Man charged with sinking and destroying boat in Lake Ontario near Greece

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Ukrainian national living in Rochester is facing charges for sinking and destroying a boat a year ago in Lake Ontario near Greece.

News10NBC reported on pieces of a power boat washing ashore along Edgemere Drive in Greece. On Thursday, U.S. attorneys announced that Vyacheslav Migitskiy, 33, is accused of sinking that boat.

U.S. attorneys say there was no one on the boat but the search and rescue efforts cost more than $15,000. Migitskiy is charged with destruction of a vessel, making a false statement, and sinking of a vessel in a navigable channel.

The U.S. Coast Guard got a report on Aug. 26, 2022 from a local mariner who saw a 1987 25’ Bayliner boat. That’s when the Coast Guard began a search and rescue mission, eventually determining that no one was on the boat.

The search efforts cost the Coast Guard more than $14,000 and cost New York State Police more than $1,200 on a rescue helicopter.

Coast Guard members determined that the propellers and boat plug were missing and all electronics were removed. An investigation traced the boat to Migitskiy, who claimed he had given the boat to strangers two weeks before it sank.

According to U.S. attorneys, a witness and a review of surveillance video indicate that Migitskiy towed the boat out to Lake Ontario with a different boat, then left it there.

The charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Migitskiy appeared before a U.S. magistrate judge on Thursday and was released.

The investigation into the sunken boat was a collaboration between the Coast Guard, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, State Police, the Rochester Fire Department, Irondequoit Police, and Greece Police.