THE GODFARMER

April 30, 2018, 7:07 am

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Russian mafia ‘is using scheme meant for UK farmers to launder £60bn of dirty money’

By David Wooding, Sunday Political Editor

RUSSIAN mobsters have used a business scheme for British farmers to launder £60billion of dirty money, it is claimed.

The gangs are accused of exploiting a project set up 100 years ago to move cash undetected and finance criminal activities.

Russian gangs are accused of exploiting 100-year-old project

The racket was uncovered when the Government launched a probe following the nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in March.

They found just five frontmen were behind more than half of the 6,800 investments made in Scottish Limited Partnerships in the 18 months to May 2017.

Further inquiries showed that 17,000 opaque shell companies using the scheme were registered at only ten addresses.

These companies exist only on paper and have no office or employees but can hold investments.

A business scheme for British farmers to launder £60billion of dirty money was uncovered in the wake of the Salisbury nerve agent attack

New laws are being drafted to stop international crooks infiltrating the scheme which is used fairly by thousands of UK firms.

Future users will be required to have a real link with Britain and do business — or at least have an address — in Scotland.

Business minister Andrew Griffiths said: “The UK has taken a leading role in the fight against money laundering.

“As we are seeing with Scottish Limited Partnerships they are being abused to carry out all crimes abroad, from money laundering to arms dealing.

"This cannot continue to go unchecked.”

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The Tragedy of the Age-Old Kremlin-Vor Alliance (Op-ed)

April 30, 2018, 7:07 am

≫ Next: The Russian Mob

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From Stalin to Putin, the Kremlin's mutually beneficial ties to Russian gangsters go way back.

The current geopolitical tussle between Russia and the West has impoverished our debate. Too often, it replaces nuanced understanding with snappy and snarky sound bites.

One example is the description of Russia as a “mafia state.” As if that can encapsulate the complex, sometimes hostile or cooperative relationship between Russia’s rulers, spooks, population and gangsters. Nonetheless, since 2014, the ties between mafia and state have certainly become closer.

For generations, there has been an unusually close connection between the underworld and "upperworld" powers. Stalin carried out bank robberies and piracy with mobsters such as the infamous Simon Ter-Petrossian — or “Kamo,” as he went by in criminal and revolutionary circles — in part to raise funds for the Bolshevik revolution.

The Cheka political police recruited bandits, and later Stalin would coopt vory — “thieves,” members of the professional criminal subculture — to be the enforcers, foremen and even guards of the Gulag slave-labour camps.

In the twilight years of the Soviet Union, organized crime was part of the connective tissue holding corrupt Party officials and the barons of the black market together. And in the anarchy of the 1990s, the distinctions between mobsters, entrepreneurs and officials were often more theoretical than real.

Of course, when the little-known Vladimir Putin was campaigning for the presidency in 1999-2000, he promised law and order, and many believed him. I spoke to one vor who took to keeping a packed suitcase under his bed in case he had suddenly to head to the airport ahead of an arrest warrant.

But he never had to.

In hindsight, given Putin’s crucial role in the St. Petersburg mayor’s office as its ambassador to the city’s underworld, and the powerful Tambovskaya crime group in particular, we should not have expected him necessarily to take on the gangsters.

Instead, he domesticated them. The word went out, routinely communicated through earnest conversations between criminals and the police officers meant to arrest them, that there was a new social contract.

Criminals could continue to be criminals; the police would continue to police them. But if at any point the vory looked as if they were posing any challenge to the state, then they would be treated as enemies, and life would get very hard. The criminals adjusted very quickly to this new world, one in which the state had reaffirmed its status as the biggest gang in town.

During the Second Chechen War, the Chechen gangs across Russia largely abandoned Chechnya to its fate. And more generally, the indiscriminate car bombings and drive-by shootings, such a feature of the wild 90s, and symbols of a state unable to control its streets, ended.

Occasionally, individuals were deemed to have become too big for their boots or embarrassingly prominent, such as Tambovskaya kingpin Vladimir Barsukov (Kumarin) or Said Amirov (Said the Undying) the notorious mayor of Makhachkala. Then the state would swoop in with deliberate overkill, commandos leaping from helicopters to a chorus of sirens, in a piece of law-enforcement theater to remind everyone of the power of the state. The state did not seem to consider organized crime a priority, so long as it knew its place.

Over years of talking to Russian police officers and investigators, I have been heartened and impressed by the number who clearly wanted to do their jobs. They may take a small bribe for a small service here, turn a blind eye to a minor infraction there. Ultimately, though, many wanted to tackle the gangsters.

But the corruption still to endemic in the state, and the tight links between criminal, business and political elites, especially at the local level, mean that the major criminals are, unless they arouse the ire of someone higher up the pecking order, pretty much untouchable.

As a result, many of the law enforcers confine themselves to targeting middle-ranking criminals, whom they at least have a chance of convicting, rather than major players who are safe beneath their krysha, their protective roof of corrupt favors and mutual assistance.

Until 2014, the relationship between the Kremlin and the kleptocratic Russian elite on one hand, and the gangsters on the other, seemed to be getting more tenuous. Putin might still occasionally use some underworld slang to demonstrate his tough-guy credentials, but the days when senior figures of the business and political elite would openly hobnob with gangsters had largely passed. Furthermore, the vory had lost their old, gulag-chic identifiers of tattoos and leather. They were becoming a new breed of white-collar gangster-businessman.

The new age of geopolitical tension may be reversing that trend and bringing Kremlin and crooks closer together again. In his bid to make an impoverished Russia punch like a great power, Putin has created what I call a mobilization state.

This is not totalitarianism. There is still independent business, free journalism and civil society. But аt any time they may be asked — and in Godfather style, this is a request that cannot be refused — for favors in the name of the state. This also applies to the gangsters.

We have seen hackers pressed into service as footsoldiers of cyberwar and espionage. Gangsters charged with assassinating Chechen fundraisers in Turkey. Smugglers “taxed” to provide secret funds for political operations in Europe. The list goes on, as once again the Kremlin turns to criminals as instruments of its rule.

This is not a “mafia state” with its implication that either the gangsters run the government, or that the government controls the underworld.

Instead, it is simply the latest example of the corrosive way that successive regimes have tried to use organized crime as a tool of statecraft, not realizing — or perhaps not caringm — how much the vory have gained from this pernicious alliance.

Prof. Mark Galeotti is a senior researcher at the Institute of International Relations Prague and the author of the new book “The Vory: Russia’s Super Mafia.” The views and opinions expressed in opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the position of The Moscow Times.

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The Russian Mob

April 30, 2018, 7:41 am

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Inconvenient doc

May 3, 2018, 11:56 am

≫ Next: Notorious Russian mobster says he just wants to go home

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St. Petersburg police are seeking the whereabouts in the United States of Dozhd TV news channel editor Roman Badanin in connection with a film linking a Russian businessman suspected of mafia connections with President Vladimir Putin.

Police opened a slander investigation against the liberal-leaning channel late last year for airing a documentary claiming that businessman Ilya Traber is “the only living kingpin who Putin has admitted to knowing.”

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Notorious Russian mobster says he just wants to go home

May 3, 2018, 12:01 pm

≫ Next: The long arm of the Russian super mafia

≪ Previous: Inconvenient doc

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK (AP) — New York's most notorious living Russian mobster just wants to go back to the motherland.

Once flush from heroin trafficking, tax fraud schemes and other criminal enterprises, Boris Nayfeld is now 70, fresh out of prison for the third time, divorced and broke. And he is left with few job prospects in his adopted country, at least those in line with his experiences.

"I can't do nothing," Nayfeld griped in a thick Russian accent between shots of vodka at a restaurant a few blocks north of Brooklyn's Brighton Beach neighborhood, which has been a haven for immigrants from the former Soviet Union since the 1970s. "Give me a chance to start a new life."

Nayfeld, who still sports the shaved head, piercing eyes and tattooed, burly physique that made him an intimidating figure in the city's Russian-speaking neighborhoods for decades, told The Associated Press he longs to move back to a homeland where his skill set connecting businesspeople of all stripes will yield better dividends.

But for now he is not allowed to leave, still facing three years' probation from his latest prison term, which ended in October, a two-year stint for his role in a murder-for-hire plot that morphed into an extortion attempt.

"I lost everything," Nayfeld grumbled over a multi-course meal capped with a meringue dessert called the Pavlova. "I lost job, I lost my time for stay in prison. I lost my wife. This is enough punish for me."

