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ULAN BATOR (Reuters) - Russia's top general said on Wednesday the military would search the Arctic Sea merchant ship for a possible secret cargo when it returns to Russia from a maritime odyssey that has made headlines around the world.Russia says the Maltese-registered Arctic Sea, officially carrying timber from Finland to Algeria, was hijacked by eight men off the coast of Sweden on July 24. This month Russian warships intercepted the vessel off the coast of Cape Verde."We do not know yet what it is carrying, we only know it is timber. But what else it is actually transporting. It...

LEV L. DASSIN, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, JOSEPH M. DEMAREST, JR., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), and JANET DIFIORE, the District Attorney of Westchester County, announced today the unsealing of an Indictment charging ARTEM CHERNE, YEVGENY DYNKIN, ANDREW BURBAN, ANTHONY KALIKA, ANTON HUSYEV, LEONID VODVOZOV, ALEH MASALAKOV, ROBERT WOJICKI, and ROMAN LIKHADZIYEVSKI with offenses stemming from their membership in a criminal group involved in retail store burglaries, extortion, firearms offenses, marijuana trafficking, credit card fraud, identity theft, and other crimes. As...

A ONE-ARMED multi-millionaire, who is alleged to be the last of the Russian crime bosses of the 1990s to stay in business, has gone on trial in Moscow, accused of ordering a botched attempt to murder a rival in his silver Rolls-Royce. .... “I’m innocent and this trial is a farce,” Barsukov told The Sunday Times during the hearing. “I don’t fear this court and I’m far from broken. The only judgment that matters to me is God’s. I’m in very good spirits and when I look back on my life I’ve no regrets whatsoever.” He is accused of having...

On March 23, 2009 the Moscow City Court ruled that Semion Mogilevich, also known as Sergiy Shneider, will remain in prison until May 23 while investigators continue to examine his case. (Kommersant Daily, March 24). This is the third extension of his detention the court has ordered since Mogilevich was arrested on January 23, 2008 and charged with abetting in a tax evasion scheme. What makes this case highly sensitive is that Mogilevich has been suspected of having close links to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the opaque gas trade between Gazprom and Ukraine and RosUkrEnergo. Mogilevich is a...

From Himalayan villages to Eastern European cities, people — especially women and girls — are attracted by the prospect of a well-paid job as a domestic servant, waitress or factory worker. Human traffickers recruit victims through fake advertisements, mail-order bride catalogues and casual acquaintances. Upon arrival at their destination, victims are placed in conditions controlled by traffickers while they are exploited to earn illicit revenues. Many are physically confined, their travel or identity documents are taken away and they or their families are threatened if they do not cooperate. Women and girls forced to work as prostitutes are blackmailed by...

Top brass flew to Baghdad with publicity-shy empowerment businessman Mzilikazi Wa Afrika, Jessica Bezuidenhout and Andre Jurgens Two of the ANC's most powerful officials travelled to Iraq with a controversial Johannesburg businessman just weeks before he landed a R1.2-billion state oil deal. Sandi Majali is one of about 270 people around the world who have been named in an alleged sanctions-busting scam involving oil from former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime. The names appeared in Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organisation documents found after the fall of Saddam. Majali, 41, who heads the media-shy empowerment company Imvume Resources, has for the...

Bernard L. Madoff was once the chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange. He was one of the most important market makers on Wall Street. And he managed what was, by some estimates, the largest hedge fund on the planet.

George Soros is the biggest sugar daddy of the Democratic Party, and naturally wants to ensure that the Democrats have a monopoly of power in America. Recently, I wrote an article for American Thinker on the role that George Soros has played in helping the Democrat Al Franken in his race against the Republican incumbent Norm Coleman for a Senate seat in Minnesota. However, there may be one other reason that Soros was determined that Norm Coleman in particular lose his seat. This was personal. Norm Coleman was the chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and as...

