Translated material
Imaginary patient
Employees of the capital's prosecutor's office were caught using fake sick leave certificates
The Moscow Department of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office (SKP), as Vremya Novostey learned, has completed an investigation into the criminal case against the former senior assistant of the Simonov interdistrict prosecutor of Moscow, junior justice adviser, 46-year-old Svetlana Sharygina. According to investigators, she forged a sick leave certificate, thus trying to hide her absenteeism. Mr. Sharygina herself denies guilt, believing that she has become a victim of fraudsters.The story of Ms. Sharygina’s fake sick leave was revealed during an inspection by the security service of the Moscow prosecutor’s office in February of this year. Having studied the document, it turned out that “in terms of the printing method and the quality of the text, it does not correspond to similar products produced by state-owned special enterprises,” in addition, it did not have the required watermarks. Also, the leadership of the prosecutor’s office was surprised that the sick leave was issued not by a departmental clinic or a clinic at Ms. Sharygina’s place of residence, but by the private medical company Medep LLC. During the inspection, Ms. Sharygina did not deny the fact of purchasing a fake sick leave, explaining that she wanted to hide the fact of her absenteeism from work by turning to a private clinic for help. As a result, the inspection materials were transferred to the Investigative Committee, and Ms. Sharygina herself, by order of the Moscow prosecutor, was dismissed from the prosecutor’s office “for absenteeism and committing an offense discrediting the honor and dignity of a prosecutor’s office employee in the form of providing a forged document.”
As the investigation established, from January 22 to February 4, 2008, Ms. Sharygina was absent from the workplace, and upon returning to work on February 5, she submitted a sick leave to the office of the Simonovskaya Prosecutor’s Office, which was then sent to the personnel department of the city prosecutor’s office for further processing. From the case materials it follows that on January 22, Ms. Sharygina contacted clinic No. 1 of the Odintsovo district hospital near Moscow. Arriving at the call, the general practitioner examined the patient, diagnosed her with ARVI and issued her a sick leave certificate, asking her to come for an appointment at the clinic in three days.
However, as investigators established, the patient did not show up to the doctor, calling him to the house again. Since the patient’s temperature persisted, the doctor extended her sick leave until February 1 inclusive. Moreover, the prosecutor was supposed to go to work the next day. Since February 2 and 3 were holidays, Ms. Sharygina was scheduled to appear at the prosecutor's office on Monday, February 4. But she came to work only a day later, on the 5th.
Why this happened formally remains a mystery. But, based on Ms. Sharygina’s initial explanations, the investigation believes that, fearing disciplinary action for absenteeism, she telephoned Medep, after which a woman came to her home, introducing herself as neurologist Zakharova. After examining the patient and prescribing sedatives, Zakharova allegedly said that she would issue a sick leave later, and for the convenience of receiving it, she could meet with the company’s courier, who would pay 2.5 thousand rubles. will deliver it at the appointed place. It was this sick leave that Ms. Sharygina presented to management.
Investigators found out that the Medep company really exists, but the “neurologist Zakharova” was never listed in it, and they had never heard of Mr. Sharygina there. After this, the assistant prosecutor put forward a new version - that she did not know that the sick leave was fake, and therefore, they say, she herself became a victim of swindlers. But the investigation considered these statements to be false, aimed at avoiding criminal liability and misleading the investigation.
During the investigation of this case, it turned out that a similar story happened to another employee of the prosecutor's office. In March, Roman Krasovsky, inspector of the department for reviewing letters and appeals from citizens of the Moscow Prosecutor's Office, was also absent from his workplace for a long time without a valid reason, and upon returning, he presented to the personnel department of the city Prosecutor's Office a similar fake sick leave, also allegedly received from the Medep company. From his explanations it followed that he also contacted this company by phone, sending his details via SMS and indicating the period during which he was supposedly ill. Then he met the courier near the Novokuznetskaya metro station and, having given him 2 thousand rubles, received an envelope containing a fake sick leave certificate issued on behalf of the doctor Koneva.
As a result, Mr. Krasovsky was also fired, and based on this fact, the capital’s SKP also opened a case against Mr. Krasovsky under Art. 327-3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (use of a knowingly forged document).