Bribery - Blog 2.0 - Gangsters Inc. - www.gangstersinc.org
2024-03-29T07:16:40Z
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Holding the city of Sao Paolo hostage: Profile of Brazilian crime boss Marcos Willians Herbas Camacho
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/holding-the-city-of-sao-paolo-hostage-profile-of-brazilian-crime
2021-04-10T15:39:31.000Z
2021-04-10T15:39:31.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/holding-the-city-of-sao-paolo-hostage-profile-of-brazilian-crime" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237147285,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237147285?profile=original" /></a>By Milko for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>Prison plays a big role in the underworld. It’s where gangsters go when they are caught, the place where they learn new tricks and meet new associates, perhaps even join a gang. Some of these gangs now wield power and influence well beyond prison walls. With the right leadership such gangs can even shutdown entire cities. Like crime boss Marcos Willians Herbas Camacho did in Sao Paolo with the Primeiro Comando da Capital, Brazil’s largest gang.</p>
<p>Marcos Willians Herbas Camacho was born on April 13, 1968, in Sao Paolo, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Brazil" target="_blank">Brazil</a>. His parents are said to have passed away when he was 9 years old. It was around this time, young Camacho began getting involved in crime. He stole some things and received the nickname “Marcola”, a mix of his first name Marcos and cola, which was Brazilian street slang for inhaling industrial glue.</p>
<p>Eventually, Herbas Camacho got involved in more serious crimes. He was arrested for robbing a bank in 1986. After his conviction, he was sent to the overcrowded Carandiru prison in Sao Paolo.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>WATCH: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/dressed-as-cops-robbers-steal-40-million-worth-of-gold-at-sao-pau" target="_blank">Dressed as cops, robbers steal $40 million</a> worth’ of gold at Sao Paulo airport in Brazil</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Guards killed over 100 inmates in 1992, which led to the founding of the Primeiro Comando da Capital (<a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=PCC" target="_blank">PCC</a>), translated it means the First Command of the Capital, which would become Brazil’s biggest and most powerful <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gangs" target="_blank">gang</a>. In 1993, Herbas Camacho was transferred to the Yaubaté prison where he first came into contact with the PCC.</p>
<p>He was then transferred back to Carandiru and managed to escape from there several times. As soon as he was out, he would commit more crimes. Rather than sticking to Brazil, he would go across the border into <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Paraguay" target="_blank">Paraguay</a> and do crimes there, mostly large, well-planned <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Robbery" target="_blank">robberies</a> of money trucks and banks. Herbas Camacho became notorious for a series of these kinds of successful bigtime robberies in the 1990s.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237148252,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237148252?profile=original" /></a>Around 2000, he decided to join the PCC and become a member. He quickly rose up the ladder, becoming one of the underbosses of Cesar Augusto Roris da Silva and Jose Marcio Felicio, two of the founders of the PCC.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: Profile of</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/brazilian-drug-lord-eduardo-herculano-da-silva" target="_blank"><strong>Brazilian Drug Lord Eduardo Herculano da Silva</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>In July of 1999, the PCC organized a big bank heist in Sao Paolo, getting away with around $5.5 million dollars. Later that month, cops spotted Herbas Camacho driving around Sao Paolo in a luxury car and arrested him. For his role in robberies, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drug trafficking</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Murder" target="_blank">murder</a>, and being part of an organized crime group, he was sentenced to 232 years and 11 months in prison. He began serving his sentence in 2000.</p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size:14pt;">The takeover of the Primeiro Comando da Capital</span></strong></p>
<p>Inside, Herbas Camacho began plotting a takeover of the PCC. Some sources claim he used his ex-wife and lawyer Ana Maria Olivatti to send information about PCC bosses Cesar Augusto Roris da Silva and Jose Marcio Felicio to authorities. This led to their transfer to a maximum security prison.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/biggest-heist-of-century-shocks-paraguay-as-robbers-use-grenades" target="_blank">“Biggest heist of century” shocks Paraguay</a> as robbers use grenades to steal $40M, kill one cop in shootout</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Both gang leaders suspected Herbas Camacho’s betrayal and planned on killing Olivatti. They also allegedly provided police with information about Camacho’s business, leading to the arrest of several of his close associates.</p>
