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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
#шкварки_дня🔥🔥🔥
“Funeral mafia” is an informal criminalized network in the funeral services sector that illegally profits from the grief of relatives of the deceased. Representatives of such structures buy personal data about people’s deaths from police officers or morgue staff in order to be the first to push their services on families.
Recently, well-known blogger Vasyl Tymoshenko interviewed Pavliukovych Oleksandr.
Pavliukovych Oleksandr Vasylovych is a well-known forensic medical expert in Chernivtsi, a Candidate of Medical Sciences, and an associate professor.
He owns a pharmacy business, businesses in the food service sector, and rental real estate.
It should be noted that such an interview should invite former, not current, employees, although, as is known, people do not resign from such a position. Pavliukovych teaches at the university and engages in many other activities, yet he would never say that his main job is closely connected with corruption in the city’s law enforcement agencies and corruption in the forensic medical institution where he works.
On the premises of the Chernivtsi forensic medical institution at the address: Kyshynivska St., 2 Chernivtsi, there is a private funeral bureau RITUAL EXPRESS. Nearby there is another branch — the Trading House “Ritual” at the address: Kyshynivska St., 2A. It is precisely the proximity to the forensic morgue that makes this location a key business hub.
The owner of this bureau is Pavliukovych’s associate, a former personnel officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and ex-police officer of Chernivtsi region, Kuznetsov Serhiy Stepanovych.
The funeral services sector, especially the part connected with the forensic morgue where criminal and sudden deaths are brought, is closely intertwined with the work of the police. Investigators, district inspectors, and patrol officers are the first to arrive at a death scene and call special transport. The law enforcement system quietly wrested this business away from family doctors who previously cooperated with such agencies.
Serhiy Kuznetsov previously worked for many years in law enforcement, in particular holding the position of deputy head of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Chernivtsi region (retired police lieutenant colonel).
How the scheme works:
1. Leak of Ministry of Internal Affairs databases
Agents of “Ritual” learn about a person’s death sooner than their relatives. Residents of Chernivtsi write: “You only called the police to report a death — after 10 minutes an agent from Kyshynivska is already on the doorstep.” The agency pays current duty officers 102 for information. When someone reports a relative’s death, they give the duty line operator 102 their mobile phone. Agents of “Ritual” later call that number.
2. Creating artificial queues in the morgue:
If relatives refuse to order an expensive comprehensive funeral from the Trading House “Ritual” and want to hire another firm, they begin to have “obstacles put in their way” when retrieving the body from the state forensic morgue. For example, they delay signing certificates or conducting autopsies, citing a “long queue,” while “Ritual” clients are served out of turn.
3. Psychological pressure right next to the forensic medical institution:
When a person is in shock near the document window of the forensic medical institution, private agents seize them and literally force them into their office next door. Because people do not know their rights, they are pushed into purchasing the most expensive services and accessories, being told that without them “the morgue will not release the body.”
The price of services for citizens depends on the appearance and financial situation of the family. The agency “Ritual” favors VIP clients, where the cost of Premium services is 300 000 hryvnias and up, not including a burial plot. Repatriation of a body from abroad is from 2000 dollars and up, depending on the country.
Serhiy Kuznetsov has also controlled key cemeteries in the city for more than 20 years. He is not a public figure.
If the presented facts regarding the transfer of personal data, the creation of obstacles to obtaining bodies, and the provision of preferences to certain funeral enterprises are confirmed, this would no longer be merely competition in the funeral services market, but a possible corrupt model in which the state forensic medical system and law enforcement connections are used to control the flow of potential clients.
