Vasilenko Victor

Biography

2023: Prison sentence for extortions from relatives of the dead in exchange for quick release of bodies

At the end of October 2023, the Krasnogvardeisky District Court of the city of St. Petersburg sentenced the medical examiner in the case of the historian Sokolov. The case file says that Viktor Vasilenko was convicted of organizing an express autopsy service.

According to the Kommersant newspaper, from September 2019 to January 2022, Vasilenko established in his morgue department of the Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination (BSME) a procedure for providing paid advice on thanatogenesis (dying process) in acute and chronic diseases, as well as injuries. The cost of the service was set at 6900 rubles. In 2020, Vasilenko acted as the chief medical examiner in the case of historian Oleg Sokolov, who was found guilty of the murder and dismemberment of graduate student Anastasia Yeshchenko.

GBUZ BSME of St. Petersburg

It is noted that the funds for the study of the bodies of the dead free of charge, including an inspection at the place of their detection, are included in the budget of the institution. However, in practice, the procedure for issuing the deceased for burial was lengthy due to the lack of morgue staff. Vasilenko took advantage of this situation in order to issue death certificates to the relatives of the deceased immediately on the day of appeal. At the same time, a scheme of fictitious provision of advisory services was implemented.

According to the case file, Vasilenko involved his subordinates in the fraudulent scheme. He gave an order for employees to offer citizens to conclude an agreement under which an extraordinary autopsy was carried out. At the same time, those who wanted to get a body were convinced that the procedure was legal.

The investigation established that Vasilenko unreasonably turned about 166 million rubles into BSME income, of which he personally took more than 3 million rubles. The court found him guilty of abuse of office (part 1 of article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The defendant did not deny his guilt and eventually received a one and a half year probation with a probationary period of two years.^[1]

Notes