Local law enforcement sources were sceptical, yet cautious yesterday about a report alleging a Russian mafia plot to kidnap Sir Mark Thatcher, the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Sir Mark is currently on the Rock amid speculation that authorities in Equatorial Guinea will issue an international warrant for his arrest in connection with a failed coup in 2004. In a further twist to an already bizarre tale, a specialist US newsletter claimed the British secret intelligence agency MI6 had warned Sir Mark that a powerful Russian criminal organisation had offered to kidnap him and take him...

Every day, thousands of Americans look to invest their money in stocks, and many of them go through brokers and traders to simplify the process. Unfortunately, according to Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, a majority of those purchasers will be victims of Wall Street's criminal tactics and will help line the pockets of corrupt brokers and lawyers. Byrne, a Utahn who founded Overstock.com, talked to a crowd in the Union on Monday about how New York financial media and law firms have teamed up with big-wig business elites to create massive amounts of profit at the cost of American consumers. Byrne...

Yulia Tymoshenko, the Ukrainian prime minister who is keen to clean up the murky natural gas trade between her country, Russia and central Asia, on Monday said Moscow’s arrest of a reputed crime boss was a sign that the days were numbered for ”corrupt” intermediaries. Ms Tymoshenko was referring to the arrest of the 61-year old mobster Semyon Mogilevich, who has alleged links to Swiss-registered RosUkrEnergo, a company half owned by Gazprom and 50 per cent controlled by two Ukrainian businessmen. ”We don’t need any shadowy intermediaries,” Ms Tymoshenko told reporters in Brussels while on her first foreign visit after...

AN AMERICAN nurse will go on trial in Monaco today charged with the arson attack that triggered a bizarre chain of events culminating in the death of one of the world’s wealthiest bankers, Edmond Safra, in 1999. The jury at the biggest criminal case held in the Principality will be told that Safra was killed by a combination of his own fear, official bungling and the tortured projects hatched by his nurse, Ted Maher. Mr Maher, 44, the sole defendant, is accused of arson with attempt to harm and faces a 20-year prison sentence if found guilty. Among the civil...

WASHINGTON — While U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan engage the enemy with guns, tanks, airplanes and missiles, the American military is quietly fighting a much different kind of war on a new front — cyberspace. Military officials say that a cyber-attack by foreign enemies or terrorist groups would result in "an electronic Pearl Harbor" that would shut down electricity, banking systems, cell phones and other tools of day-to-day life. Hundreds, and possibly thousands, of more-limited cyber-assaults are already bombarding the firewalls of government computer systems daily, prompting U.S. officials and military leaders to declare that the United States is...

These are screen-shots of a pistol found on some Russian mob hitman at 00:01:19 & 00:01:23 of the short video at the link above.

PORTSMOUTH — A Russian man attempted to pass off a phony $100 bill at the New Hampshire State Liquor store shortly before 8 p.m. Thursday, according to the store manager, who said a cashier discovered the bill was bogus. No arrest was made, according to police, but the incident was the talk of the store because Russians are known to be staying in the city ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin's scheduled visit with President Bush in Kennebunkport, Maine, on Sunday. Liquor store manager Mike Smith said the man, accompanied by four other Russian men, attempted to purchase two bottles...

Russian President Vladimir Putin discusses the missile dispute with the United States, the risks of cooperating with Western companies in the production of Russian natural gas and what he describes as democratic deficiencies in the United States and Europe. .................................................... QUESTION: Mr. President, it looks as though Russia has lost its fondness for the West. Your relations with Germany have deteriorated, and those with the United States even more so. Are we moving towards another Cold War? Putin: In international affairs and relations between the states, one can hardly be using any terminology which would be appropriate in the relations...

LOS ANGELES - Two men were convicted Wednesday of orchestrating a ruthless kidnapping-for-ransom scheme targeting Russian immigrants that resulted in the killings of five people whose bodies were found at the bottom of a Northern California reservoir. A federal jury found Iouri Mikhel, 41, and Jurijus Kadamovas, 40, guilty of three counts of hostage-taking and three counts of conspiracy. Both could face the death penalty. Neither defendant showed reaction. Relatives of some victims sobbed and held each other as the jury's decision was announced. During the 4 1/2-month trial, federal prosecutors portrayed the two defendants as the leaders of a...

