Gang headed by police lieutenant colonel convicted over embezzling 40 kg gold ore concentrate
IRKUTSK. Feb 11 (Interfax) - The Bodaybo municipal court of the Irkutsk region has sentenced members of the gang organized by high-level police officials, which embezzled gold from the Vysochayshy mining and processing plant, the press office of the Russian Investigative Committee investigative department for the Irkutsk region said in a statement on Tuesday.
Investigators and court have established that in March 2011 Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Pankov, while heading the police investigative department in the town of Bodaybo, and businessman Nikolai Zelentsov created a criminal group of seven people in order to steal gold.
"Gang members, working as guards at the gold mining enterprises, stole gold ore concentrate regularly and then sold it to second-hand dealers," the document said.
Pankov has been sentenced to five years and six months and Zelentsov to four years and six months in a general regime colony.
"Suspended sentences have been returned to the other gang members," the statement said.
The suspects were detained in May 2012.