Living straight is a new experience for Nayfeld, who first came to the U.S. from Belarus in the late 1970s with a wave of Jewish emigres from the former Soviet Union who said they were fleeing religious persecution. But by his own admission, Nayfeld got into crime as soon as he arrived to the U.S.

Over his career, Nayfeld, also known as Biba, has been convicted of fraud, tobacco smuggling and shipping heroin stashed in TVs from Thailand via Poland. He has publicly threatened to kill rivals and escaped one attempt on his life when a bomb placed under his car failed to detonate.

In 1986, Nayfeld was shot in the hand when gunmen with automatic weapons burst into an office where he ran a lucrative gasoline tax-skimming scheme, killing a friend and fellow criminal named Elia Zeltzer, after whom his son, Eli, is now named. And he was at the scene a year earlier when the feared Russian godfather Evsei Agron was assassinated.

Boris Nayfeld poses for a picture at the Russian Baths in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. New York's most notorious living Russian mobster wants to go back to the motherland. Recently released from his third stint in prison, this time for his role in a murder-for-hire plot turned extortion attempt, Nayfeld is divorced, broke and discouraged about his job prospects. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Nayfeld, who was dubbed an "organizer, enforcer and narcotics distributor" for the Russian mafia in a 1997 U.S. Customs intelligence report, said he has no regrets about his life of crime.

"Never. No. When I'm born again, I do it the same," he said.

At his sentencing last July, an assistant U.S. attorney told a federal judge that while Nayfeld has "for most of his adult life been in Russian organized crime," and effectively traded on his reputation to extract payment from a wealthy Russian-born shipping magnate going through a bitter divorce, he's not actually that scary anymore.

"And so I think perhaps we are at a moment where the reinforcing cycle of the myth of Boris Nayfeld has probably reached its end," said the prosecutor, Andrew Thomas.

That remains to be seen, said Judge Katherine Forrest, who imposed the lighter sentence with "some discomfort" based on the government's recommendation, according to a transcript of the proceeding.

For his part, the burly Nayfeld said he is determined not to return to prison. Getting by on a $750-a-month Social Security check, he said he is avoiding most of the locations where former associates and criminals from a younger generation of Russians gather — except, that is, for the bathhouse.

He has decided to once again trade in on his reputation, shopping his life rights to production companies considering a reality TV show featuring past players from the Russian criminal underworld, according to his son, Eli Kiperman.

In many ways, the Brooklyn that Nayfeld has returned to doesn't resemble the rough-and-tumble streets he once roamed, when crime, especially violent crime, among Russian immigrants in New York hit historic highs in the early 1990s. Back then, warring outfits of Russian crooks littered the streets with bodies.

Still, said Seva Kaplan, a Russia-born radio host who struck up an unlikely friendship with Nayfeld years after the now-aging gangster threatened to kill him at the request of a mutual acquaintance, Russian criminals today run a range of enterprises throughout New York, including moneymaking Medicaid and credit card fraud rings, as well as traditional protection rackets, gambling and prostitution operations.

After the infamous mob boss Agron was killed, Nayfeld served as a bodyguard and chauffer for the next don of the Russian mob, Marat Balagula.

Balagula maintained an office at the El Caribe Country Club, a Brooklyn catering hall and event space owned by the uncle of President Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.

The uncle, Dr. Morton Levine, said that all his nieces and nephews have an ownership in the company, but that Cohen "gave up his stake," after Trump was elected.

Nayfeld is a Trump supporter, and believes the special counsel investigation into the Trump campaign's contact with Russia, and the nonstop news coverage about it, is over the top and counterproductive to U.S.-Russian relations.

Trump "is a businessman, he don't care who give him money for project," Nayfeld said. "I'm the same."

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The long arm of the Russian super mafia

May 3, 2018, 12:07 pm

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Legalised crime has been established in Russia for over a century. But the kickbacks for Putin’s cronies are on the scale of billions

Mark Galeotti’s study of Russian organised crime, the product of three decades of academic research and consultancy work, is more than timely. In these days of ever more bizarre Russian attacks, it reads like the essential companion to a bewildering and aggressive new world, a world that is no longer confined behind Russian borders but seeks actively to penetrate and disrupt our own society. Essentially a history of the development of Russia’s unique form of organised crime, it constantly illuminates and clarifies the familiar, legal narrative of Russian history and the attitudes of Putin’s clique.

The Russian mafia’s distinctive culture originally emerged during the years of revolution and civil war. The collapse of the state created a vacuum for brutal criminal gangs that operated according to their own rules of honour, with their own hierarchy, language and agreements. Thieves (vory) were tattooed with symbols denoting their rank and their experiences and ‘lying tattoos’ could be forcibly removed. Betrayal of the code was answerable by death and in those early years the greatest betrayal was to collaborate with the state in any way at all. Leaders were given the title vory v zakone, thieves-in-law, for their faithful adherence to the criminal life.

Of all Stalin’s toxic inheritance, perhaps his most lethal, in retrospect, was his policy of co-opting the vory as servants of the state. With millions of helpless non-criminals flooding into the camps, the Party needed assistance, and the professional criminals provided it, terrorising the ‘politicals’ in return for a comfortable life in jail. According to the old-style lore this was collaboration, but it was too profitable for many to turn down. Varlam Shalamov, in his Kolyma Tales, wrote that the culture of the professional criminals defined life in the Gulag. The millions that passed through the camps and back into society carried vor culture into every area of Russian life.

The stagnation of the 1970s created the ideal conditions for organised crime to flourish. Corrupt politicians, black market entrepreneurs and criminal gangs worked together to compensate for the failings of the planned economy. As in America in the 1930s, Gorbachev’s well-meaning but ill-planned attempt at prohibition had an explosive effect on gang activity, but it was not until Yeltsin came to power that organised crime had its finest hour.

The chaotic 1990s, like the revolutionary years, proved the perfect incubator for crime. On one hand the gangsters provided ‘security’ to business in the absence of a functioning state; on the other they expanded ever further into business and politics themselves, with accompanying, and very public, bloodshed. In 2000 the Russian electorate, terrified by the bloody and chaotic world they now inhabited, turned with relief to Putin’s promises of stability and authority.

Behind the scenes, however, Putin came to a similar arrangement with the vory as he had with the oligarchs. Galeotti quotes a gangster being briefed to this effect by a police officer: ‘Times had changed, but it need not be a problem. We just had to be cooler, smarter, and everything would be fine.’ And Putin’s circle, of course, claims its kickbacks too — not just in the form of cash, although these are reportedly on the scale of billions, but in deed, too.

Since the invasion of Ukraine and Western sanctions, Russia is being run increasingly on a war footing, with every element of society expected to step up and prove its patriotism. Even crime bosses may find themselves pressed into service for their country. Galeotti lists examples of ‘Russian-based organised crime’ acting to further Russia’s increasingly aggressive foreign policy, which include cyber-crime, the movement of people and goods, and assassinations. With 14 suspicious deaths of Russians in the UK now under examination, it seems entirely possible that some at least may have vor prints upon them.

These days the old-style vory v zakone with their quaint tattoos and ideas about non-collaboration are little more than a trope in contemporary Russian cinema. A new type of criminal now rules, known as the avtoritet – what you might call a ‘McMafia’ businessman, as comfortable in Kensington and Monaco as Moscow, who puts his business acumen to work on a range of legitimate, ‘grey’ and thoroughly criminal concerns. Just as chic, well-educated and fluent in English as any legitimate Russian businessman, and with finances hidden behind dozens of shield companies, it’s not easy even for experts to identify the vory these days.

Yet as one Russian asks Galeotti: ‘Why do you in Britain hate our mafia in Russia but love them at home?’ As long as we allow gangsters to invest and flourish in Britain, we not only fund, but validate their existence in Russia. Theresa May has galvanised the international community to protest Russia’s criminal behaviour; now she must punish the vory financially.

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Battle for crime lord title

May 9, 2018, 8:24 am

≫ Next: Russian crime lord Shakro Molodoy's case is full of legal knots

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Eduard Asatryan (Edik Osetrina)

Shishkan to become crime lord No. 1 after Shakro Molodoy’s convictionOsetrina to create influential clan from among his former enemies"Boss of all bosses" of Russian mafia Shakro Molodoy sentenced to almost 10 years

Edik Osetrina is the first person who wants to challenge the Shakro’s title.

