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2024-03-29T04:53:27Z
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Money launderer of powerful US-based Russian Mafia boss pleads guilty
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/money-launderer-of-powerful-us-based-russian-mafia-boss-pleads-gu
2020-12-11T16:33:45.000Z
2020-12-11T16:33:45.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/money-launderer-of-powerful-us-based-russian-mafia-boss-pleads-gu" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237115687,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237115687?profile=original" /></a>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>A man who laundered money for the Russian Mafia pleaded guilty in Manhattan Federal Court on Wednesday. Daniel Daniel admitted conspiring with US-based <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/for-him-i-am-a-god-profile-of-russian-mafia-boss-and-vor-v-zakone" target="_blank">Russian mob boss Razhden Shulaya</a> (photo above) to launder illicit proceeds through a purported vodka import-export business.</p>
<p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/for-him-i-am-a-god-profile-of-russian-mafia-boss-and-vor-v-zakone" target="_blank">Shulaya</a> was considered untouchable. As a member of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-overview" target="_blank">Russian Mafia</a>, a “Vor v Zakone”, known as a “Thief-in-Law”, he had risen to a leading position in the United States operating in and around the New York City area, including in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Manhattan" target="_blank">Manhattan</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Brooklyn" target="_blank">Brooklyn</a>, as well as in other parts of the country, including Las Vegas, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=LA" target="_blank">Los Angeles</a>, and Southern <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Florida" target="_blank">Florida</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/for-him-i-am-a-god-profile-of-russian-mafia-boss-and-vor-v-zakone" target="_blank">“For him, I am a god”</a> – Profile of Russian Mafia boss, and vor v zakone,</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/for-him-i-am-a-god-profile-of-russian-mafia-boss-and-vor-v-zakone" target="_blank"><strong>Razhden Shulaya</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>His organization engaged in widespread criminal activities, including the transportation and sale of stolen property, wire and bank fraud, illegal <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gambling" target="_blank">gambling</a> operations, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Extortion" target="_blank">extortion</a> of debtors to its gambling operation, and the use of false identification documents and counterfeit credit cards in order to illegally purchase merchandise.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Import-export</strong></span></p>
<p>Daniel facilitated the activities of the Shulaya organization by conspiring with Shulaya and others to launder proceeds of the group’s illicit activities. He assisted Shulaya in establishing a purported <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Vodka" target="_blank">vodka</a> import-export business referred to as “Tropport” and related Tropport bank accounts that he knew were being used as fronts for laundering criminal proceeds.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: Porsches and Yeezys – Profile of</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/porsches-and-yeezys-profile-of-new-york-crime-boss-aleksey-tsvetk" target="_blank"><strong>New York crime boss Aleksey Tsvetkov</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>As Shulaya’s money laundering consultant, Daniel explained that Tropport would provide “a cover for where [Shulaya obtained his] money”; advised Shulaya on the details of fabricating documents to reflect nonexistent corporate debt in order to falsely lower Tropport’s <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Tax" target="_blank">tax liability</a>; and described how this sham company and false documentation would allow the vor to plausibly deny any potential money laundering allegations.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Nexus of legitimate world of finance and international network of crime</strong></span></p>
<p>Daniel is scheduled to be sentenced on March 30, 2021 and faces a maximum term of twenty years in prison. His boss and over 25 other members of the organization were arrested in June of 2017. Shulaya was sentenced to 45 years in prison on December 19, 2018.</p>
<p>“Money launderers like Daniel sit at the nexus of the legitimate world of finance and an international network of criminal activity,” Manhattan Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said. “They embolden, enrich, and facilitate pernicious criminal actors, and seek to place well-heeled criminals like Razhden Shulaya beyond accountability. Today’s plea is another example of this Office’s dedication to uprooting and prosecuting these criminal facilitators.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-overview">Russian Mafia section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
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“For him, I am a god” – Profile of Russian Mafia boss, and vor v zakone, Razhden Shulaya
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/for-him-i-am-a-god-profile-of-russian-mafia-boss-and-vor-v-zakone
2018-12-22T10:26:18.000Z
2018-12-22T10:26:18.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/for-him-i-am-a-god-profile-of-russian-mafia-boss-and-vor-v-zakone" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237115687,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237115687?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>As a vor v zakone, mob boss Razhden Shulaya (above) was an official member of a century-old criminal tradition. As such, he was treated as Russian Mafia royalty. He used that position to run a sprawling organization involved in kidnapping, assault, fraud, extortion, and money laundering throughout the United States.</p>
<p>It was on the streets of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Petersburg" target="_blank">St. Petersburg</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Russia" target="_blank">Russia</a>, that Shulaya earned his stripes in the Russian underworld fraternity of the vory v zakone, or thieves-in-law. Welcomed into this brotherhood, he enjoyed its protection and influence.</p>