Friday November 17, 2006 By JOE MANDAK Associated Press Writer PITTSBURGH (AP) U.S. Steel Corp. shares jumped more than 9 percent Friday after a Russian newspaper reported that OAO Severstal, with the help of other Russian iron ore companies, was considering a bid for the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker. U.S. Steel shares rose $6.00, or 9.3 percent, to close at $70.57 on the New York Stock Exchange. John Armstrong, a U.S. Steel spokesman, told The Associated Press on Friday that the company wouldn't comment on ``speculation and rumors.'' ``Our position on consolidation is that we believe in consolidation as long as there's...

Excerpt - LONDON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Al Qaeda is trying to acquire the technology that would enable it to use a nuclear device to attack Western targets including Britain, a senior British official said on Monday. "We know the aspiration is there. We know attempts to gather materials are there, we know that attempts to gather technology are there," the senior Foreign Office official told reporters. ~ snip ~

Some 450 police officers took part in the morning raids Nearly 30 people have been arrested in Georgia on suspicion of plotting a coup against the government, officials say. They say those detained are supporters of Igor Giorgadze - the fugitive former head of the state security service. Lawyers for those arrested deny the coup accusations, saying the arrests amount to political persecution. Mr Giorgadze fled Georgia after being accused of trying to assassinate then President Eduard Shevardnadze in 1995 - a charge he denies. Some 450 police officers took part in the morning raids on houses and offices...

Five members of a Russian-Armenian organized crime ring have been indicted for allegedly bilking Medicare of more than $20 million... The group operated medical clinics and laboratories in Los Angeles, Glendale and Pasadena that paid marketers for patient referrals and billed Medicare for tests that were unnecessary or were not done, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Searby wrote in court papers. Charged with conspiracy, health care fraud, Medicare kickbacks, making false statements to Medicare and money laundering. ...between 1997 and 2005.

The lawyer for one of the men last seen with a Connecticut newlywed before he vanished on a Mediterranean cruise last summer said federal agents had pressured his client for information about the man's disappearance and threatened to charge him with the rape of a female passenger if he declined to cooperate. In his first extensive comments on the case, the lawyer, Albert Y. Dayan, said that his client, Rustislav Kofman, denied any role in the disappearance of the Connecticut man, George Allen Smith IV, last July 5 on a Royal Caribbean cruise or in any rape. [snip] Mr. Dayan...

Russian organized crime has become a significant problem for California law enforcement agencies. During the past several years, some Russian emigres have established a growing number of loosely structured criminal networks in this state that are involved in sophisticated criminal activities. The law enforcement intelligence community has also become aware of at least four structured Russian criminal organizations operating in California. Russian organized crime includes crime groups from all the republics which comprised the former Soviet Union. These crime groups are operating in many of the major cities in California including Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, and San...

The founder of an online payment system has spoken out about his experience of being targeted by Russian gangsters who threatened to destroy his Web site and his business if he didn't pay them $10,000. To this day his Web site is under continual attack. Asif Malik, founder of NoChex, said his first contact with these blackmailers was in August 2004 when he received an email saying his Web site would be taken down by a DoS attack if the money wasn't paid into an account in Latvia. "We'd received loads of emails like this before and my initial reaction...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - German-American carmaker DaimlerChrysler plans to start assembling Mercedes Benz models in Russia this year, the Kremlin said. ADVERTISEMENT A Kremlin statement, issued late on Monday, quoted Daimler Chief Executive Juergen Schrempp as telling Russian President Vladimir Putin the cars would be assembled in St Petersburg -- Putin's political stronghold -- starting this autumn. A company spokesman in Stuttgart confirmed DaimlerChrysler planned to assemble Mercedes-Benz cars in St Petersburg, but gave no financial details or any concrete schedule to begin. Japan's Toyota became the first major carmaker to be lured by new Russian auto industry rules, saying last...

