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Moscow News
January 28, 2013 Monday
Russia's jet-set underworld
Reputed crime kingpin Aslan Usoyan gained notoriety as a Russia-based
mob boss before he was assassinated by a sniper in central Moscow last
week, but his brethren in a legendary Eurasian criminal fraternity
have been dipping their elaborately tattooed fingers in the U.S.
underworld for decades.
Several reputed 'vory v zakone,' or 'thieves-in-law' - members of a
storied Soviet-borne criminal caste in which Usoyan, known as 'Gramps
Khasan,' was an ascendant figure - have set up shop in the United
States since the fall of the Soviet Union, according to US law
enforcement sources and organized crime experts.
The most notorious of these career criminals Vyacheslav Ivankov, a
convicted Soviet felon nicknamed 'Yaponchik,' or 'Little Japanese,'
for his vaguely Asiatic visage.
Ivankov, believed to have been crowned a 'thief-in-law' during his
time in the Soviet prison system, arrived in Brooklyn's predominantly
Russian-speaking Brighton Beach neighborhood around 1992.
Russian authorities reportedly alerted their US counterparts to
Ivankov's reputation as a powerful crime godfather, though Ivankov's
actual influence and criminal acumen became the subject of
considerable debate among law enforcement officials, academics and
journalists.
Ivankov was ultimately arrested by US Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) agents in 1995 and convicted of trying to extort several million
dollars from two Russian-speaking businessmen in New York City -
becoming the first of two reputed 'thieves-in-law' to be convicted of
felonies in the United States.
In 2004 Ivankov was sent back to Russia, where he was acquitted of
murder and lived for several years before meeting a fate similar to
that of his fellow 'thief-inlaw' Usoyan last week: He was shot by a
sniper while leaving a Moscow restaurant in July 2009 and died of his
injuries three months later.
A second purported 'thief-inlaw' convicted of a crime in the United
States was Armen Kazarian, an ethnic Armenian nicknamed 'Pzo' who
authorities say assisted an Armenian-American crime group that
defrauded the US federal health insurance program Medicare to the tune
of $100 million.
Kazarian was arrested along with dozens of other suspects, and he
eventually pleaded guilty in 2011 to conspiracy to commit racketeering
charges. US federal prosecutor Preet Bharara announced at the time
that Kazarian was the first 'thief-in-law' to be convicted of
racketeering in the United States.
Kazarian is set to be sentenced in the case on Feb. 8, according to
the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. The
stipulated sentencing guidelines spelled out in the plea agreement
range from 30 to 37 months.
'Thieves-in-law' traditionally lived according to a so-called 'thieves
code' requiring them to completely eschew institutions, including the
state, outside the criminal sphere. They were accorded a special role
in the underworld, including as mediators for competing crime
networks.
The US government's indictment of Kazarian describes one incident in
which he allegedly played the role of just such a criminal arbiter.
According to investigators, he traveled to New York to assist an
associate whose friend had fallen into hot water with 'a promoter of
an overseas investment fraud scheme' over a $200,000 debt.
After speaking with another 'thief-in-law' representing the promoter,
Kazarian announced that the debt 'would be erased,' the indictment
alleges.
The indictment also suggests Kazarian was serious about ensuring he
was treated with a certain level of respect given his status. In
August 2010, federal investigators alleged, he and an associate
'threatened to sodomize and kill an associate who had failed to show
proper respect to Kazarian by repeatedly calling Kazarian while
drunk.'
Prior to his murder last week, Usoyan was among the last of this
criminal fraternity's old guard, whose status was derived from hard
prison time and a commitment to the tenets of the thieves code,
according to Mark Galeotti, an expert on Soviet and post-Soviet crime.
The colorful trappings are still there - the ornate tattoos, colorful
nicknames like 'The Boar' and 'Bonzai' - but these days the title of
'thief-in-law' can essentially be bought by men who have no interest
in the relatively austere lifestyles of the brotherhood's previous
generations, Galeotti said.
Nonetheless, the US government is not taking this younger generation
of purported criminals lightly.
Last June, the US Treasury Department announced the names of five
alleged members of a 'Eurasian crime syndicate' to be targeted for
asset freezes in the United States in an effort 'to protect the US
financial system from the malign influence of transnational criminal
organizations.'
These individuals - Temuri Mirzoyev, Koba Shemazashvili, Lasha
Shushanashvili, Kakhaber Shushanashvili, and Vladimir Vagin - are
widely believed to be 'thieves-inlaw,' and all have some connection to
Usoyan, according to Galeotti.
Mirzoyev is thought by some to be Usyoan's nephew, and the Russian
newspaper Izvestia reported that he attended the fallen kingpin's
funeral outside Moscow over the weekend.