<p>As a member, he now too could offer the same to other <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-overview" target="_blank">Russian gangsters</a> seeking his guidance. His powerful position also enabled him to demand tribute payments from low-level criminals. More importantly, his title traveled along with him everywhere he went - even to the United States of America.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Russian Mafia has no boundaries</strong></span></p>
<p>Shulaya’s center of operations was based in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=NYC" target="_blank">New York City</a>, but he set up various crews with its members operating in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Florida" target="_blank">Florida</a>, and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Nevada" target="_blank">Nevada</a>. Of course, as an international Russian Mafia boss his organization knew no boundaries.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: Spanish court rules investments of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/spanish-court-rules-that-investments-of-tambovskaya-malyshevskaya" target="_blank">Tambovskaya-Malyshevskaya Russian Mafia clan</a> not criminal</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Most of his underlings were born in Russia and countries once part of the Soviet Union and many maintained substantial ties to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Georgia" target="_blank">Georgia</a>, Ukraine, and the Russian Federation. They traveled there regularly, communicated with associates in those countries, and transferred criminal proceeds to individuals there.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>From bribes to brothels: Business was booming</strong></span></p>
<p>There were enough proceeds to transfer. Business was booming in the United States. Shulaya liked to be on top things and personally oversaw the various illicit activities his associates were involved in. Whether it was <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Extortion" target="_blank">extortion</a>, trafficking stolen goods, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Bribery" target="_blank">bribing</a> corrupt police officers or running <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gambling" target="_blank">gambling businesses</a> and a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Brothel" target="_blank">brothel</a> in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Brooklyn" target="_blank">Brooklyn</a>, Shulaya kept a close eye on his interests.</p>
<p>White collar crime also was a favorite. His crews engaged in identity theft, credit card fraud, and laundered their ill-gotten gains through a fraudulently established vodka import-export company. Shulaya also created a scheme to defraud <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Casino" target="_blank">casinos</a> by targeting particular models of electronic slot machines using a complicated algorithm designed to predict the behavior of those machines. </p>
<p>To obtain the technology needed to commit that fraud, he kidnapped a software engineer in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Vegas" target="_blank">Las Vegas</a> in 2014. Shulaya then refined the technology by training lower-level members to execute this casino scam using smartphones and software developed by his organization.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237115887,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237115887?profile=original" /></a>“For him, I am a god”</strong></span></p>
<p>As the kidnapping showed, Shulaya (right) had no qualms about using force or violence – against anyone. He pistol-whipped a relative and gave a public beating to a disrespectful member of his gang. He even showed around photographs of the badly disfigured face of his former lieutenant Mamuka Chaganava, who he had beaten to a pulp. He took pride in his brutal work and was unafraid of retribution or Chaganava perhaps turning to police, saying: “For him, I am a god.”</p>
<p>Perhaps, but it also helped that he was usually flanked by Avtandil Khurtsidze, a former middleweight <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Boxing" target="_blank">boxing</a> champion and his chief enforcer and debt collector. Khurtsidze was captured on video twice assaulting others on orders of Shulaya and planned additional acts of violence with his boss targeting fellow members whom they perceived as having disrespected Shulaya’s status as a vor.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Downfall</strong></span></p>
<p>As the threats and beatings continued, the feds had found their target. On June 7, 2017, Shulaya and 32 members of his enterprise were hit with three indictments and one complaint charging them with a variety of racketeering charges.</p>
<p>A year later, following a two-week trial, Shulaya was found guilty of one count of racketeering conspiracy, one count of conspiring to traffic in stolen goods such as luxury watches, one count of conspiracy to traffic in contraband tobacco, one count of identification document fraud, and one count of wire fraud conspiracy.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-two-russian-mobsters-got-caught-up-in-the-iraqi-civil-war" target="_blank"><strong>How two Russian mobsters got caught up in the Iraqi civil war</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Khurtsidze was also found guilty on racketeering and related charges and was subsequently sentenced on September 7, 2018 to 10 years behind bars. </p>
<p>41-year-old Shulaya was sentenced to 45 years in prison on December 19. In addition to the prison term, the Russian vor was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $2,169,270 in forfeiture and restitution in the amount of $550,000.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-overview">Russian Mafia section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out our <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/gangsters-inc-on-social-media">social media channels</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/about-gangsters-inc">About Gangsters Inc.</a></strong></li>
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<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p></div>