FSB investigator sentenced to 11 years’ colony for embezzling gold worth $356k

Konstantin Kostenko in court

Konstantin Kostenko has been found guilty of Swindling on an Especially Large Scale.

The Tikhookeansky Military Court in Vladivostok has terminated the investigation of as much as four cases of material evidence replacement in relationto former Senior Investigator of the FSB Magadan Regional Directorate, Major Konstantin Kostenko, Vestim.Primorye reports. Kostenko has been sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment and a fine of 500 thousand rubles ($7,752). 

The Naval Military Court has considered the case of Kostenko in closed session, since the case file contained information constituting a state secret. According to the investigation, from December 2012 to March 2015, the major was engaged in the investigation of a number of criminal cases on the illicit trafficking of native industrial gold. It turned out that he replaced nuggets, which served as evidence in various cases, with an alloy of non-precious metals. Thus, in two years, Kostenko stole 12 kilograms of gold worth about 23 million rubles ($356,611). 

The investigation qualified the major’s actions as four episodes of Swindling on an Especially Large Scale (part 4 of Art. 159 of the Russian Criminal Code). During the investigation, Kostenko denied his guilt and claimed that the charges and evidence had been falsified. 

The investigation requested to sentence Kostenko to 10 years. Cumulatively, the court sentenced him to 11 years’ imprisonment in a correctional camp and a fine of 500 thousand rubles. In addition, the defendant will have to pay a compensation of 24 million rubles ($372,005) to the state. 

The court also reported on the violation to the FSB Magadan Regional Directorate. The Directorate was notified about the inconsistency of the chemical composition of material evidence. The head of the regional FSB will have to report to the court on the measures taken to remedy the situation within a month.

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