The network of laboratories “Eskulab” plans to resume work in Kyiv and Kyiv region in the coming days after the attempted raider seizure, and to expand the network in the region to more than 100 collection points by the end of the year.
“We currently have 32 collection points in Kyiv and the region, and we plan to open another 70 by the end of the year. We will definitely return to work next week, we will stabilize the situation and start collecting biomaterial from our patients in the near future,” said Svitlana Zinchenko, the network’s chief operating officer, at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Monday.
For his part, Andriy Zborivsky, head of Eskulab’s legal department, said that during the attempts to illegally take over the company by its co-founders Stanislav Lugovskyi and Denys Melnyk, “massive and systematic violations of cash discipline and tax evasion are taking place at the biomaterial collection points.”
“We appealed to the tax authorities, and they conducted inspections based on our requests, and three violations of cash discipline were identified in two days of such inspections. The facts of the violations are being recorded and forwarded to law enforcement agencies. The perpetrators will be held accountable, including criminal liability,” he said.
He also said that the activities of Eskulab are being blocked by MZ Group, which provided IT services to Eskulab.
“MZ Group has blocked the accounts of all employees of Eskulab-Center. As a result of such actions, it became impossible to perform laboratory tests of biomaterial that was taken from thousands of patients,” he said.
Zborivsky noted that “there are facts of blocking biomaterial in the Lviv and Kyiv laboratories of the network,” and the heads of the Kyiv and Lviv laboratories concealed patients’ biomaterial.
“These illegal actions threatened the health and lives of patients, as many patients demanded immediate results. Including while in hospitals. These facts were reported to law enforcement agencies and criminal investigations were opened,” he said.
“The management of the Eskulab laboratory in the Kyiv region is taking all necessary actions to eliminate the negative consequences of such illegal actions, to resume the company’s activities and to perform laboratory tests,” he said.
Zborivsky emphasized that “the laboratory is taking all possible actions to bring the perpetrators to justice.”
In turn, Yuliana Dutko, Head of Business Intelligence at Eskulab, said that from July 19 to July 25, the laboratory’s information system was interfered with and blocked, “first of all, the accounts of Director Serhiy Dyadyushko, COO Svitlana Zinchenko, collection point employees and office staff were blocked.”
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 employees of Igor Malinowski’s MZ Group,” she said.
Dutko also said that the employees of the collection points were instructed by Stanislav Lugovskyi not to pay for the tests through the system, thus avoiding taxation. At the same time, a backup data storage was used to carry out this manipulation.
“In particular, we recorded in one of the points that the total payment for the tests amounted to more than UAH 10 thousand, while taxes were paid from UAH 210,” she said.
For his part, Serhiy Dyadyushko, director of Eskulab Center, noted that the raiders’ actions “caused the laboratory huge reputational damage, which is difficult to assess.”
“This is not just a corporate conflict. It is about the fact that patients were involved in this conflict, and this endangers their lives and health. Patients are postponing surgeries and visits to doctors because of the artificially created situation, while Luhovskyi and Melnyk are withdrawing millions of hryvnias from Eskulab in Lviv,” Dyadyushko emphasized.
As reported, at the end of July, the network of laboratories “Aesculab” suspended its activities in Kyiv due to a conflict that arose between the owner of the network, Serhiy Dyadyushko, and its co-founders, Stanislav Luhovskyi and Denys Melnyk. Ihor Malynovskyi, Luhovskyi’s cousin, acted as the administrator of the lab’s software.
The conflict between the co-founders of the Eskulab network arose in 2023, when Luhovskyi and Melnyk tried to re-register Diadiushko’s share and exclude him from the network.
Eskulab Medical Laboratory is one of the three largest private laboratories in Ukraine, contracted by the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSU). The network consists of five laboratory centers and 180 sample collection points in the western regions of Ukraine and Kyiv.
In 2023, Eskulab paid UAH 33.8 million in taxes, including UAH 14.97 million in unified social tax, UAH 1.33 million in military duty, and UAH 14.034 million in personal income tax. It is one of the ten largest taxpayers in Lviv region.
The co-founders of PE “PSML “Eskulab” are Dyadyushko, who owns 43% of the company, Luhovskyi (43%) and Melnyk (14%). The co-founders of Eskulab Center LLC are Dyadyushko, Luhovskyi and Melnyk, who each own 20% of the company, and Ruslana Soltani, who owns 40%.