At that moment, while crime lord Zakhar Kalashov (Shakro Molodoy) has not even been escorted to the colony, new leaders of his clan have already appeared. Kingpin Eduard Asatryan (Edik Osetrina) could oppress Kalashov in the Krasnodar Territory and the Rostov region. As Rosbalt reports, he already found support from Ded Hasan’s allies.

According to the source of the agency, Asatryan, who left the race for the title of crime lord, recently established ties in the Donbass. However, he recently returned to Russia and demonstrated his special status, traveling around Moscow on the armored Mercedes-Benz S-class of the latest generation, accompanied by cars with security.

Osetrina managed to get close to criminal general Vagif Suleymanov (Vagif Bakinsky) and nephew of Ded Hasan Dmitry Chanturia (Miron). He also has good relationship with kingpin Oleg Shishkanov (Shishkan), who is replacing Shakro now. Shishkan does not spread this information

According to sources of Rosbalt, three closest to Kalashov's mobs, with whom he has ties - David Ozmanov (Dato Krasnodarsky), Nodar Asoyan (Nodar Rustavsky) and Shalva Ozmanov (Kuso) – face attacks from Osetrina. Asatryan's representatives began to visit the businessmen of the Krasnodar Territory and the Rostov region controlled by them, mainly ethnic Armenians and Greeks, explaining that they should abandon their current patrons and acquire new ones in the person of Osetrina. Several times it almost came to the point of "disassembly."

According to the interlocutors of the agency, the current situation does not mean the beginning of the conflict: Osetrina only puts feelers out and is waiting for the information about the conditions under which Kalashov will be kept (at the moment he is still in Lefortovo). If he is completely isolated from any communication, then Asatryan launch a real criminal war.

It is worth noting that at one time Osetrina was actually a right hand of Ded Hasan. However, later he fell into disgrace with Usoyan. Officially, the conflict allegedly occurred because of some kingpins. However, according to other sources, he fell out of favor precisely because of his activity in the Kuban and the Rostov region.

At the end of March the Nikulinsky District Court of Moscow sentenced Zakhar Kalashov to 9 years and 10 months of strict regime on charges of extortion of 8 million rubles ($126.600) from the owner of the Elements restaurant on Rochdelskaya Street.

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Russian crime lord Shakro Molodoy's case is full of legal knots

May 19, 2018, 6:43 am

≫ Next: Businesswoman of Ukrainian and Russian origin stabbed to death in Montenegro

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Moscow's deputy prosecutor Vladimir Vedernikov addressed to the Presidium of the Moscow City Court asking to declare an arrest of thief in law Zakhar Kalashov (Shakro Molodoy) illegal. Two of his accomplices, Herson Hamidov and Nikolay Nikolaev, are also mentioned in the appeal. In the summer of 2017, their arrest was prolonged by three months. In the cassation, the deputy prosecutor of Moscow asked to cancel two relevant judicial acts: the decision of the Tversky court dated June 15 and the Moscow City Court on June 30.

The reason for the appeal of the Prosecutor's Office was the difference in the accusatory theory, which was brought to the defendants. For example, the documents listed different initials of some of the accused, car plates; moreover, in the first case the deceased persons, Filip Domaskin and Alexey Kitaev, were called participants in the criminal community, and in the final case - participants in the criminal group. In addition, new wording appeared in the indictment - "unidentified accomplices" and "especially large-scale extortion," as well as the date of the commission of criminal acts committed by defendant Prokhorov against injured Lev Garamov, which was not mentioned in first version case. The Prosecutor's Office believes that the courts did not have the essential information when the accused was arrested. The hearing on this issue will be held on May 18.

However, this unexpected insight of the Prosecutor's Office aroused suspicion among lawyers of Kalashov. According to Business FM, the agency wants to deprive kingpin's defense one of the essential arguments and conceals the apparent falsification. After all, the defense raised the issue of returning the case to the prosecutor even during the trial, having counted at least 14 discrepancies in the case. However, the investigators promptly "edited" the prosecution instead of re-submitting it to the defendants, and the court, in turn, rejected the relevant petitions.

Defendants are waiting for an appeal in the Moscow City Court, which may be followed by the Supreme Court of Russia, where the judges can not turn a blind eye on the violations committed. "This is a serious argument in favor of the cancellation of the verdict, they want to hide it," the lawyer says.

At the same time, Gofshtein admits that a number of errors were indeed of a technical nature, but at least four of them are of fundamental importance, for example, the appearance of "unidentified accomplices", as well as the commission of a crime within the "criminal community", and it is a significant change in the charge. "On one page, the investigation writes one charge, and on the other - another. So how should a person defend himself?", Gofshtein states.

The accusation has irreparable internal contradictions, and the verdict handed down in such circumstances is subject to cancellation.

Recall, the Nikulinsky Court of Moscow found more than ten defendants, including Shakro Molodoy, guilty of two episodes of Extortion (part 3 of Article 163 of the Criminal Code) in 2015-2016 years: 8 million rubles from owner of the Elements restaurant on Rochdelskaya Street in Moscow Zhanna Kim and 10 million rubles from businessman Lev Garamov. The thief in law was sentenced to 9 years and 10 months imprisonment in a strict regime colony.

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Businesswoman of Ukrainian and Russian origin stabbed to death in Montenegro

May 19, 2018, 7:20 am

≫ Next: Pop singer Grigory Leps denied entry to Israel over mafia ties

≪ Previous: Russian crime lord Shakro Molodoy's case is full of legal knots

Police of the resort city of Kotor, Montenegro, are investigating the murder of a Ukrainian and Russian citizen Anastasiya Lashmanova, whose fortune exceeded a hundred million euros.

According to police, the corpse of the foreign woman with traces of violence, including stab wounds, was discovered in an apartment at her place of residence, Vijesti informs. Presumably, the hotelier woman could be killed during the robbery of her apartment. According to another version, she was slain by a friend.

Lashmanova was the Director of Mimoza group and Sea trade companies. The latter bought the famous Mimoza hotel in the center of Tivat three years ago and finished building a new hotel complex in this place. The Ukrainian entrepreneur was also the owner of elite complex LaPerla, located next to marina (parking point of yachts) Porto Montenegro in Tivat. Besides, she owned Fatalna beauty salon, located in the prestigious apart-hotel Tre Canne in Budva, according to Evropeyskaya Pravda.

Lashmanova's companies were involved in construction activities in the resort of Kamenari and on the beach of Ponta Seljanova (Tivat). Lashmanova's assets are estimated at 105 million euros, pens FOS.

Resorts as ‘laundries’ for Russians

Anastasiya Lashmanova came to Montenegro several years ago. She had a Russian passport and at first, worked as a waitress. The press also provides unofficial information that businessman Valery Zadorin is behind the assets of Lashmanova. He is the owner of Russian company Aroma (Aromatic World) - one of the largest firms for the sale of luxury goods, as well as alcoholic beverages. Valery Zadorin's partner is his brother Pavel.

Valery and Pavel Zadorin were born in Kyrgyzstan and are the nephews of a former high-ranking policeman, then St. Petersburg crime lord Leb Cherepov dubbed Cherep (Skull), wrote The Moscow Post. Cherep had joint projects with Tayvanchik (Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov), Yaponchik(Vyacheslav Ivankov), Otarik (Otari Kvantrishvili), representatives of Solntsevskaya and Izmaylovskaya gangs.

When the National Sports Fund (NSF) emerged, which received enormous benefits for the supply of alcohol from abroad, the closest overseas partners of this enterprise were Tayvanchikand Cherep. Their interests in the NFS were represented by very young Pavel Zadorin, who was appointed Vice President of the NSF.

When this enterprise decided to gain a foothold in the alcohol market of St. Petersburg, NFS Head Shamil Tarpischev called the then Mayor of the northern capital, Anatoly Sobchak, and asked to aid Pavel Zadorin. Between 1995 and 1996, Zadorin owned a number of companies, including Vip Realty LLC. He also founded security company S G S.

The police repeatedly detained Pavel Zadorin on charges of committing various crimes. In 1996, Zadorin along with some Podorozhny, Petrashov, and Stadnikov ended up in jail on charges of kidnapping businesswoman Kremneva and extorting money from her. However, thanks to his extensive connections, Zadorin did not stay in the detention center for a long time, and cases against him fell apart.

