The Economic Security Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region revealed this criminal activity. According to the gathered information, the management of Alexandrovskaya Hospital had been facilitating the illegal removal of body parts for monetary compensation for a long time.
Biological materials were handed over to private companies and used in experiments in the fields of cosmetology, surgery, and dentistry. In most cases, these were bodies of individuals who led asocial lifestyles and had no close relatives. For each operation, medical personnel received payments of up to 500,000 rubles.
Additionally, commercial entities were allowed to conduct autopsies directly in the morgue without the necessary documentation. There were recorded instances of body substitution, which was done so that relatives (in case they inquired) would not suspect the hospital management of illegal actions. As a result, criminal cases have been initiated under Articles 286, 290, and 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
As a result of the operation, the founder of a commercial organization engaged in the production of anatomical biomodels, as well as the head of the hospital's pathology department, were detained.
