Choha Natalia

Biography

2024: Detention in the case of embezzlement of ₽344 million budget funds

In early October 2024, the Kuibyshevsky District Court of St. Petersburg ruled to detain several employees of City Hospital No. 20 as part of an investigation into a large-scale fraud case. The suspects are charged with embezzlement of more than ₽344 million budget funds from January 2021 to June 2024.

According to Kommersant, among those arrested are Olga Yakovleva, chief accountant of the hospital, Natalia Chokha, deputy chief physician for economic affairs, Inna Koval, head of the legal department, and other employees of the medical institution. The investigation believes that the accused organized a scheme of fictitious employment of relatives and acquaintances who were paid wages for actually not performed work.

source = Prosecutor's Office of St. Petersburg

According to the city prosecutor's office, the suspects entered false information in time sheets, payroll sheets and other documents, which were then submitted to the St. Petersburg Finance Committee to justify payments. Among the fictitious employed persons were relatives of high-ranking hospital employees.

Most of the detainees, with the exception of Natalia Chokha and Olga Yakovleva, who took advantage of the right not to testify against themselves, admitted the fact of receiving payments without fulfilling their labor duties. The investigation claims that the stolen funds were used to purchase luxury cars, real estate in Moscow, including in the Moscow-City complex, as well as for recreation abroad.

The investigation affected not only the immediate staff of the hospital, but also their relatives. So, the daughter of the chief accountant Ksenia Kosukhina, who was listed as an accountant for financial accounting, was placed in custody.

The chief physician of the hospital, Tatyana Surovtseva, who has headed the institution since 2006, was not detained. Earlier, information appeared in the media about her alleged departure to Turkey, which she denied in an interview with reporters, citing health problems.

The investigation into this case is ongoing.^[1]

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