Diadiushko, Hnatysh, Petrovsky, Zborivsky, Дутко, Ескулаб, Зинченко
The Eskulab laboratory chain is fulfilling its obligations, but the conflict between the owners has jeopardized the network’s development plans, said Natalia Kohut, Eskulab’s medical director.
“We fulfill 100% of the obligations we undertook in 2024 in terms of conducting trials. But the issue of interaction between the co-founders of the company, unfortunately, has suspended the dynamic growth of the network,” she said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.
Kohut said that the company planned to open 25 branches in Kyiv and Lviv region in 2024 and start expanding to the central and eastern regions of Ukraine.
“We did have such opportunities. We have already opened three laboratories outside of Lviv and Kyiv, but unfortunately, we do not have this opportunity now,” she said.
Natalia Kohut also noted that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the network has been accredited for the quality of its management system. At the same time, Eskulab provides laboratory services to more than 5,000 patients every day.
“We are conducting honest business activities, we have no financial abuses in relation to the obligations we have assumed,” she said.
For his part, Andriy Dubivka, CFO of Eskulab, noted that the possible losses of the network due to the conflict between the co-founders could be estimated at hundreds of millions of hryvnias, if not a billion.
“We are currently calculating the losses. We pay official dividends according to the reporting forms. We have set ourselves the task of making the company transparent and clean,” he said.
Andriy Dubivka clarified that at the meeting held last week, the co-founders of Eskulab did not agree on the formation of the company’s governing body, so the Management Board established by the decision of the meeting in October 2023 remains the legitimate body.
“At the meeting, the participants did not reach any agreement, as Sergiy Dyadyushko’s position was clear: the said management board is able to continue to fulfill its powers,” he said.
For his part, co-founder of the Eskulab network Serhiy Dyadyushko noted that the conflict between the co-founders arose in 2023, when co-founders Stanislav Lugovskyi and Denys Melnyk attempted to re-register Serhiy Dyadyushko’s share and remove him from the network. In addition, according to Serhiy Dyadyushko, his business partners did not support the activities of the charitable foundation Aesculab, which he had created, which, among other things, provides food, medicines and medical devices to the military.
“According to the version of the company’s charter adopted in October 2023, each of the company’s participants has a representative in the board, so there is one representative on my side and two on the side of my opponents,” he said.
As reported earlier, the Eskulab Group, which operates the Eskulab medical laboratory network (PE First Social Medical Laboratory (FSML) Eskulab and Eskulab Center LLC), announced the risks of stopping the network’s operation due to raider seizure attempts by its two co-founders Stanislav Luhovskyi and Denys Melnyk, who carried out a raider seizure and blocked Eskulab’s financial operations through their representatives in the management. In this regard, Diadiushko appealed to law enforcement agencies.
In his turn, Denys Melnyk said in a comment to Interfax-Ukraine that he and Stanislav Luhovskyi “are being removed from any management or influence on the company,” their access to their jobs has been blocked for several months, and Diadiushko “deliberately conceals the state of affairs in the financial and economic part.”
At the same time, Dyadyushko’s representative, lawyer Yuriy Petrovsky, said that the company’s shareholders are not deprived of the right to manage the company, as confirmed by the general meeting of the company’s shareholders convened by Lugovsky on April 12. At the same time, according to Melnyk, another meeting of Aesculab’s shareholders is scheduled for April 19, 2024.
He said, “as for the operational management of the company’s production processes, two participants carry out such management through their delegated representatives of the management: commercial director Roman Vysotsky and financial director Andriy Dubivka. Currently, it is Vysotskyi who is blocking the company’s operational activities.”…
Eskulab Medical Laboratory is one of the three largest private laboratories in Ukraine, contracted by the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSU). The network consists of five laboratory centers and 180 sample collection points in the western regions of Ukraine and Kyiv.
In 2023, Eskulab paid UAH 33.8 million in taxes, including UAH 14.97 million in unified social tax, UAH 1.33 million in military duty, and UAH 14.034 million in personal income tax. It is one of the ten largest taxpayers in Lviv region.
The co-founders of PE “PSML “Eskulab” are Dyadyushko, who owns 43% of the company, Luhovskyi (43%) and Melnyk (14%). The co-founders of Eskulab Center LLC are Dyadyushko, Luhovskyi and Melnyk, who each own 20% of the company, and Ruslana Soltani, who owns 40%.
Aesculab, CONFLICT, Kohut, Petrovsky, RAIDING, Дубівка, Дядюшко
