A scheme to profit from pet owners planning to travel abroad with their pets was exposed in state veterinary institutions in Kyiv, involving artificial delays in procedures and acceleration for a "reward" of 7,000 to 12,000 UAH. The heads of two veterinary clinics have been detained, reported Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko on social media, writes UNN.
Artificial queues for bribes: a scheme exposed in Kyiv's veterinary institutions. Traveling abroad with a pet is a necessity for many Ukrainians today: people are evacuating, moving families, planning relocation. In some state veterinary institutions in Kyiv, this process has been turned into a source of illegal profit. According to the investigation, the deadlines for processing documents were deliberately delayed, after which citizens were offered "acceleration" for a fee
The mechanism, according to the Prosecutor General, involved artificially delaying the chipping of animals, vaccination, and blood tests. "For such 'services,' officials received from 7,000 to 12,000 hryvnias, while the official cost of legal document processing does not exceed 2,100 hryvnias," he stated.
"Documents for animal departure were issued without actual chipping, without vaccination within the established deadlines, and without laboratory blood tests for antibody titers. Information about the performance of these actions was entered into official documents retroactively," the Prosecutor General said.
As Kravchenko reported, "26 searches were conducted in veterinary institutions of the capital, during which more than 2 million UAH, 230 thousand US dollars, 60 thousand euros, and 93 thousand Russian rubles were seized." In addition to cash, bank cards, blank forms, veterinary passports, chips, equipment, information carriers, and documentation were seized.
Currently, the involvement of at least 7 state veterinary hospitals, subordinate to the Association of Veterinary Medicine in Kyiv, and one laboratory has been established. The heads of two veterinary clinics have been detained in accordance with Article 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine
"Investigative actions are ongoing. A notice of suspicion is being prepared for the participants of the scheme. We continue to work," the Prosecutor General stated.