From: A. Papazian
January 28, 2013 Monday
Russia's jet-set underworld
Reputed crime kingpin Aslan Usoyan gained notoriety as a Russia-based
mob boss before he was assassinated by a sniper in central Moscow last
week, but his brethren in a legendary Eurasian criminal fraternity
have been dipping their elaborately tattooed fingers in the U.S.
underworld for decades.
Several reputed 'vory v zakone,' or 'thieves-in-law' - members of a
storied Soviet-borne criminal caste in which Usoyan, known as 'Gramps
Khasan,' was an ascendant figure - have set up shop in the United
States since the fall of the Soviet Union, according to US law
enforcement sources and organized crime experts.
The most notorious of these career criminals Vyacheslav Ivankov, a
convicted Soviet felon nicknamed 'Yaponchik,' or 'Little Japanese,'
for his vaguely Asiatic visage.
Ivankov, believed to have been crowned a 'thief-in-law' during his
time in the Soviet prison system, arrived in Brooklyn's predominantly
Russian-speaking Brighton Beach neighborhood around 1992.
Russian authorities reportedly alerted their US counterparts to
Ivankov's reputation as a powerful crime godfather, though Ivankov's
actual influence and criminal acumen became the subject of
considerable debate among law enforcement officials, academics and
journalists.
Ivankov was ultimately arrested by US Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) agents in 1995 and convicted of trying to extort several million
dollars from two Russian-speaking businessmen in New York City -
becoming the first of two reputed 'thieves-in-law' to be convicted of
felonies in the United States.
In 2004 Ivankov was sent back to Russia, where he was acquitted of
murder and lived for several years before meeting a fate similar to
that of his fellow 'thief-inlaw' Usoyan last week: He was shot by a
sniper while leaving a Moscow restaurant in July 2009 and died of his
injuries three months later.
A second purported 'thief-inlaw' convicted of a crime in the United
States was Armen Kazarian, an ethnic Armenian nicknamed 'Pzo' who
authorities say assisted an Armenian-American crime group that
defrauded the US federal health insurance program Medicare to the tune
of $100 million.
Kazarian was arrested along with dozens of other suspects, and he
eventually pleaded guilty in 2011 to conspiracy to commit racketeering
charges. US federal prosecutor Preet Bharara announced at the time
that Kazarian was the first 'thief-in-law' to be convicted of
racketeering in the United States.
Kazarian is set to be sentenced in the case on Feb. 8, according to
the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. The
stipulated sentencing guidelines spelled out in the plea agreement
range from 30 to 37 months.
'Thieves-in-law' traditionally lived according to a so-called 'thieves
code' requiring them to completely eschew institutions, including the
state, outside the criminal sphere. They were accorded a special role
in the underworld, including as mediators for competing crime
networks.
The US government's indictment of Kazarian describes one incident in
which he allegedly played the role of just such a criminal arbiter.
According to investigators, he traveled to New York to assist an
associate whose friend had fallen into hot water with 'a promoter of
an overseas investment fraud scheme' over a $200,000 debt.
After speaking with another 'thief-in-law' representing the promoter,
Kazarian announced that the debt 'would be erased,' the indictment
alleges.
The indictment also suggests Kazarian was serious about ensuring he
was treated with a certain level of respect given his status. In
August 2010, federal investigators alleged, he and an associate
'threatened to sodomize and kill an associate who had failed to show
proper respect to Kazarian by repeatedly calling Kazarian while
drunk.'
Prior to his murder last week, Usoyan was among the last of this
criminal fraternity's old guard, whose status was derived from hard
prison time and a commitment to the tenets of the thieves code,
according to Mark Galeotti, an expert on Soviet and post-Soviet crime.
The colorful trappings are still there - the ornate tattoos, colorful
nicknames like 'The Boar' and 'Bonzai' - but these days the title of
'thief-in-law' can essentially be bought by men who have no interest
in the relatively austere lifestyles of the brotherhood's previous
generations, Galeotti said.
Nonetheless, the US government is not taking this younger generation
of purported criminals lightly.
Last June, the US Treasury Department announced the names of five
alleged members of a 'Eurasian crime syndicate' to be targeted for
asset freezes in the United States in an effort 'to protect the US
financial system from the malign influence of transnational criminal
organizations.'
These individuals - Temuri Mirzoyev, Koba Shemazashvili, Lasha
Shushanashvili, Kakhaber Shushanashvili, and Vladimir Vagin - are
widely believed to be 'thieves-inlaw,' and all have some connection to
Usoyan, according to Galeotti.
Mirzoyev is thought by some to be Usyoan's nephew, and the Russian
newspaper Izvestia reported that he attended the fallen kingpin's
funeral outside Moscow over the weekend.
From: A. Papazian