Notably, Lashmanova's connection with the Zadorins, who had ties in criminal circles, poses a question of the origin of money invested in business development in Montenegro. The ‘Russian mafia’ often uses investments in the tourist, hotel and construction businesses as a means of money laundering.

For instance, five years ago Spanish Majorca apprehended ex-Director of Crystal distillery Alexander Romanov, who was hailed as the leader of Taganskaya crime group. He bought three-star hotel Mar i Pins in the resort of Paguera for 6 million euros.

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Pop singer Grigory Leps denied entry to Israel over mafia ties

May 23, 2018, 9:48 am

≫ Next: Thieves-in-glamour. ‘Authoritative’ criminals change old rules

≪ Previous: Businesswoman of Ukrainian and Russian origin stabbed to death in Montenegro

Grigory Leps

The Israel authorities do not officially comment on the reason for the denial of the singer’s entry. A Knesset deputy from the repatriate party, Yuliya Malinovskaya, sent a request to the Minister of Internal Security of the country and the Police General Inspector with a demand to sort out the situation.

Russian singer Grigory Leps was denied entry to Israel. Yulia Malinovskaya, a member of the Knesset (Israeli parliament) from Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) party, reported this on her Facebook page.

The concerts of Grigory Leps were to be held in Tel Aviv and Haifa on May 24 and 26, 2018. According to organizers of the singer’s concert tour, at least 3 thousand tickets worth from 300 to 800 shekels (from $80 to $230) for the two Israeli shows were sold.

Deputy Malinovskaya, who was contacted by the organizers of Leps’ tour, sent inquiries to Israeli Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan and the General Inspector of Police with a request to explain on what grounds the popular singer, who is to arrive with tours to Israel from Europe, where he had repeatedly performed, was denied entrance to the country without any explanation.

According to the deputy, 17 musicians and technical workers accompanying the singers in the tour received entry permission without any obstacles. The only one who the Israeli authorities unexpectedly stopped is Leps himself.

"The Israeli police have nothing more to do - all cases are detected, all criminals are punished. There is nothing else I can link the amazing fact that the police are now dealing with the issue of the entry of popular Russian singer Grigory Leps to Israel to," Malinovskaya writes in Facebook.

Yuliya Malinovskaya expressed her hope that the Israeli authorities would "promptly react to this absurd situation, as a result of which it will be possible to avoid an extremely unpleasant diplomatic incident with Russia and prevent moral damage to thousands of fans of the famous singer’s talent."

The Israeli authorities did not officially announce reasons for the refusal, but it may be connected with the accusation of Leps by the US authorities in 2013 of involvement in Eurasian criminal organization Brothers' Circle.

According to the American authorities, in the criminal community, Grigory Leps served as a carrier of money for thief in law Vladislav Leontyev (also known as Vadik Bely). For this reason, the singer, who was featured on the sanctions list of the US Treasury, was not allowed to enter the United States and Great Britain before, The CrimeRussia reported in April. According to the singer himself, in the British diplomatic mission, his documents were "examined for 120 days and eventually wrapped up with reasons not explained."

Grigory Leps calls the US accusations absurd, although he never denied his friendly ties with many representatives of the underworld, which is evidenced by numerous photographs with criminal ‘authorities’ and thieves in law. At one of the press conferences, he also acknowledged the fact of a long-standing friendship with crime lord Vladislav Leontyev, nicknamed Vadik Bely, but noted that "he does not get involved in the affairs of his friends."

It is worth noting that Grigory Leps is not featured in the list of Russians associated with crime updated by the US authorities in December 2017.

Instead of him, two thieves in law - nephew of Ded Hasan Temuri Mirzoyev (died in 2014) and Vladimir Vagin (sentenced to 7.5 years) and three more defendants of Brothers’ Circle-2013 Vadim Lyalin, Almambet Anapiyaev, and Artur Badalyan were included in the updated sanction list of the US Treasury. These are thieves in law Yury Pichugin (Pichuga) and Vladimir Tyurin (Tyurik), as well as authoritative Russian businessmen Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov (Tayvan

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Thieves-in-glamour. ‘Authoritative’ criminals change old rules

May 23, 2018, 10:15 am

≫ Next: Thieves in law

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The thieves’ world became much more glamorous in the recent decades

in the times of change. The Soviet ideas of bright future and freedom slogans of the 1990s have ultimately transformed into trivial consumerism. The fat 2000s brought new rules to the country – and thieves-in-law conformed to these rules and abandoned many of their old principles for the sake of luxury and wealth.

In summer 1985, Vladimir Babushkin (Vasya Brilliant (Vasya Diamond)), one of the most distinguished figures in the criminal world of the 20th century, died in Bely Lebed (White Swan) maximum security penal colony in Solikamsk, Perm krai. Many people believe that his death has marks the end of the epoch of ‘true’ thieves-in-law.

Vasya Brilliant spent in detention 35 years of his life out of the 57 – except for prison breaks. In strict adherence to the old thieves’ principles, he had hadn’t worked a single day, never collaborated with authorities, did not serve in the military, was never married, and never sought personal enrichment.

Throughout its entire history, the Soviet penitentiary system had attempted to put crowned thieves under its control – but it failed to suppress Babushkin. He had demonstratively ignored all requirements of the prison administration, never entered the bitches’ zone (cells of inmates collaborating with the authorities), never wore the prison uniform, could resist the person on duty, etc. For such deeds, Vasya Brilliant was reprimanded and penalized on a regular basis – but he never bowed down.

At the same time, he did not look like a rebel – Babushkin was a quiet elderly person wearing glasses. However, other inmates had deeply respected the legendary thief and obeyed his orders.

In the 1990s, a new moral has established itself in the country, including the criminal world. The old thieves’ code became obsolete. Owners of underground workshops came out of the shadow, new businessmen emerged, various organized criminal groups started struggling for power disregarding the centralized thieves’ structure. At that time, any ambitious criminal could create his own gang, while former athletes, law enforcement officers, and military men returning from conflict zones were joining the criminal world en masse. All these factors have diluted the thieves’ society and introduced new behavior models into it.

At the same time, many people in the country could finally afford things they used to dream about – foreign-made cars, appliances, clothes, and travels abroad. It became prestigious to be rich – not scary anymore.

Wealth became the primary goal for criminal ‘authorities’ and then – for thieves-in-law. Everybody likes dolce vita – and unlike crowned thieves of the past, new criminal lords drive expensive cars, live in luxury homes, and resemble businessmen in many ways – they marry, own casinos, restaurants, and hotels, and maintain friendly relations with governmental functionaries.

Typical representatives of the ‘elite’ of that time were officials/businessmen having ties with the criminal world or criminal ‘authorities’ having ties with the local administration – i.e. powerfully built men in raspberry-red blazers wearing massive gold chains on their necks. It became possible to buy the thieves’ status – and so-called ‘mandarins’ (usually, natives of former Transcaucasian republics making big money on fruit trade) joined the criminal society.

It became as prestigious to be a thief-in-law as to be a prince or count – these titles were also available for sale. Stars had entertained the both categories of ‘aristocrats’ in a similar way – and members of their audience were increasingly frequently mentioned in society columns. The thieves’ world started turning glamorous.

Party with shooting

In fall 2017, criminal ‘authorities’ have again demonstrated to the public how are they partying. A shooting incident occurred during the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Dmitry Pavlov (Pavlik), a leader of Izmailovskie organized criminal group, in Crystall Ball Room restaurant in the OKO tower of Moscow City. Body guards of one of the guests had a conflict over a parking spot with private security guards retained by the establishment.

The media became aware that Valery Meladze, Grigory Leps, and Lyubov Uspenskaya were supposed to entertain the guests, while Valdis Pelsh had to host the show. In addition, such well-known in the criminal world persons as thieves-in-law Oleg Shishkanov (Shishkan) and Sergei Aksenov (Aksen), who have taken charge of Izmailovskie gang jointly with Pavlik after the death of Anton Malevsky, attended the celebration to congratulate the ‘authority’. According to The CrimeRussia source, several Deputies of the State Duma were among the guests. REN TV reports that in addition to crowned thieves and Deputies, Sergei Lalakin (Luchok (Little Onion)), leader of Podolskie organized criminal group; Sergei Mikhailov (Mikhas), leader of Solntsevskie organized criminal group; and billionaire (the 82nd position in the Russian Forbes Rating) Gavril Yushvaev, former co-owner of Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods, earlier prosecuted for robbery and known in certain circles as Garik Makhachkala, were also present there. It were his bodyguards who have initiated the conflict resulting in the death of an officer of Okhrana (Protection) Federal State Unitary Enterprise of the National Guard of Russia and several more injuries.

