Illegal issuance of gold mining licenses has been stopped in the Trans-Baikal Territory

In the Trans-Baikal Territory, the activities of an organized criminal group (OCG), whose members were engaged in the illegal issuance of gold mining licenses, were identified and suppressed. This was reported on May 25 by the Investigative Committee (IC) of the Russian Federation.

"Officials whose powers included issues of subsurface use received large and especially large bribes from representatives of individual gold mining enterprises in the Trans—Baikal Territory for issuing positive expert opinions and ensuring a preferential right to obtain a license for geological exploration of the subsurface, including the search and evaluation of loose gold," the agency said in a statement.

Nine criminal cases were initiated in accordance with paragraphs "c" of Parts 5 and 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code ("Receiving a bribe on a particularly large scale"), as well as paragraphs "b" of Part 4 and Part 5 of Article 291 of the Criminal Code ("Giving a bribe on a large scale").

Corruption charges have already been brought against two officials and their intermediary. It is specified that during the investigations it was possible to identify five more defendants. All of them were taken into custody, and their property, including real estate, vehicles and money, was seized for a total amount of more than 60 million rubles.

The Public Relations Center of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia added that searches were conducted in Chita, Blagoveshchensk and St. Petersburg. During these events, 27 million rubles received from representatives of gold mining companies for their general patronage were found and seized from the attackers.

It is emphasized that the estimated value of the gold reserves discovered by criminals at the sites is 1.5 billion rubles.

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