Four Arrested over Alrosa Diamond Thefts
June 26, 25
(IDEX Online) - Four people have been arrested in Moscow, accused of stealing a batch of diamonds worth RUB 1.9m (USD 22,000) from Alrosa, Russia's state-controlled miner.
Valentina Matyushchenkova, an employee who worked in the rough sorting division, her son Alexei Matyushchenkov and two Russian and Armenian citizens - Armen Petrosyan and Arman Saakyan - are accused of systematically stealing high-quality gems and replacing them with low-value industrial diamonds.
According to Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), Matyushchenkova was caught red-handed while attempting to remove a batch of stolen diamonds, weighing about 250 carats.
The diamonds were allegedly being smuggled to ADM Diamond LLC, a company in Armenia, as part of a much larger operation. ADM has denied any involvement.
Investigators found about 200,000 carats of low-grade industrial diamonds intended to replace the stolen gems, during searches of the suspects' homes.
In a statement Alrosa said: "As part of the systematic work on anti-corruption compliance and counteracting the theft, the Alrosa Security Service found signs of criminal intentions by an employee of the Unified Sales Organization.
"After conducting an internal investigation, the company's Security Council found out that being an expert of the sorting shop, an employee of Alrosa could replace precious products with lesser value for diamonds in order to further remove it outside the territory of the enterprise."
File pic of Alrosa diamonds.