Meladze, Leps, and Pelsh had later denied their announced participation in that party. Only Lyubov Uspenskaya confirmed that she was invited there – but after being notified of a shooting incident in the restaurant, she decided not to go there.

In fact, the appearance of Uspenskaya wouldn’t surprise anybody at that birthday party – singers glorifying the criminal romanticism are very popular among the people they are singing about. Shufutinsky, Willi Tokarev, Vyacheslav Medyanik, and, of course, Mikhail Krug – all these artists were spotted alongside thieves-in-law who had apparently inspired the chansonniers.

Money and beneficial friendship perspectives have attracted to the criminal world even representatives of other singing genres – above-mentioned Meladze, Dmitry Malikov, Sergei Glyzin, Vyacheslav Dobrynin, Aleksander Serov, Soso Pavliashvili, Aleksander Rozenbaum, Vakhtang Kikabidze, and other media personalities had close ties with crowned thieves.

Favorite singer ‘of the entire country’

Grigory Leps – who, according to Dmitry Peskov, Deputy Chief of the Presidential Executive Office and Presidential Press Secretary, is the favorite singed of Vladimir Putin and the entire country – also does not make a secret of his friendship with representatives of the criminal society.

According to the US Department of the Treasury, Leps had acted as a courier in the criminal community; he worked for thief-in-law Vladislav Leontiev (Vadik Bely (Vadik the White)).

In 2013, the USA designated him a member of Brothers’ Circle criminal syndicate. Recently he was denied entry to the UK on these grounds. A few days ago, Israel has joined these states. According to The CrimeRussia source, in 2013, Leps had tried to release from jail his detained friend – crowned thief Dzhemal Mikeladze (Dzhemo). Leps has personally contributed $100 thousand to the polled cash fund collected for Dzhemo and called other people asking them to help.

In 2012, Leps attended the birthday party of thief-in-law Sergei Asatryan (Osetrina Mladshy(Sturgeon Meat Junior) or Serezha Bentley). Jointly with Radik Yusupov (Drakon (Drake)), leader of Sevastopolskie gang, he had visited somebody’s tomb in Kazan in the period when Yusupov was supposed to serve a term in a penal colony. In Latvia, Leps had met with crowned thiefLasha Dzheladze (Racha) and local ‘authoritative’ businessmen having ties with various Russian organized criminal groups. According to his own words, he has been maintaining friendly relations with members of the criminal world since the beginning of his singing career in Sochi. In addition, Sochi ‘authority’ Sergei Chkhetiani (Chkhet) is a second uncle of Grigory Leps.

Lepsveridze (this is the true last name of the singer) reportedly owes his success in the show business to some influential thief-in-law. Vyacheslav Medyanik told in an interview that in 2004, they were singing together with Leps at a party thrown in celebration of the return of Vyacheslav Ivankov (Yaponchik), ‘godfather of Russian mafia’, from the USA. The large audience consisted exclusively of crowned thieves – according to Vyacheslav Medyanik, it was a big honor for him to entertain them. The performance was successful, the main spectator was happy, and the artists’ refusal to accept payment touched the heart of Yaponchik who has personally commended their talent.

‘Patriarch’ of the Russian stage

Iosif Kobzon, another famous and respected singer and currently a Deputy of the State Duma, had also maintained friendly relations with Yaponchik. The American authorities don’t appreciate such ties – since 1995, the singer has been barred from entering the country. In addition to Ivankov, Kobzon had ties with another prominent figure of the early 1990s – Otari Kvantrishvili (Otarik) – and even planned to establish together with him a political party entitled Dvizhenie “Sportivnaya Rossia” (Sports Russia Movement). The political career of Kobzon could begin much earlier – but the assassination of Kvantrishvili in 1994 delayed his ascension to the official circles of power.

Otarik was not a thief, but had wielded a great authority – the following people came to pay last respects to him in addition to Kobzon and ‘bros’: singers Bogdan Titomir and Aleksander Rozenbaum, athletes Aleksander Karelin, Aleksander Tikhonov, Shota Mamalashvili, Igor Kochnevsky, Valery Vasiliev, Aleksander Yakushev, Aleksander Maltsev, and Olympic boxing champion Stanislav Stepashkin. According to witnesses, the funeral resembled an Olympic games opening.

According to Gennady Snustikov, ex-producer of Kirkorov, following his request, Otari has once greatly helped the singer by ‘settling’ the situation with creditors Philipp was owing big money to. Alla Pugacheva also admitted that Kvantrishvili had assisted her and made approaches to her.

In fact, many people were courting the diva at that time. Late ‘authoritative’ businessman Shabtai Kalmanovich, affiliated with Solntsevskie gang, having friendly ties with many thieves-in-law, and murdered in 2009, claimed that if it were not for Philipp, Alla would become his wife. He was one of her sponsors and paid for almost all her birthday parties.

According to one of the versions, his assassination was masterminded by his rivals at the weapons market. According to another version, the reason behind the murder of Kalmanovich was a conflict around Dorogomilovsky market. Alla Pugacheva, Maksim Galkin, Iosif Kobzon, Zemfira, Aleksander Rozenbaum, and other stars came to pay last respects to him.

Kalmanovich and Kobzon had a joint business – in 1993, they have established a Russian-Hungarian pharmaceutical company named Liat-Nataly after their children. The joint venture had also a chain of brand-name sports wear stores in Moscow and St. Petersburg; up until 1994, it was one of the biggest distributors of Nike and later – Puma products.

Iosif Kobzon and Taivanchik

In the early 1980s, Kobzon introduced Pugacheva to another member of Brothers’ Circle – businessman Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov (Taivanchik). According to the prima donna, she had already heard of him as an amazing assistant to Sofia Rotaru. Later he started assisting Pugacheva as well, especially in her foreign trips.

Crime and entertainment stars

Some artists don’t limit themselves to friendly or business relations with members of the thieves’ world – but actually become their relatives.

In 2011, Ukrainian songstress Anastasia Prikhodko, member of the Star Factory Russia, who had represented our country at Eurovision 2009, has introduced to the public her daughter Nana and common-law partner Nuri Kukhilava, son of Sukhumi native Antimos Kukhilava (Antik, Antimos), the most famous thief-in-law in Ukraine expelled from the country two years earlier for violations of passport regulations.

Anastasia Prikhodko and Nuri Kukhilava

The star told that they were introduced to each other by common friends. After the birth of their daughter, the husband took them on a trip to his parents living in a lovely large home in Antalya. The local law enforcement authorities have confirmed that it was the place of residence of Antimos. According to them, after the expulsion, the crowned thief was supposed to be escorted to Georgia and jailed – but he reportedly managed to flee to Spain for $3 million and then relocate to Turkey. The couple have separated in 2013. In 2016, Antimos returned to Ukraine. Next year, Nurik was arrested in Odessa. According to unofficial information, father and son Kukhilava control smuggling flows and Caucasian pickpockets and bag snatchers – however, the law enforcement authorities have only charged Kukhilava with violations of the Ukrainian rules of stay.

Opera singer Maria Maksakova met thief-in-law Vladimir Tyurin (Tyurik) in the early 2000s. He had showered her with gifts – from expensive vehicles and diamonds to luxury apartments – and finally got into graces. They lived together for 15 years and have two children.

Maria Maksakova and Vladimir Tyurin

However, in 2011, she joined Edinaya Rossia (United Russia) Party and became a Deputy of the State Duma – at that time, an explanation has been posted on the party web site stating that Maksakova “was never officially married” and expressing “a sincere perplexity” in relation to a Novaya Gazeta publication claiming that Tyurik was her husband.

In March 2015, Maria has officially married Denis Voronenkov, a Deputy of the State Duma representing the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF). Next year, she gave birth to their son. On March 23, 2017, Voronenkov was shot dead near Premier Palace Hotel in the center of Kiev where they have relocated shortly before that to avoid criminal prosecution of Voronenkov for raiding takeover of a building in the center of Moscow. The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine named Vladimir Tyurin, first husband of Maksakova, the mastermind behind this crime. Maksakova agreed with this conclusion; she believes that Tyurikhad both personal and commercial motives to assassinate Voronenkov.

