A Goleta man was sentenced Monday to six years in federal prison for soliciting a hitman, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.
Eugene Darryl Temkin, 51, was found guilty in an August 2011 trial of soliciting a crime of violence, attempting to interfere with interstate commerce by threats and violence, and using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder-for-hire, a news release stated.
After much planning, Temkin solicited a hitman, who was actually an undercover law enforcement officer, to murder three people — a former business associate and a Bel-Air man and his wife.
A source told authorities in 2009 that Temkin planned to hire a professional killer to murder a former business partner, a man he believed cost him millions of dollars when a plan to open a casino in Africa failed.
Undercover officers met with Temkin and he offered $30,000 to kill the victims in Spain, where he thought they were on vacation.
“What is more, these killings were only to take place after ‘Pavel’ (the hitman) first tortured the victims in order to force them to pay $15 million into defendant’s offshore bank account,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing brief.
For about 10 years before the meetings with undercover authorities posing as hitmen, Temkin had harassed and threatened the victims by hacking their email and stealing their belongings and personal information, according to the press release.
He has been held without bail since his arrest in July 2010, when he paid the undercover authorities the first installment of the $30,000.
— Noozhawk staff writer Giana Magnoli can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
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