The network of laboratories “Eskulab” plans to resume work in Kyiv and the Kyiv region in the coming days after attempted raids, to expand the network in the region to more than 100 collection points by the end of the year.
“Now we (in Kyiv and the region – IF-U) have 32 collection points, we plan to open 70 more by the end of the year. We will definitely return to work next week, in the near future we will stabilize the situation and start collecting biomaterial from our patients” , – said operational director of the network Svitlana Zinchenko at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Monday.
In turn, Andrii Zborivskyi, the head of the legal department of “Eskulab” said that during the attempts of illegal takeover of the company by its co-founders Stanislav Luhovskyi and Denys Melnyk, “massive and systematic violations of cash discipline and tax evasion are taking place at biomaterial collection points.”
“We appealed to the tax authorities, inspections were carried out based on our appeals, three violations of cash discipline were established in two days of such inspections. The facts of offenses are recorded and transferred to law enforcement agencies. The guilty will bear responsibility, including criminal responsibility,” he said.
He also informed that the activities of the Esculab company were blocked by the MZ Group company, which provided IT services to Esculab. The MZ Group blocked the accounts of all the employees of the Esculab-Center company. As a result of such actions, it became impossible to carry out laboratory studies of biomaterial that was collected from thousands of patients,” he said.
Zborivskyi noted that “there are facts of biomaterial blocking in the network’s Lviv and Kyiv laboratories,” and the leaders of the Kyiv and Lviv laboratories hid patients’ biomaterial.
“These illegal actions caused a threat to the health and lives of patients, as many patients demanded immediate delivery of the results. In particular, during a stay in hospitals. According to these facts, appropriate appeals were made to law enforcement agencies and criminal proceedings were opened,” he said.
“The management of the Esculab laboratory in the Kyiv region is taking all necessary actions to eliminate the negative consequences of such illegal actions, restore the company’s activities and perform laboratory research,” he said.
Zborivskyi emphasized that “the laboratory takes all possible actions so that the guilty bear the responsibility established by law.”
In her turn, Yuliana Dutko, head of the business analytics department of the Esculab laboratory, clarified that from July 19 to 25, the laboratory’s information system was interfered with, blocking it, “first of all, the accounts of the director Serhii Dyadyushka, the operations director Svitlana Zinchenko, and the collection point employees were blocked and office workers”.
In addition, according to Dutko, “the partners reached the peak of their immorality and manually deleted registered orders.”
“We have confirmation that all these actions were carried out by the employees of Ihor Malinovskyi’s MZ Group,” she said.
Dutko also reported that employees of collection points received an order from Stanislav Luhovsky not to pay for tests through the system, thereby avoiding taxation. At the same time, a backup data store was used to perform this manipulation.
“In particular, we recorded in one of the points that the total payment for the analyzes amounted to more than UAH 10,000, while taxes were paid from UAH 210,” she said.
For his part, the director of “Eskulab Center” Serhiy Dyadyushko noted that the actions of the raiders “caused enormous reputational damage to the laboratory, which is difficult to assess.”
“It is not only a corporate conflict. It is about the fact that patients were involved in this conflict, and this puts their lives and health at risk. Patients are postponing operations and visits to doctors due to an artificially created situation, at this time Lugovskyi and Melnyk withdraw millions of hryvnias from “Eskulab” in Lviv,” Dyadyushko emphasized.
As reported, at the end of July the network of laboratories “Eskulab” suspended its activities in Kyiv due to the conflict that arose between the owner of the network Serhiy Dyadyushko and its co-founders – Stanislav Lugovskyi and Denys Melnyk. Luhovsky’s cousin Ihor Malinovsky acted as the administrator of the laboratory’s software.
The conflict between the co-founders of the “Eskulab” network arose in 2023, when Luhovsky and Melnyk tried to transfer Dyadyushka’s share to themselves and remove him from the network.
Esculab Medical Laboratory is one of the three largest private laboratories of Ukraine, contracted by the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSHU). The network includes five laboratory centers and 180 test collection points in the western regions of Ukraine and Kyiv.
In 2023, “Eskulab” paid UAH 33.8 million in taxes, in particular EUV – UAH 14.97 million, military duty – UAH 1.33 million, personal income tax – UAH 14.034 million. It is among the ten largest taxpayers of the Lviv region.
Dyadyushko, who owns 43% of the company, Lugovskyi (43%) and Melnyk (14%) are the co-founders of PSML “Eskulab”. The co-founders of “Eskulab Center” LLC are Dyadushko, Luhovsky and Melnyk, each of whom owns 20% of the company, as well as Ruslana Soltani, who owns 40%.