<p>Regardless, Herbas Camacho managed to win the trust of most of the PCC members and was crowned the new leader in 2002. Under his leadership the PCC became more structured. Members were forced to pay a monthly sum, there were disciplinary measures for those who broke the rules, and PCC activities were expanded into new areas.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>City under siege</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237148296,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237148296?profile=original" /></a>In May of 2006, Herbas Camacho heard that he and 700 other inmates were to be transferred to a maximum security prison. He immediately contacted other PCC bosses and on May 12 riots erupted in prisons in and around Sao Paolo. Two days later there were riots in several other Brazilian states as well.</p>
<p>At the same time, throughout Brazil, cops, police stations, court buildings, public transport, and various other places were attacked by <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/street-gangs" target="_blank">gang members</a>. Life in Sao Paolo grinded to a halt. All in all around 2600 attacks took place.</p>
<p>Authorities eventually managed to push back and stop the riots, but by then over 150 people had died. Despite all this violence Herbas Camacho was still transferred to the maximum security prison.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-deadly-criminal-conspiracy-behind-the-rio-2016-olympics" target="_blank"><strong>The deadly criminal conspiracy behind the Rio 2016 Olympics</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>In 2014, he was moved to another prison after authorities discovered there was a plan to help him escape using a helicopter. In 2018 another escape plan forced authorities to transfer him yet again.</p>
<p>In February of 2018, Herbas Camacho was sentenced to an additional 30 years behind bars for leading a network of lawyers which helped him exchange messages with other PCC leaders and distribute bribes and pay offs on behalf of the PCC.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Milko" target="_blank">Milko</a> (a pseudonym) is a Dutchman who has studied organized crime in the Netherlands, its history, and its offshoots in foreign countries for over two decades. He is also very knowledgeable about crime in other countries and is eager to share his information.</em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/street-gangs">Street Gangs 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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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p></div>
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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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
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“I’m in waste management!” - Genovese Mafia family soldier Frank Giovinco guilty of racketeering
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/i-m-in-waste-management-genovese-mafia-family-soldier-frank-giovi
2019-12-06T10:30:00.000Z
2019-12-06T10:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/i-m-in-waste-management-genovese-mafia-family-soldier-frank-giovi" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237134681,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237134681?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>A <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family" target="_blank">Genovese Mafia family</a> mobster was convicted of racketeering on Tuesday. The jury found 52-year-old Frank Giovinco responsible for acts involving <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Extortion" target="_blank">extortion</a>, honest services fraud, and unlawful kickback payments related to the Genovese family’s control of two local chapters of a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Union" target="_blank">labor union</a>.</p>
<p>“For years, Frank Giovinco, as a member of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family" target="_blank">Genovese crime family</a>, instilled fear in victims and propagated kickback schemes to tighten the Family’s stranglehold over two labor unions,” U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said. “Now, a jury has held Giovinco accountable for his crimes.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Getting “made”</strong></span></p>
<p>As the nephew of Joe “Joey Carpets” Giovinco, an associate in the crew of Genovese family capo <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/a-mean-street-in-queens-to-kill-a-cop" target="_blank">Frederico “Fritzie” Giovanelli</a>, Frank had all the right connections. He grew up on Long Island and played football in High School, before putting his physique to work for the mob. As a twenty-some-year-old He was busted for possession of stolen property, but mostly flew under the radar of law enforcement.</p>
<p>In the early 1990s, the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family" target="_blank">Genovese family</a> placed Giovinco in a position to control the waste carting industry in New York City. Within a few years, by the late 1990s, the family made him an official member.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: The Irishman:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-irishman-meet-the-real-mafia-muscle-behind-martin-scorsese-s" target="_blank"><strong>Meet the real Mafia muscle behind Martin Scorsese’s gangster epic</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>His work, according to prosecutors, consisted of a wide range of crimes to enrich not only himself, but other members and leaders of the Genovese crime family. These included multiple acts of extortion, honest services fraud, and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Bribe" target="_blank">bribery</a>.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Labor racketeering: Threats & extortion</strong></span></p>
