You're reading: Rotary: Vesuvio Pizza owner in Kyiv still owes $56,000

Members of an internationally-affiliated community service organization said that the group’s former treasurer failed to fulfill his pledge to pay them $56,000 that he has withheld for 18 months by May 16, based on a letter he signed last week, a copy of which the Kyiv Post has obtained.

Longtime Canadian businessman Myron Spolsky also gave his Canadian passport as a guarantee of payment to the four members of Kyiv Multinational Rotary Club that visited his Honchara Street office in Kyiv last week to demand the money.

“It’s patently clear that he (Spolsky) doesn’t have the money, he has no credibility anymore,” said Roman Shwed, the group’s president after unsuccessfully visiting Spolsky’s office on May 16 to pick up the money as scheduled.

Spolsky, 59, was not available for comment following two unsuccessful calls the Kyiv Post placed on his cell phone on May 16.

Shwed told the Kyiv Post that instead a lady named Yana had called him on the morning of May 16 claiming to be Spolsky’s lawyer and the legal representative for Vesuvio Pizza, the name of Spolsky’s two Kyiv pizza parlors.

According to Shwed, the lady had asked for a week delay in paying the $56,000 back “in order to review the case.”

Shwed dismissed this plea as just another “bait and switch move that Spolsky has been doing for the past 18 months.”

Two Kyiv Post phone calls to Spolsky’s alleged lawyer went unanswered.

Spolsky served as the group’s treasurer from July 2009 until June 2011.

During this time, the group had raised money to purchase prenatal equipment for area hospitals, but ended up purchasing five less in September 2011 because of the alleged missing money, Shwed said in October. Business community members, and diplomats, including the Canadian ambassador at that time had attended the fundraising events.

Spolsky who has other business interests told the Kyiv Post in October 2011 that the money was being kept in a safety deposit box and that he was withholding the money because he was conducting an audit of the group’s financial activities.

Spolsky added in October that an audit was taking longer than expected because there were “thousands of entries and sub-sheets that needed to be reviewed.”

However, the group was skeptical that an audit of the group’s activities could take so long. “Our finances aren’t complicated, we appointed our own auditor who is an American ready to do this if Spolsky would show us the financial records,” said Dirk Lustig in October, the group’s former president and current member.

The club has in the past written formal complaints to the Canadian Embassy, the Canadian Business Club and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, the latter of which Spolsky represents on the Ukrainian World Coordinating Council under the Ukrainian World Congress. But Shwed says they have not gone to police yet because they still hope to get the money back.

Shwed said club members decided to go public with the allegations after failing to initially retrieve the money for eight months, despite what he says were numerous pledges from Spolsky to return the funds.

“He claims he has the money, but he’s giving countless excuses for not returning the money,” Shwed said. “As the Rotary Club, we try to find an amicable solution. He’s here. He’s not running away.”

The club’s members say they asked Spolsky to hand over records in April 2011 and all money available at the time, after he started missing regular meetings in February 2011.

Spolsky said he was frequently travelling on business until April 2011 when he began suffering from heart complications which kept him from assuming daily operations for four months. When he recovered, Spolsky said, he initiated the audit.

Shwed told the Kyiv Post that Spolsky also has not shown good faith by not initiating contact with the group. Spolsky countered that he has never avoided phone calls and could account for all his actions.

Other expatriates who live or used to live in Kyiv also say Spolsky owes them money.

Canadian Lidia Wolanskyj, the former publisher of the defunct Eastern Economist magazine, said Spolsky owes her $10,000 dating from 2003 when he purchased the magazine from her. Spolsky said he never bought the magazine because the company was in “bad shape.” But in an Oct. 16, 2003 Kyiv Post article, Spolsky acknowledged being the new owner of the magazine.

What’s On magazine’s publisher Neil Campbell told the Kyiv Post in 2011 that Spolsky had an advertising debt with the publication, but wouldn’t disclose the amount.

And a former employee who has since moved back to Canada said Spolsky owes him $4,000 in back pay.

Illarion Shulakewych said Spolsky didn’t pay him for the last four months of his IT employment. “Numerous times I asked for at least partial payment to show good will in an honest effort to pay off his debt, but nothing,” Shulakewych said in an e-mailed message.

Spolsky said that Shulakewych was working at other jobs and servicing other companies’ servers at his office so he believes he owes nothing.

There are 43 Rotary clubs in Ukraine and some 40,000 clubs worldwide.

Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].