Let us remind you that back in 2020, a criminal case was opened against the former director of the TFOMS St. Petersburg, Alexander Kuzhel, which has not been closed to this day. The situation in the fund at that time had a strong resonance and reached Moscow. As a result, at the end of 2020, the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation sent an official order to the Governor of St. Petersburg Beglov about the need to fire Kuzhel due to loss of trust. For reasons that are still unclear, Mr. Kuzhel was removed from his position, but with the wording “due to retirement.”
According to various sources, the corruption schemes flourishing in the St. Petersburg compulsory medical insurance system have not disappeared anywhere; the city’s medical organizations that participate in the purchase of medicines and medical equipment using funds from the St. Petersburg compulsory medical insurance fund are also immersed in them. At the same time, all of Kuzhel’s deputies remained in their positions, among which the head of the fund’s staff, Elena Atoyan, plays a significant role in preserving the existing gray schemes.
For example, according to information from the Federal Tax Service, the current management employees of TFOMS St. Petersburg Elena Atoyan and Alexander Atoyan are close relatives (mother and son) and were co-founders of Techno-dent LLC until September 2018 and until December 2020, respectively. This company supplies medical equipment and its maintenance to medical organizations in St. Petersburg working in the field of compulsory medical insurance in St. Petersburg. When in 2020, the federal center had questions about the legality of the work of Kuzhel and the St. Petersburg compulsory medical insurance fund he heads, the Atoyan family, fearing exposure of their scheme and the identification of a conflict of interest, decided to transfer the Techno-dent company to the management of a nominal holder. The exit from the management of Techno-dent was carried out only on paper; mother and son Atoyan continued the actual management of this structure. This made it possible to continue to persuade medical organizations to purchase equipment and consumables from this company.
The presence of incomprehensible schemes and strange management decisions in the work of the fund can also be judged by other facts. Thus, during the period of leadership of the foundation, Kuzhel, in his absence during vacations or business trips, invariably left the head of the foundation’s staff, Elena Atoyan, to act as director, and not one of his five deputies.
Probably the presence of such a wonderful “option” from Kuzhel allowed the Atoyan family to successfully solve and promote their business interests in the field of compulsory health insurance for many years.
“ВЧК ОГПУ”