Tuesday May 10, 2005 BOSTON (AP) A man with ties to the Russian mob used secretly installed bank card readers and spy cameras to record passwords and steal at least $400,000 from ATM users over the past two years, authorities said.Ioan Emil Codarcea, 35, was scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday on charges including identity fraud, credit card fraud, and larceny.Codarcea, a Romanian national, was accused of installing phony magnetic card readers on doors leading to the ATM machines, or on the actual machines, in several communities in Massachusetts and in Manchester, N.H.The readers recorded the card information while tiny cameras...

He says his job as a Moscow gumshoe is right out of the movies. His name is Vladimir, an undercover detective hunting down Russian women who bill themselves online as brides. As CBS News Correspondent Thalia Assuras reports, their prey is American men. "They suck out $3,000 to $5,000, then simply disappear," he says. "It's become almost like an industry," says Russian detective Elena Garrett. Garrett is Vladimir's boss back here in the United States. A Russian bride herself, she now helps clients find out if their online love is real or an Internet phantom. "He gives us her name,...

Several bank accounts belonging to Russian businessmen were frozen in a Luxembourg bank, local paper Tageblatt wrote on Friday. The move was part of a campaign against money laundering connected with Banque Sella Luxembourg that is reportedly a branch of Israeli bank Hapoalim. The sums frozen on the demand of Israeli authorities make up hundreds of millions dollars, the paper wrote. Luxembourg prosecutors are ready to send the documents seized in the headquarters of Banque Sella Luxembourg to Israel. Among the Russian businessmen involved in the case, the paper only mentioned Arkady Gaidamak, who currently lives in France. He was...

With a lavish apartment on Central Park West, an upstate mansion and garages full of Mercedes and BMWs, the millionaire Pustilnik family — Russian immigrant owners of medical clinics in Brooklyn and Manhattan — seemed to be living the American dream. But the family's fortune was earned by insurance fraud and grand larceny, Manhattan prosecutors charged yesterday, announcing indictments that could put the 57-year-old mother, along with her son and his wife, behind bars for up to seven years. The Pustilniks — who are also being investigated for ties to Russian organized crime — have been using their clinics to...

From Himalayan villages to Eastern European cities, people -- especially women and girls -- are attracted by the prospect of a well-paid job as a domestic servant, waitress or factory worker. Human traffickers recruit victims through fake advertisements, mail-order bride catalogues and casual acquaintances. Upon arrival at their destination, victims are placed in conditions controlled by traffickers while they are exploited to earn illicit revenues. Many are physically confined, their travel or identity documents are taken away and they or their families are threatened if they do not cooperate. Women and girls forced to work as prostitutes are blackmailed by...

The Agency Rides Again - Angleton on Chalabi Michael Ledeen/NRO Like everyone else, I've been reading the stories about my friend Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress, and the accusations that he's an Iranian spy. I don't believe it, but before launching a tirade against the misnamed Central Intelligence Agency I thought I'd better check with the greatest unliving expert on intelligence, the late James Jesus Angleton. He was the longtime chief of CIA counterintelligence, and knew everything there was to know about spying, so I dusted off the ouija board and got him on the second try. JJA:...

From jilted to jailed: Man snaps after wife leaves Henderson bank standoff ended peacefully By BRIAN HAYNES REVIEW-JOURNAL Doug Edward McDonald waited 44 years to find what he believed was true love. Her name was Svetlana, a 20-something Ukrainian he met through a mail-order bride service. The Henderson man loved her like no other woman, even when she left him just four months after their wedding, his lawyer said. McDonald believed her sudden disappearance had something to do with prostitution, and after months of calling authorities and waiting for answers, McDonald took matters into his own hands, attorney Philip Singer...

POST WORLD EXCLUSIVE WASHINGTON — Billionaire Marc Rich has emerged as a central figure in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal and is under investigation for brokering deals in which scores of international politicians and businessmen cashed in on sweetheart oil deals with Saddam Hussein, The Post has learned. Rich, the fugitive Swiss-based commodities trader who received a controversial pardon from President Bill Clinton in January 2001, is a primary target of criminal probes under way in the U.S. attorney's office in New York and by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, sources said. "We think he was a major player in this...