Another once-bright star of the Russian show business – Yulia Volkova, ex-singer of t.A.T.u. duo – apparently has an affair with thief-in-law Georgy Zarandia (Giya Galsky). Their joint photos started appearing on the Internet a few years ago with star’s comments explaining how important it is to have a person nearby who believes, supports, loves, etc. It was even reported that the couple have married because Yulia is going to give birth to their child.

Zarandia was born in 1979 in Abkhazia (he is a Georgian citizen). Currently he resides in Moscow and controls criminal groups of pickpockets, bag snatchers, and burglars.

Yulia Volkova and Giya Galsky

Zarandia was crowned in summer 2011 in the Kaluga region by brothers Gela and Gizo Kordava, Vladimir Zhurakovsky (Vova Pukhly (Vova the Chubby)), Roland Gegechkori (Roland Shlyapa (Roland the Hat)), and Merab Mzarelua (Duyak). In 2012, he was arrested with fake ID’s and 50 grams of hashish. In 2014, he was arrested again in Moscow – this time, for a trivial violation of immigration rules and lack of household registration. In 2016, Zarandia was arrested with a fake passport and expelled from the county again. However, every time he had returned to the Russian capital after a little while.

Volkova refuted the rumors about her alleged pregnancy and marriage; however, photos showing the glamour–crime alliance continue appearing on the Internet.

Thief-turned-singer

In the meantime, some members of the criminal world are trying to become entertainment stars themselves. For instance, Aleksander Severov (Sasha Sever (Sasha North)), former overseerof the Tver region, lost the thieves’ title because of his too frequent appearances on TV. After his release in 2012, Sasha Sever started not only giving interviews to federal TV channels but also singing on public.

In fact, he had a strong reason for that – Severov was a friend of his famous fellow countryman Mikhail Krug. According to a legend, the singer has dedicated Vladimirsky Tsentral (Vladimir Central Prison) song to him. However, other thieves haven’t appreciated his creative impulses and decrowned Sasha Sever in 2014 for deviation from thieves’ traditions.

Mikhail Krug visits Severov in jail

The relaxation of the thieves’ rules taking place in the 1990s included, in addition to the possibility to have a family (even though an unofficial one in most cases), the right to own luxury. The arrest of Shakro Molodoy has clearly demonstrated this to the entire country.

In the Soviet period, people could demonstrate their affiliation with the thieves’ caste only by certain tattoos – for instance, stars ,or strips with epaulets, or signet rings on fingers. Now they use special license plate numbers of VOR (thief) series to be visible on the road.

Aside from the wealth and position in the criminal hierarchy, modern thieves are no strangers to other sweets of life – they want to look modern and stylish.

It must be admitted though there are very few stylish persons among them – sports suits and leather jackets used by bandits as clothes for everyday wear back in the 1990s are still popular in the 21st century and exchanged for a blazer only in exceptional circumstances.

Thieves are active users of modern technologies – cell phone became the most important attribute of their life: it allows to control ‘bros’ even from jail, participate in thieves’ congregations via messengers, and recruit new gang members on social networks.

Thieves-in-law are also adopting such advanced media tools as PR campaigns and information wars. They gain support of their associates and send threats to rivals via social networks.

In observable future, inmates may start receiving ‘circular letters’ through bulk e-mailing or via messengers – while crowned thieves, being respectable people of our time, are going to appear soon on glossy magazine covers, communicate with convicts via their press services, and steal money exclusively from the state budget.

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Thieves in law

May 29, 2018, 11:57 am

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≪ Previous: Thieves-in-glamour. ‘Authoritative’ criminals change old rules

↧

Summer of 1985,

May 29, 2018, 10:09 pm

≫ Next: Award-Winning Coral Springs Author Publishes Latest Novel

≪ Previous: Thieves in law

Summer of 1985, Vladimir Babushkin (Vasya Brilliant (Vasya Diamond)), one of the most distinguished figures in the criminal world of the 20th century, died in Bely Lebed (White Swan) maximum security penal colony in Solikamsk, Perm krai. Many people believe that his death has marks the end of the epoch of ‘true’ thieves-in-law.

At the same time, he did not look like a rebel – Babushkin was a quiet elderly person wearing glasses. However, other inmates had deeply respected the legendary thief and obeyed his orders.

Party with shooting

Favorite singer ‘of the entire country’

According to the US Department of the Treasury, Leps had acted as a courier in the criminal community; he worked for thief-in-law Vladislav Leontiev (Vadik Bely (Vadik the White)).

‘Patriarch’ of the Russian stage

Famous crowned thief Vasily Khristoforov (Vasya Voskres (Vasya Resurrected)) is no stranger to the show business as well.

Younger thieves prefer different music and, accordingly, different artists. For instance, Sergei Asatryan (Osetrina Mladshy (Sturgeon Meat Junior) or Serezha Bentley) was spotted with rapper Dino MC-47.

In fact, the rap culture originating from criminal black ghettos of America is actively using the domestic thievish themes.

Crime and entertainment stars

Some artists don’t limit themselves to friendly or business relations with members of the thieves’ world – but actually become their relatives.

Zarandia was born in 1979 in Abkhazia (he is a Georgian citizen). Currently he resides in Moscow and controls criminal groups of pickpockets, bag snatchers, and burglars.

Volkova refuted the rumors about her alleged pregnancy and marriage; however, photos showing the glamour–crime alliance continue appearing on the Internet.

Thief-turned-singer

This is his home in the metropolitan area.

In fact, he always liked luxury – below is his home in Georgia:

Aside from the wealth and position in the criminal hierarchy, modern thieves are no strangers to other sweets of life – they want to look modern and stylish.

Thieves-in-law are also adopting such advanced media tools as PR campaigns and information wars. They gain support of their associates and send threats to rivals via social networks.

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Award-Winning Coral Springs Author Publishes Latest Novel

June 6, 2018, 5:55 am

≫ Next: Top Russian Investigator Jailed in Explosive Mafia Bribe Case

≪ Previous: Summer of 1985,

By: Sharon Aron Baron

Award-winning author and Coral Springs resident Richard Wickliffe has just published a new novel inspired by real crimes involving Miami Russian mafia – with a bit of literary license.

“Eyes of Poseidon” is a follow-up to his last award-winning novel,“Storm Crashers,” which was also inspired by unique Florida crimes.

In Wickliffe’s new novel, a successful Miami doctor leaps from a cruise ship in the dead of night. His devastated wife, along with an FBI agent who works organized crime, unravel his fate. He had been lured to Miami by a tempting new organization who promised wealth and success. But after threats and extortion, he knew there was no way out. His family would never be safe. What his wife and the ruthless Russian assassins discover next changes everything.

The concept was inspired by real crimes outlined in Wickliffe’s published article, “The Russian Mafia: A Rising Threat of Fraud and Violence,” including details from FBI arrests involving bogus medical clinics and alluring girls who’d drugged and robbed tourists along South Beach.

Florida residents may enjoy the novel’s local references, including South Beach, Little Havana, Coral Gables’ Biltmore, Fort Lauderdale’s Mai Kai Restaurant, Joe’s Stone Crab, Key Biscayne’s Rusty Pelican as well as locations set in the Bahamas.

A 42-year resident of Coral Springs, Wickliffe graduated from Coral Springs High School, then went on to graduate from Florida Atlantic University. He continues to live in the city with his wife and three children.

In 2017, Wickliffe won gold in popular fiction at the 11th Annual Florida Book Awards. He also has a passion for art and photography, and works by him have been exhibited in Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Art Guild and in Forbes Travel Magazine.

Wickliffe’s last book was optioned by Twentieth Century Fox, so he’s already written the screenplay for Poseidon –just in case.

Watch a video trailer of the book on YouTube. Order a book at www.RichWickliffe.com

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Top Russian Investigator Jailed in Explosive Mafia Bribe Case

July 30, 2018, 6:49 am

≫ Next: Grand to the end: The Russian mafia bosses buried in strange, lavish tombs

≪ Previous: Award-Winning Coral Springs Author Publishes Latest Novel

Alexander Lamonov (Sergei Kiselyov / Moskva News Agency)

A top crime-fighting official in Moscow has been sentenced to five years in jail for accepting a bribe from one of Russia’s most notorious mafia bosses in a case that has brought down several senior investigators.

