Kyiv police exposes illegal activities of laboratory workers who issued COVID certificates without testing

KYIV. Oct 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Metropolitan law enforcement officers stopped the illegal activities of laboratory workers who issued COVID certificates without testing, criminal proceedings have been started, the Kyiv police communications department reports.

"The Investigative Department of Kyiv Police, together with the Department of Strategic Investigations in Kyiv, exposed a scheme of illegal activities of individual laboratory workers, namely, the provision of COVID certificates with inaccurate data. For the agreed amount, for several months, the accomplices issued a medical document without actually passing the tests," the message says.

The law enforcers found that the laboratory doctor was the person who had organized a criminal scheme, looked for clients and directed the actions of the accomplices.

"In search of those wishing to receive a certificate without undergoing PCR testing, two intermediaries helped the physician, and then the price of the service depended on this – from UAH 725 to UAH 1,800 per certificate. False information about the client’s absence of coronavirus infection was entered into the database by nurses, who subsequently printed the finished document and received money for this. From three to five people applied for the service per day," Deputy Head of the Investigation Department of the Kyiv Main Police department Dmytro Shumeiko said.

During the pretrial investigation, initiated under Part 3 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, police officers conducted searches in cars, at the place of work and residence of the defendants, from where dozens of forms of COVID certificates, money, computer equipment confirming criminal activity were seized.