politics,” he was engaged in business and also worked as deputy head of the Veselynove District State Administration of Mykolaiv region.
Pidberezniak’s political career was associated with several parties at once. In 2012, he ran for the Verkhovna Rada in single-member constituency No. 129 in Mykolaiv region representing Batkivshchyna, but withdrew his candidacy before election day.
In 2013, Pidberezniak became a deputy of the Mykolaiv Regional Council. Later, in 2014–2015, he worked as an adviser to the head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration.
In the 2014 parliamentary elections, Pidberezniak was included in the electoral list of the People’s Front under No. 76. He entered the Verkhovna Rada later—in December 2015—after a vacancy appeared on the party list.
In parliament, he was a member of the People’s Front parliamentary faction, and from 2017 he was a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Transport. His parliamentary powers ended on August 29, 2019.
According to civic monitoring organizations, Pidberezniak had relatively high attendance at plenary sessions, but attended meetings of the relevant committee less frequently. OPORA once counted his participation in drafting several dozen bills. At the same time, Pidberezniak did not submit any deputy inquiries. The Chesno Movement also recorded three instances of non-personal voting involving him, the so-called “button-pushing.” In addition, the organization classified the politician among the “buckwheat distributors” because of the transfer of equipment to children’s institutions.
In 2018, Pidberezniak was also included on the expanded sanctions list of the Russian Federation, which at the time included a significant number of Ukrainian politicians.
In the snap elections to the Verkhovna Rada in 2019, Pidberezniak again attempted to enter parliament. He ran as a self-nominated candidate in single-member constituency No. 132 in Mykolaiv region, but did not win a mandate.
At the end of 2019, Pidberezniak headed the Mykolaiv regional organization of the Batkivshchyna party. In 2021, the head of the party’s regional branch was replaced.
In the 2020 local elections, Pidbereznyak also ran for the Mykolaiv Regional and City Councils, but was not elected.
In the declaration filed before the end of his parliamentary term in 2019, Pidbereznyak listed as property an apartment in Mykolaiv measuring approximately 30 square meters, a share in a residential building, and a plot of land in the Mykolaiv region.
The vehicles listed in the declaration included a UAZ, a GAZelle, and a 2012 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado. He purchased the latter vehicle at the end of 2018 for approximately UAH 599,000.
For part of 2019, until the end of his term as a member of parliament, Pidbereznyak declared more than UAH 260,000 in salary from the Verkhovna Rada.
Reminder
The other day, the DBR detained a female medical worker while she was receiving US$12,000 for an operation on a healthy spine and a Military Medical Commission conclusion to secure release from service. Currency worth UAH 6.8 million was found in the apartment.