Alexander Lamonov, the deputy head of security at Moscow’s branch of the Investigative Committee, was arrested alongside three of his superiors implicated in corruption in 2016. His boss was sentenced to 13 years this spring for receiving a $500,000 bribe from a crime lord who sought to soften the sentences of gang members involved in a Moscow restaurant shootout.

The Moscow City Court sentenced Lamonov to five years in a maximum-security prison and ordered him to pay a fine of $500,000, the RBC business portal reportedThursday.

Lamonov’s lawyer Olga Lukmanova said her client plans to appeal the sentence and seeks a lower fine, citing the court’s conclusion that “the ex-colonel had only accepted [a bribe worth] $25,000.”

Alexander Drymanov, the retired head of Moscow’s Investigative Committee who was initially named as a witness in the bribery case, was arrested on the same charges last week. His arrest has reportedly hit the standing of the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, with whom Drymanov is rumored to have close ties.

An unnamed source in the Investigative Committee told RBC that Drymanov’s arrest “can’t be called a surprise for Bastrykin, but there was no coordination with him.”

Others in the committee maintain that Bastrykin remains in control.

“Of course, the positions of Bastrykin and the committee are weakened, but Alexander Ivanovich personally takes part in all meetings and manages high-profile cases,” another source said.

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Grand to the end: The Russian mafia bosses buried in strange, lavish tombs

July 31, 2018, 7:23 am

≫ Next: Sunday Night claims links between Australian banks and Russian criminals

≪ Previous: Top Russian Investigator Jailed in Explosive Mafia Bribe Case

↧

Sunday Night claims links between Australian banks and Russian criminals

July 31, 2018, 7:27 am

≫ Next: Russian sisters who killed 'mafia boss' dad are accused of making up story about his 'years of sexual abuse'

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LINKS between the major Aussie banks and Russian mobsters involved with money laundering — and murder — have been revealed.

Matt Doran and Stephen Rice

news.com.auJULY 30, 2018

ON A cool evening in November 2012, a Russian exile named Alexander Perepilichnyy sets out from his $12 million mansion outside London for his daily jog.

Mr Perepilichnyy is a wealthy man, thanks to a long career as money-launderer to Moscow’s elite.

But today he’s worried — and with good reason. He’s just blown the whistle on his former employers in the Russian mafia.

And now detectives at Scotland Yard have delivered bad news — they’ve found a detailed dossier on his movements in the home of a notorious Chechen hitman.

Mr Perepilichnyy sets off down the quiet country lane at a steady pace. He’s 44, and in good shape.

There’s no one about. St Georges Hill, in Surrey, is a high-security, gated estate where celebrities and bankers pay to live in seclusion. John Lennon and Ringo Starr once owned houses just down the road.

There are no witnesses to what happens next.

A passing security guard finds the Russian collapsed in the road, trembling and making choking noises. A green-yellow bile is foaming from his mouth.

By the time paramedics arrive, Alexander Perepilichnyy is dead.

In the days that follow, local police will declare it a simple heart attack and stamp the file “not suspicious”.

Others aren’t so sure.

“It looks to me like murder,” says Bill Browder, the American-born financier who has been described as Vladimir Putin’s Enemy Number One. “I believe he was poisoned.”

Mr Browder has good cause to be suspicious.

Alexander Perepelichnyy was his key informant in exposing Russia’s biggest-ever tax fraud. The allegations were explosive: that senior Kremlin officials and Russian gangsters had corruptly conspired to rob the state treasury of US$230m, then laundered the proceeds in a series of complex transactions that would ultimately involve all of Australia’s major banks.

Two years earlier, Mr Perepilichnyy had confessed that he was the middleman who organised some of the payments. In a secret meeting at the exclusive Westbury Hotel in Mayfair, Mr Perepilichnyy handed Bill Browder crucial evidence — bank records, company documents, flow charts.

The documents showed the stolen money was sent out of Russia through a maze of shell companies, into Swiss bank accounts or “washed” through legitimate banks around the world — including Australia, as the Seven Network’s Sunday Night program revealed last night.

“This was a very sophisticated, high-level Russian mafia money laundering operation that touches Australia,” said Mr Browder.

Alexander Perepilichynny seems to have realised he would be signing his own death warrant by ratting on his mafia mates.

In the weeks before his death he took out life insurance policies worth $7 million and had applied for others worth $15 million.

A dozen other Russians have met mysterious deaths in Britain in recent years — with suicide and poisoning topping the list.

The threat of assassination is a weight Bill Browder knows well.

His firm, Hermitage Capital Investments, was once the largest foreign investor in Russia, with $4 billion in funds.

But Mr Browder was expelled from the country in 2005 after speaking out against corruption.

His Moscow offices were raided by police who beat up staff and took away boxes of documents, including company seals and tax certificates.

In 2007, two Russian gangsters walked into Moscow Tax Office 28 with those same documents, falsely claiming to own Mr Browder’s local companies — and demanded a $230 million tax refund.

The obliging head of the department, Olga Stepanova, wrote out a cheque for the entire amount within 24 hours.

Mr Browder — now based in London — hired an up-and-coming young Moscow lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, to find out what had happened to the money.

Mr Magnitsky wasn’t bowed by the prospect of going after powerful vested interests — no small matter in what has been described as a “mafia state”.

He quickly found evidence that the police who conducted the raid on Mr Browder’s office were involved in the tax fraud.

The intrepid lawyer went before the State Investigative Committee — Russia’s version of the FBI — and testified against the corrupt police. Five weeks later the same police came to his home and arrested him.

Mr Magnitsky was thrown into jail and held for months in appalling conditions in a freezing cell. He was offered only one way out: sign a false confession that he had stolen the $230 million on instruction from Mr Browder.

He refused to sign.

“They were sure that this guy would buckle within a week,” Mr Browder says.

“They totally underestimated Sergei Magnitsky. For him, the idea of perjuring himself and bearing false witness was much more painful than the physical pain he was suffering.”

After six months confinement in increasingly squalid conditions, Mr Magnitsky’s health completely broke down.

But instead of being sent to hospital, the young lawyer was taken to an isolation cell, chained to a cot and beaten with batons.

He died that night.

“It was the worst, most horrifying, life-changing, soul-destroying news I could have ever gotten,” says Mr Browder.

“Sergei Magnitsky would still be alive today if he hadn’t been my lawyer.

It was obvious I only had one choice, which was to put aside everything else I was doing and go after the people who killed him and made sure they faced justice.”

Mr Browder set out to follow the money trail — but the cover-up was already well underway.

Russia’s Interior Ministry announced there were no more records related to the tax fraud because the truck carrying the documents had blown up.

“It’s the kind of thing you could ask a kindergartener to come up with — the dog ate my homework, the truck exploded,” says Mr Browder.

The breakthrough came in a message from a man who called himself Alessandro Sanchez and wanted to meet at the Westbury Hotel.

Alessandro Sanchez turned out to be Russian money-launderer Alexander Perepilichnyy — and he brought with him a briefcase stuffed with documents.

Mr Perepilichnyy had helped corrupt tax official Olga Stepanova and her husband set up secret Swiss bank accounts.

Ms Stepanova had done very well for a mid-ranking public servant: a $20 million house in Moscow, a $4 million luxury villa in Dubai, another in Montenegro and $11m in cash in a Credit Suisse account in Zurich. Quite an achievement on a $38,000 a year public servant’s salary.

But Olga Stepanova wasn’t arrested. She was promoted.

Her boss, Russian president Vladimir Putin, announced he knew exactly who had committed the crime.

“What lies underneath these events?”, Mr Putin told a press conference.

“Underneath are the criminal activities of an entire gang led by one particular man — Browder is his name.”

Mr Browder was undeterred.

Alexander Perepilchny had delivered him a treasure trove that would ultimately show a money trail leading to every one of Australia’s biggest banks.

The mysterious death of the Russian money-launderer on an English country lane only made Mr Browder more determined to bring down the crime syndicate.

Mr Perepilichnyy’s documents became the basis for a criminal investigation by Swiss prosecutors. In the US, money invested in property in New York was targeted by prosecutors under money-laundering laws.

At Mr Browder’s urging, US legislators pushed through a new law, the Magnitsky Act, aimed at freezing the assets and restricting the travel of all those linked to the crime.

Britain and Canada quickly followed suit. Australia has thus far resisted all calls to take similar action.