<p>Giovinco’s focus was on two local chapters of a labor union. He participated in a host of schemes designed to manipulate and siphon money from the unions for the benefit of the Genovese family. Among other things, he extorted a financial adviser and a labor union official for a cut of commissions made from union investments.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/keeping-the-new-york-docks-in-the-mafia-family-from-the-gigantes" target="_blank">Keeping the New York docks in the (Mafia) family</a>: The Gigantes to the daughter of Donnie Brasco's “Lefty”</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Audio recordings captured Giovinco planning to “rattle the cage” of a victim, and to have another victim’s “feet held to the fire.” When the union official failed to pay the commissions demanded by the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mafia" target="_blank">Mafia</a>, his life was threatened by Giovinco and other gangsters.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Kickbacks</strong></span></p>
<p>Giovinco further plotted to profit from union investments by paying kickbacks to the union official and others, in exchange for a cut of future commissions. He also participated in the long-running extortion of a union president for annual tribute payments of more than $10,000, and sought a job at the union for the purpose of exerting control over the union official on the Genovese family’s behalf, and threatening to replace him if he didn’t comply.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/genovese-mafia-family-made-man-and-underlings-plead-guilty-to-rol" target="_blank">Genovese Mafia family made man and underlings plead guilty</a> to role in sophisticated multi-million-dollar scheme</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>The charges of which Giovinco was found guilty carry a maximum potential sentence of 20 years in prison, but things didn't turn out to be severe. On June 22, 2020, Giovinco was <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/genovese-mafia-family-s-union-muscle-sentenced-to-4-years-in-pris" target="_blank">sentenced</a> to 4 years behind bars.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family">Genovese crime family 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>
</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p></div>
The Stalking Capo: How a mobster’s jealousy of his girlfriend caused the indictment of 20 Colombo family gangsters
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-stalking-capo-how-a-mobster-s-jealousy-of-his-girlfriend-caus
2019-10-05T16:00:00.000Z
2019-10-05T16:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-stalking-capo-how-a-mobster-s-jealousy-of-his-girlfriend-caus" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237127500,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237127500?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>All is fair in love and war, the saying goes. But break the law and reality will come knocking and slap some handcuffs on you. Alleged <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-colombo-crime-family" target="_blank">Colombo crime family</a> capo Joseph Amato Sr. (photo above) felt he was entitled to know where his girlfriend was at all times, so he placed a GPS tracker under her car. Little did he know that this move would kickoff an FBI investigation that would bring down his Mafia crew.</p>
<p>For a while the tracker did its job, sending back details of the woman’s routes to the suspicious mob captain. Until one day she found out about it. Instead of smashing the device, she placed it under an MTA bus on its way to the next bus stop. There it remained until the bus stopped at the depot in Staten Island for a routine maintenance inspection in November 2016.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Alarms go off, FBI comes running</strong></span></p>
<p>There was nothing routine about the GPS tracker mechanics found. Alarmed, the depot was evacuated and explosive experts were called in to ensure the device wasn’t some type of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Bomb" target="_blank">bomb</a>. Once they knew what it was, everyone calmed down, but by then the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=FBI" target="_blank">FBI</a> was involved and eager to find out why a bus was equipped with such a tracker – and, more importantly, who the tracker belonged to.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-a-rat-brought-down-the-colombo-mafia-family-crew-of-fat-jerry" target="_blank">How a rat brought down the Colombo Mafia family crew</a> of “Fat Jerry,” “The Mask,” and “Mumbles”</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>To make matters easy, 60-year-old <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Amato" target="_blank">Joseph Amato Sr.</a> had reported the tracker as lost. When your business is extortion and racketeering, following your girlfriend around with a hidden GPS tracker apparently doesn’t register as something criminal and better kept on the down low, without any written reports.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Threats and kisses</strong></span></p>