<p>On Europe's western edge, in Ulster, democracy is producing unlovely results. On Europe's eastern edge, in Russia, the results are even more unsavory. Those whose mission is to finish regime change in Iraq by constructing democracy can sense how long their task may take by noting the difficulties in Europe, which is more politically mature than the Middle East.</p>

Putin’s Fascism and Klebnikov's Murder Alexandr Nemets Monday, Aug. 2, 2004 Russia under President Vladimir Putin has become Murder Inc. The cold-blooded assassination of Paul Klebnikov, editor of Forbes Russian edition, on June 10 in Moscow proves this claim. Western media appeared shocked by the killing of one of their own; though of Russian descent, Klebnikov, 41, was an American working for one of the West’s most influential business publications. There had long been the view that Westerners working in Russia were protected and that Russian crimes were largely fratricidal. No longer. Now that Klebnikov has joined the list of...

Anti-communist analyst note: [As the presidential candidate John Kerry already twice stated in his "honest" responses during the presidential debates he wants our nuclear research stopped and he wants to send money to Russia to "protect the 'former' Soviet era nuclear weapons" from being 'lost' or 'stolen' by Russian Mafia. Please consider the following article in that light of the fact even though it has been written 10 years ago - it was as important then as it is today.Published with permission given by Inside Story Communications. HM note]. The Plot To Hijack the CIA Is nuclear terrorism about to...

(Original Title) Guerillas steal their money from the Russian countryside!Detectives who recently investigated the financial machinations of Chechnyan immigrants in the Orlovsk region are convinced of this. "After a hard day of fighting the federals, I'm going to take a nap and wait for my money..." While the law enforcement agencies were occupied after Beslan in finding out the the identity of the leader of the terrorists, "Komsomolka" began its own investigation. And this was before the fingerprint experts declared that "The Colonel" could be no one else besides Ruslan Khuchbarova. Our information disclosed that during the first Chechnyan war...

Human trafficking is turning into a real problem in Israel, where law enforcement officials say women are bought and sold into the indentured servitude of the sex industry. The women in question are usually from the former Soviet Union and are traded by the Russian mob. The same Bedouins who smuggle weapons into Israel bring the women up through the Egyptian desert, oftentimes with a load of weapons. "It's a kind of meat market. It's very brutal — most of this kind of auction," said Gadi Eshed of the Israel Police. Thinking they are escaping the harsh conditions of home,...

I have created a public register of "bump lists" here on Free Republic. I define a bump list as a name listed in the "To" field used to index articles. Free Republic Bump List Register

RUSSIA SPIED ON BLAIR FOR SADDAM... // Top secret documents obtained by the Sunday Telegraph in Baghdad show that Russia provided Saddam Hussein's regime with wide-ranging assistance in the months leading up to the war, including intelligence on private conversations between Tony Blair and other Western leaders... MORE...

<p>British police said Tuesday they have arrested Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky at the request of Russian authorities who have charged him with fraud.</p> <p>An extradition request charges that Berezovsky defrauded the administration of Russia's Samara region while director of a company called LogoVaz between Jan. 1, 1994 and Dec. 31, 1995.</p>

LEHMAN BROTHERS used former KGB agents to collect bad debts arising from Russia’s 1998 financial crisis, the High Court was told yesterday. Kerim Derhalli, who earned $6 million (£3.8 million) in three and a half years with the bank, said that Lehman’s legal department had hired “so-called risk consultants, in other words, spies” to help with Russian recoveries. He said: “The people they engaged in Russia were typically former KGB operatives.” Mr Derhalli went on to claim that “even they were scared to talk about the people involved” and advised Lehman to drop its claims. Mr Derhalli said Russian bankers...

