Goleta Man Sentenced for Murder-For-Hire Plot

Goleta resident Eugene Temkin was sentenced this week to six years in federal prison for trying to orchestrate a murder-for-hire plot that stemmed from a decade-old business dispute. After receiving a tip in late 2009, law enforcement personnel posed as professional killers and met with Temkin, who said he wanted a Bel Air man, his wife, and a business associate tortured, raped, and murdered after his business deal with them to open a casino in Africa fell apart. He told the “hit men” the victims should be forced to pay him $15 million as compensation for the losses he believed he had incurred — the funds were to be transferred to Temkin’s offshore bank account — and that he would pay them $30,000 to carry out the executions. Temkin had been held without bond since his arrest in the summer of 2010.