<p>Once the feds realized Amato was the man behind the GPS device, they zoomed in on their target to see what they could find. Amato Sr. was a rising <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-colombo-crime-family" target="_blank">Colombo family</a> mobster who had fought alongside acting boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Orena" target="_blank">Vic Orena</a>’s faction against imprisoned official boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/legendary-new-york-mafia-boss-carmine-persico-was-the-ultimate-su" target="_blank">Carmine Persico</a>’s faction during the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=War" target="_blank">Colombo war</a> in the 1990s. He spent a long time behind bars, but had since become a capo. Wiretaps were put in place and agents listened in on calls and read messages sent and received by dozens of alleged mobsters.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-fbi-s-secret-thirty-year-relationship-with-a-mafia-killer" target="_blank"><strong>The FBI's Secret Thirty-Year Relationship with a Mafia Killer</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>In one email to his then-girlfriend, Amato wrote: “This is my island (Staten Island). Not yours. I have eyes all over.” The feds say he was not exaggerating. He was the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-colombo-crime-family" target="_blank">Colombo family</a>’s most powerful figure operating in Staten Island. In another email, he stated: “I’m a MANS MAN!!!”</p>
<p>Amato has quite a way with words and the ladies, no?</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>“Do you know who my father is?”</strong></span></p>
<p>As the feds kept listening, they uncovered more and more shady dealings of various associates, including Amato Sr.’s 26-year-old son Joseph Jr., who took after his father when it came to communicating. On one occasion, someone confronted Amato Jr. for insulting a woman in a bar. Amato Jr. told the individual to back off, and threatened: “Do you know who my father is?”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/legendary-new-york-mafia-boss-carmine-persico-was-the-ultimate-su" target="_blank">Legendary New York Mafia boss Carmine Persico</a> was the ultimate survivor, up until his death behind bars</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>The following day, the man was lured to a location where Amato Sr., Amato Jr. and other members of Amato’s crew brutally beat the victim, leaving him bloodied and in need of staples in his scalp.</p>
<p>The men took pride in their act of violence. 52-year-old <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-colombo-crime-family" target="_blank">Colombo family</a> soldier Thomas Scorcia boasted: “I told the guy sit in the car, and the kid had the tears.” 28-year-old Colombo family associate Anthony Silvestro added: “You send him a smack. If he raises his hand back to you, we beat the bricks off him, that’s it.”</p>
<p>Amato Jr. was ecstatic: “We abused him so bad. Yo, I had, bro, me and Pap (Silvestro), bro, had him shaking, bro. He was in tears, he was crying.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Indictments</strong></span></p>
<p>Were the roles reversed this past Thursday? That day twenty alleged members and associates of New York’s Colombo Mafia family were indicted and charged with racketeering, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Extortion" target="_blank">extortion</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Loansharking" target="_blank">loansharking</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Stalking" target="_blank">stalking</a>, attempted sports bribery and related offenses. Two firearms, two stun <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Guns" target="_blank">guns</a>, a canister of purported tear gas and thousands of dollars in U.S. currency were recovered during court-authorized searches of residences of Amato and Scorcia.</p>
<p>Among those charged with racketeering were Joseph Amato Sr.; 54-year-old <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Capaldo" target="_blank">Daniel Capaldo</a>, 58-year-old <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Scura" target="_blank">Vincent Scura</a>, and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Scorcia" target="_blank">Thomas Scorcia</a>, alleged made members in the Colombo family; and Joseph Amato Jr. and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Silvestro" target="_blank">Anthony Silvestro</a>, alleged <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-colombo-crime-family" target="_blank">Colombo family</a> associates.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Fixing NCAA college basketball games</strong></span></p>
<p>FBI agents also overheard an attempt by some members of the gang to fix an NCAA college basketball game. To further the scheme, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Bifalco" target="_blank">Benjamin Bifalco</a> offered members of a college basketball team thousands of dollars to intentionally lose the game. Things didn’t really go according to plan, though, and the fix was not in.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>“Playground bullies”</strong></span></p>