But Mr Browder isn’t about to let Australia off the hook.

Browder’s Hermitage Capital has now filed a crime report with the Australian Federal Police and AUSTRAC, Australia’s money-laundering authority, requesting that a series of suspicious transactions involving Australian banks and companies be investigated.

Detailed bank records reveal a total of US$3,472,098 (A$4.7 million) in payments to 11 Australian accounts from foreign accounts suspected to have received the co-mingled proceeds of the US$230 million Russian treasury fraud.

All of Australia’s major banks, including ANZ, Commonwealth, Westpac, NAB and HSBC received funds.

The recipients ranged from individuals to large companies, including sheepskin exporters, aluminium manufacturers and a firm specialising in travel to Russia.

In one case, almost $1.2 million was sent to an Australian company from the Estonian bank account of two other companies.

It appears the recipients of the money were innocent parties to the money laundering scheme. Many of the Australian companies involved have since gone out of business. Those still operating say they had no suspicions about the source of the money.

But Mr Browder believes the banks should have better procedures.

“Basically, nobody was asking any questions,” he says.

Those banks which responded before deadline declined to comment on the specific transactions put to them, but stated that they took their anti-money laundering obligations seriously and would assist authorities in any investigation.

Mr Browder is now pushing Australian legislators to pass a Magnitsky Act here, so that those involved in the killing of Sergei Magnitsky and other human rights abuses can never enjoy the spoils of their crime on Australian soil.

None have ever been brought to justice in Russia. Indeed, most of the officials involved in the arrest and death of Sergei Magnitsky have been exonerated — some even promoted.

Three years after Sergei Magnitsky was killed, the Russian Government did hold a trial.

But the courtroom cage was empty, because the man on trial was Sergei Magnitsky.

It was the first ever trial of a dead man in Russia’s history, according to Mr Browder, who was also put on trial in absentia.

Unsurprisingly, both men were found guilty. There wasn’t much more that the court could do to Mr Magnitsky, but Mr Browder was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment in his absence.

Since then, Russian authorities have tried relentlessly to have Mr Browder arrested and extradited whenever he travels abroad from Britain.

They almost succeeded earlier this year, when Spanish police detained him on a Russian Interpol arrest warrant during a visit to Madrid.

If not for the prompt intervention of the British Government, Mr Browder might well have found himself handcuffed on a flight to Moscow.

But Mr Browder has no intention of giving up the fight that has consumed the last 10 years of his life: “When you enter into a fight with Vladimir Putin, there is no walking away.”

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Russian sisters who killed 'mafia boss' dad are accused of making up story about his 'years of sexual abuse'

August 2, 2018, 11:08 am

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Mikhail Khachaturyan, 57, was attacked by his daughters Kristina, 19, Angelina, 18 and

Three Russian sisters charged with the murder of their 'mafia boss' dad have been accused of making up a story about 'years of sexual abuse'.

Mikhail Khachaturyan, 57, was attacked by his daughters Kristina, 19, Angelina, 18 and Maria, 17, who confessed to jointly killing him.

He was found with 36 stab wounds and ten hammer blows to the head in the block of flats where the family lived in Moscow, Russia.

A Moscow court has now refused to free the teenagers from detention despite their claims they acted in self-defence against a monster father who allegedly raped at least two of the girls.

Currently they are accused of acting as a gang in a premeditated murder with a sentence of between eight and 20 years - but a formal decision on custody is expected within 72 hours.

A video shows Angelina in a Moscow court cage during a custody hearing as distressed friends look on.

Friends of the sisters claim that their father sexually attacked her on 21 July, less than a week before the girls knifed him to death.

She has also alleged that he raped her - then aged 14 - in a hotel in Israel in four years ago.

Two years later the sisters claim he sexually attacked Kristina who then tried and failed to take her own life.

He was accused of being a drug dealer, setting up web cameras in the family home to monitor the girls - and forcing them to parade naked in front of him.

At the same time he was seen by friends as a “devout” Christian - a video shows him bathing in the River Jordan.

A close female family member has anonymously disputed the sisters’ account, while a lawyer acting for the dead man - who has himself been branded a mafia king with friends in high places in Russia - claimed the version of his daughters that they were sexually abused was incorrect.

George Chuguashvili said: “He was a strict father. Perhaps he did not meet modern requirements, maybe even a tyrant.

“But he never used violence against his children. It's all fiction for the defence.”

The relative said: “Mikhail was strict, but a very kind and good person. Everyone respected and loved him.

“He did a lot of good for his daughters. They killed a sleeping man..... I do not know how to name such daughters…”

A family friend called Bruce Khlebnikov said he saw the crime scene and the family flat was “covered in blood”.

“After he was killed, a crowd of people gathered at his house - friends, acquaintances, relatives,” he said, describing Khachaturyan, an ethnic Armenian, as a “holy man”.

“Everyone was crying. No one could believe that the murder was committed with particular cruelty by his own daughters.”

Khlebnikov, formerly known as the “strongest boy in the world", claimed: “He loved his daughters so much, he was always talking about them.

“And how he spoiled them, you cannot even imagine. All that the golden youth could have - these girls had.”

He was poised to buy a car for his eldest daughter. He did not spare money for them on their belongings and trinkets.

“His girls wore the most fashionable things, he bought them new iPhones, and they had all the gadgets they wanted.

“They did not know the word ‘refusal’.”

But he accused the sisters of not doing anything at home - “they lived for their own pleasure” - after their mother left home.

He accused the teenagers of “provoking” their father who wanted them to grow up as “decent” women.

He operated an 8pm curfew and tried to stop them meeting young men, he admitted.

Neighbour Varvara Sibirskaya said: “He forced his daughters to be naked at home, to sing and dance for him. He also drugged them….

“He beat them, not just with hands, but with a belt, and iron rods. He tied them and burned the with iron.”

Another local said: “Any woman to him was like a red rag to a bull. He yelled at them every single day in obscene words.”

When they had birthdays, he invited his friends, not theirs.

A friend of the daughers, called Irina, said the three “constantly hid bruises on their bodies”

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August 6, 2018, 8:58 am

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The FSB detained seven people in Moscow on suspicion of extortion.

August 11, 2018, 7:05 am

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The FSB detained seven people in Moscow on suspicion of extortion. Among them was Yury Yesin, going by nickname Samosval, who was named in the case of ‘Russian mafia’ in Italy in the 1990s.

In the morning of Thursday, August 9, investigators of the Investigation Department for the Eastern Administrative District of the ICR’s Main Investigative Directorate for Moscow and Moscow Criminal Intelligence officers with the support of the FSB operatives detained 67-year-old Yury Yesin, a source in the central office of the MIA told RBC, sources in the territorial police department and the ICR’s MID in Moscow confirmed the information. Earlier, Kommersantcalled Yesin "a crime lord nicknamed Samosval."

"Together with Yesin six more people were detained, it is known that they are suspected of committing crimes under Art. 159 of the Criminal Code (Swindling), Art. 163 (Extortion), Art. 222 (Illegal Possession of Firearms)," the RBC's interlocutor from the police told. According to him, searches and detentions began early in the morning and are still ongoing.

The Investigative Directorate of the ICR for the Eastern Administrative District declined to comment.

In 2010, employees of the Moscow Criminal Intelligence detained Yesina and 23 other people in metropolitan karaoke bar Zebra, MK reported. The meeting took place on September 16, the day a sniper committed an attempt on Aslan Usoyan (Ded Khasan) in the center of Moscow.

The report said that among the gathered were representatives of Solntsevskaya and Kuntsevskaya criminal communities. It also remarked that "the leaders of these groups have long ago become businessmen and do not identify themselves with crime." According to the operative data, they planned to discuss the issues of the division of spheres of influence in Moscow, as well as to resolve the "conflict situation", the report of Moskovsky Komsomolets read.

Yesin became known after his arrest in Italy, where he moved in 1995. In March 1997, he was detained in the resort town of Madonna di Campigli, along with 13 other Russian citizens during a special operation of the Italian police targeting the ‘Russian mafia.’ They were accused of belonging to organized crime and laundering millions of dollars through investments in tourism and real estate. As Yesin said in an interview with Kommersant in 2002, the case involved the laundering of $6 billion. He also claimed that one of the witnesses in the case had testified that in Moscow Yesin’s gang consisted of 900 people and had an arsenal of weapons, as well as a submarine for the transport of drugs.

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