ALROSA employee detained for stealing 500 diamonds

MOSCOW, Jun 10 (PRIME) -- Russia’s law enforcement authorities have detained Yelena Kanunnikova, an employee of raw diamond mining giant ALROSA, and two alleged accomplices for stealing over 500 raw and cut diamonds worth millions of U.S. dollars, the Investigative Committee’s official representative Svetlana Petrenko told reporters on Monday.

“According to the investigators’ opinion, the criminal group stole and then sold high-quality diamonds from ALROSA on a regular basis,” she said.

The committee and the Federal Security Service caught the supposed criminals in the act on June 6 while they attempted to thieve over 22 million rubles of diamonds.

The investigators found around 500 uncut diamonds with a total weight of 2,000 carats and 11 cut diamonds totally worth $3 million at the persons’ hiding place. They also found over $2 million and 500,000 euros in cash and “expansive jewelry products of popular international brands including over 30 jeweled watches.”

ALROSA confirmed the information in a statement.

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