<p>“One of the stunning things revealed in this investigation, it seems members of the mafia families that were once almost romanticized by Hollywood and pop culture, have resorted to acting like playground bullies. As alleged, they are still up to their old extortion and bribery schemes, and terrorizing their victims, but they are also still getting caught,” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>UPDATE MARCH 23, 2021:</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/colombo-mafia-family-capo-who-stalked-his-girlfriend-pleads-guilt" target="_blank"><strong>Colombo Mafia family capo who stalked his girlfriend pleads guilty to racketeering</strong></a></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-colombo-crime-family">Colombo crime family section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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Son of New York Mafia boss Vincent “Chin” Gigante pleads guilty to racketeering charges
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/son-of-new-york-mafia-boss-vincent-chin-gigante-pleads-guilty-to
2019-04-12T09:00:10.000Z
2019-04-12T09:00:10.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/son-of-new-york-mafia-boss-vincent-chin-gigante-pleads-guilty-to" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237126467,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237126467?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>The son of late New York Mafia boss Vincent “Chin” Gigante pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday. 51-year-old Vincent Esposito (photo above, left) admitted conspiring with other Genovese crime family mobsters in extorting union officials.</p>
<p>Esposito is the only son of longtime <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/genovese-boss-vincent-chin" target="_blank">Genovese crime family leader Vincent Gigante</a> and his mistress Olympia Esposito. The <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mafia" target="_blank">Mafia</a> boss raised two separate families: One with his wife, the other with his mistress. Thanks to the groundwork laid by his deceased father, Esposito was able to use the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family" target="_blank">mob family</a> and its muscle to lean on various union officials.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>$3.8 million in cash hidden at home</strong></span></p>
<p>In one case, he directed the long-running extortion of a union official for annual tribute payments of over $10,000, and had a number of lower-ranking associates collect money and convey threats to the man on his behalf. In another extortion scheme, Esposito’s guys extorted a different union official and a financial adviser for a cut of commissions made from union investments.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/keeping-the-new-york-docks-in-the-mafia-family-from-the-gigantes" target="_blank"><strong>How the Gigante family ruled the New York docks</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Authorities busted the scheme in 2017. At the time of Esposito’s arrest, the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=FBI" target="_blank">FBI</a> executed a search warrant on his home and seized more than $3.8 million in U.S. currency hidden throughout the residence, along with an unregistered handgun, ammunition, brass knuckles, and lists of made members of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family" target="_blank">Genovese crime family</a>. As part of today’s guilty plea, Esposito agreed to forfeit the more than $3.8 million seized by the FBI as criminal proceeds resulting from the offense.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>The other Gigante son</strong></span></p>
<p>Gigante’s other son, Andrew, also ran afoul with the law. In 2002, he was <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/genovese-associate-andrew" target="_blank">arrested along with his father</a> and several other Genovese mobsters and charged with running extortion rackets on the New York, New Jersey and Miami waterfronts. Andrew pleaded guilty in 2003, agreed to forfeit $2 million, and was sentenced to 2 years in prison.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>“Throwback behavior”</strong></span></p>
<p>“The shakedown of union officials, racketeering and extortion may sound like throwback behavior of mobsters who operated decades ago,” FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney Jr. said. “However, the bread and butter of the mafia is to make money, so the illegal enterprises they’ve always engaged in are being used even in the modern era. The FBI New York Organized Crime Task Force will investigate whatever illicit activity the mob chooses to pursue, in order to stop their criminal behavior.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-a-rat-brought-down-the-colombo-mafia-family-crew-of-fat-jerry" target="_blank">How a rat brought down the Colombo Mafia family crew</a> of “Fat Jerry,” “The Mask,” and “Mumbles”</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman added, “As he admitted today, for more than a decade Vincent Esposito made millions with members of the Genovese Crime Family by extorting payments, demanding kickbacks, committing fraud, and instilling fear. Thanks to an extensive investigation by our law enforcement partners, Esposito has been unmasked as a criminal and put out of business.”</p>
<p>Esposito’s guilty plea carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. He is scheduled for sentencing on July 10.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family">Genovese crime family section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</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.
