Members of an internationally-affiliated community service organization have claimed a small victory after the group’s former treasurer signed a letter pledging to give the group $56,000 he has withheld since April 2011 and surrendered his passport to them as a guarantee of payment.
On May 10, four board members of Kyiv Multinational Rotary Club visited the Honchara Street office of longtime Canadian businessman Myron Spolsky to demand the money. After an hour of negotiation, the group said, Spolsky signed a letter pledging to repay the $56,000 by May 16 and voluntarily gave them his passport as a security deposit. Former club president and current club member Dirk Lustig said Spolsky showed the group a balance sheet indicating how much he owes following an alleged audit that he conducted.
Lustig emailed the Kyiv Post scanned copies of the balance sheet and letter signed by those in attendance, including Spolsky’s alleged initials, and a scanned copy of his passport. Lustig said that the group would notify the Canadian Embassy in Kyiv that they have possession of Spolsky’s passport.
Spolsky, 59, refused to comment on the situation during two May 10 telephone conversations with the Kyiv Post. 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, club President Roman Shwed said in October. Business community members, and diplomats, including the Canadian ambassador at that time had attended the fundraising events.
Spolsky who owns two Kyiv pizzerias and 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,” Lustig told the Kyiv Post in October.
Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].