Saturday, 19 October, 2002, 14:07 GMT 15:07 UKExplosion rocks Moscow McDonald's Police suspect a criminal motive A car bomb has exploded in south-west Moscow near a crowded McDonald's restaurant. At least seven people have been injured, including a child, police said. Police have ruled out a terrorist motive and say it was probably connected to criminal activity. Itar-Tass news agency, quoting Moscow police, said a bomb in a Lada car outside the restaurant had exploded at about 1300 local time (0900 GMT). Police said the bomb was home-made and appeared to have been packed with metal filings. The restaurant is...

<p>The Russian mob was ready to kidnap or kill the United States' highest-ranking military officer in 1998 but was thwarted by his Army security detail, according to newly released military reports.</p> <p>The "after action review," a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times, tells a dramatic story of armed mob suspects preparing to block exit routes on a one-way street and standing on a rooftop as Gen. Henry Shelton, his wife and aides dined in St. Petersburg, a hot spot for violent crime families, on June 18, 1998.</p>

Currently, Russian officials and the government-controlled media are trying to give the international community a wrong idea – that the notorious Russian or "Red" Mafia exists largely in the imagination of Western intelligence experts. However, the activities of Russia's criminal syndicates have been exhaustively documented, not only by the law enforcement agencies but also by the security services of their commercial competitors. The very latest, but by no means the last, evidence of its existence could be last week's arrest of a reputed Russian crime boss who fixed two figure-skating events at the Salt Lake City Olympics by arranging a...

Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, the alleged Russian crime boss arrested on suspicion of trying to fix Olympics skating competitions, has no influence over Russian sports and could not have fixed the Olympic results, Russian officials said Thursday. However, a decade of local press reports paint a different picture. He is portrayed as a high-flying socialite who has hobnobbed with the likes of Marat Safin, Pavel Bure and even Marina Anissina, the figure skater named in the U.S. criminal complaint. Tokhtakhounov, who is better known in Russia by his nickname Taivanchik (Little Taiwanese), given to him for his Asiatic appearance, has also been...

NEW YORK (AP) -- This was the kind of dizzy scheme that could get a wise guy kicked out of the Russian mafia. Or laughed out. Smuggling, da. Extortion, da Murder, da. Fixing figure skating, nyet. Alimzan Tokhtakhounov, arrested Wednesday in Italy on U.S. charges that he fixed the pairs and ice dancing in a vote-swapping deal at the Salt Lake City Olympics, is described as a Russian crime boss operating out of southern France. Didn't he ever see ``The French Connection?'' Bad guys deal in heroin, not tights and flouncy blouses. If he beats the rap with the feds,...

Alleged mobster held for fixing Olympic skating ^ Posted by xp38 On Jul 31 11:18 PM with 20 comments The Globe and Mail ^ | July 31 2002 | AP New York — An alleged Russian crime boss was arrested in Italy on U.S. charges he tried to fix the pairs and ice dancing figure skating competitions at the Salt Lake City Olympics, according to a federal criminal complaint filed Wednesday. Alimzan Tokhtakhounov was arrested at his resort in Forte dei Marmi in northern Italy. . . Google translation of "International Mail" article: The "exceptionally gifted one of diamond" and...

New York — An alleged Russian crime boss was arrested in Italy on U.S. charges he tried to fix the pairs and ice dancing figure skating competitions at the Salt Lake City Olympics, according to a federal criminal complaint filed Wednesday. Alimzan Tokhtakhounov was arrested at his resort in Forte dei Marmi in northern Italy. He was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit bribery relating to sporting contests. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count. The criminal complaint filed in Manhattan federal court identified Tokhtakhounov as a...

WASHINGTON -- An alleged Russian crime boss was arrested in Italy on U.S. charges he tried to fix the ice dancing competition at the Salt Lake City Olympics, a senior law enforcement official said Wednesday. Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat won gold after their tribute to the United States. The federal government alleges that Alimzan Tokhtakhounov attempted to influence judges to award the gold medal to Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat of France. They did win. Federal investigators have in their possession recorded telephone conversations between Tokhtakhounov and a French ice dancer, in which he brags about being able to...