[Images
added by this website]
Jewish
Russian TelegraphNews
and talk of interest to Russian Jews
January 25, 2008
Russian
main mafioso, head of Arbat Prestige arrested in
Moscow
Pravda:
By Alexandra Steblinina
A RUSSIAN businessman wanted
by FBI and Interpol has been arrested in Moscow,
offcials said Friday. The Russian Interior
Ministry's anti-organized crime unit’s
spokesman said that Semyon Mogilevich was
detained late Wednesday, the AP reported. He is
a Ukrainian-born Russian citizen suspected to be
a major figure in international crime and has
used 17 names to hide himself.
The suspect also held passports from several
countries. His arrest was formally approved on
Thursday. Mogilevich was detained under the
alias of Sergei Schneider. He was
arrested with the head Arbat Prestige -
Vladimir Nekrasov – near a
supermarket.
Both surrendered without resistance. Arbat
Prestige was suspected of evading about $2
million in taxes.
Semion Yudkovich Mogilevich (born June
30, 1946 in Kiev, Soviet Union, also written as
Semyon) is a
notorious organized crime
boss who is believed to control the largest
Russian Mafia syndicate in the world.
His business activities are alleged to
include arms dealing, drug trafficking,
prostitution and money laundering. He is
nicknamed "The Brainy Don", because of his
business abilities and because he holds a degree
in Economics from the Lviv University.
Mogilevich was born into a middle-class
Jewish family At the age of 22 he earned an
advance degree in economics from the university
in Lviv. In the early 1970s he became part of
the Lyubertskaya crime group in Moscow and was
involved in petty theft and fraud. He served two
terms (3 and 4 years) for currency dealing
offenses. FBI put Mogilewich in 2003 on the
"Wanted by the FBI List" for participation in
scheme to defraud investors in Canadian company
YBM Magnex International Inc. [link]
.![](../../std/dings/square.gif)