A man has been sentenced to three years of probation for stealing medical equipment from Washington hospitals he worked at and selling it on eBay. He was also ordered to pay $169,806 in restitution to the hospitals.
Denis Tkachuk, who had worked at hospitals in the Tri-Cities, Seattle and Olympia, Wash., began stealing and selling medical equipment on eBay in 2016, according to the Justice Department. In September 2019, he was dismissed from Providence Hospital in Olympia for stealing hundreds of thermometers, probes, finger sensors and otoscope heads. The equipment was valued at more than $108,000.
Mr. Tkachuk was a biomedical technician authorized to purchase non-capital items worth less than $5,000. In August 2019, a hospital inventory found a lot of the equipment he bought was missing. The hospital filed a police report and Mr. Tkachuk was fired.
An FDA investigation found that Mr. Tkachuk sold the products primarily to a coconspirator in Detroit, as well as five other buyers, according to the Justice Department, Photos of the equipment that he posted for sale on eBay indicated that they were stolen from Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Providence in Olympia and.Kadlec Hospital in Richland, Wash.
Mr. Tkachuk pleaded guilty to wire fraud in May. His coconspirator was also sentenced to a probationary sentence.