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<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>
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<p> </p></div>
Rise in sports corruption as Mafia groups step up involvement - Meeting at Europol about combating these crimes
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/rise-in-sports-corruption-as-mafia-groups-step-up-involvement-mee
2017-11-19T17:24:47.000Z
2017-11-19T17:24:47.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/rise-in-sports-corruption-as-mafia-groups-step-up-involvement-mee" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237095085,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237095085?profile=original" width="629" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Organized crime syndicates are increasingly getting involved in sports corruption. Fixing a match means a guaranteed lucrative payout by betting on the correct outcome. Criminals operating in this multi-billion-dollar field use different modi operandi and adopt very complex structures, therefore the only successful response by law enforcement, Europol says, is to adopt a multi-disciplinary and multi-agency approach, involving all key actors from both the public and private sectors.</p>
<p>Sports corruption is an offence often carried out by <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mafia" target="_blank">Mafia</a>-type groups, says David Ellero, Head of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Europol" target="_blank">Europol</a>’s Economic and Property Crimes Unit. “Therefore, it is Europol’s responsibility to fight it with the same approach adopted in the struggle against other crime areas such as <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drug trafficking</a> and weapons smuggling. We need to ensure that the manipulation of sports competitions does not pay and does not attract more organized criminality.”</p>
<p>To achieve that aim, on 16 and 17 November, Europol brought together representatives from European law enforcement agencies, sports governing bodies, private companies operating in the sector of integrity services, and other international organizations, for a meeting on crime and sports.</p>
<p>Experts in the area of sports corruption from fifteen EU Member States and three non-EU States (Moldova, Australia and Switzerland) as well as delegates from Eurojust and INTERPOL attended the meeting, together with representatives from <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=UEFA" target="_blank">UEFA</a>, the Tennis Integrity Unit and Sportradar.</p>
<p>Aims and objectives of the meeting were to enable further cooperation between participants by sharing concrete operational expertise and best practices in fighting sports corruption. In addition, the intelligence picture of this form of organized crime and the organized crime groups influencing it was further defined, by sharing strategic knowledge between all actors involved.</p>
<p>Among the delegates were also representatives from the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=IOC" target="_blank">International Olympic Committee</a> (IOC) via their Olympic Movement Unit on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions. Europol and the IOC had already intensified their cooperation in the last two years, since the latter plays an important role in protecting the integrity of sport across all Olympic disciplines.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-boss-rakhimov-and-the-sochi-olympics" target="_blank">Russian crime boss Gafur Rakhimov & the Sochi Olympics</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>It was the IOC that was faced with a widespread corruption scandal during the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. Several of its members were forced to resign in 1998, years before the Games even had begun on charges that they had accepted bribes in return for voting for Salt Lake City as an Olympic venue.</p>
<p>Then, during the first week of the Games, there were new allegations of bribery. This time it involved <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-overview" target="_blank">Russian Mafia</a> boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russian-boss-alimzhan" target="_blank">Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov</a>. According to the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=FBI" target="_blank">FBI</a>, he had fixed the figure skating competition by pressuring two of the jurors, one from Russia, the other from France.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/fifa-capo-sepp-blatter-boozing-with-russian-mob-boss" target="_blank">FIFA boss Sepp Blatter boozing with Russian mob boss</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Also present was the Council of Europe (CoE), which attended for the first time. The CoE is at the forefront of the adoption of important international legal instruments to tackle sports corruption more effectively, in particular through the Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions - the only international, legally binding text to exist in the field.</p>
<p>Whether this meeting will have an effect or not depends on how serious law enforcement is about fighting and investigating corruption. For decades, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=FIFA" target="_blank">FIFA</a>, the world’s most powerful sports organization, got away with rampant <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/fifa-capo-sepp-blatter-boozing-with-russian-mob-boss" target="_blank">bribery and corruption</a>. Even though it had former FBI agents among its employees.</p>
<p>Though it’s the shady gangster who corrupts a certain player or team, and it’s the leg breaker who utters the threats to ensure that the players comply with the organized crime groups, and it’s the groups that place the bets and reap the biggest rewards, it’s the sport’s clubs and official governing bodies that set the example and create the atmosphere that makes it all possible.</p>
<p>If soccer clubs are allowed to be bought by shady billionaires, it is no wonder the legitimacy of the sport starts to crumble. It always begins with the exchange of money. Once one side accepts it from a criminal source, the Mafia groups have entered the building. And they won’t leave without a fight.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime 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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<p> </p></div>
Russia arrests top officials, charges them with taking bribes from mob boss
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/russia-arrests-top-officials-charges-them-with-taki
2016-07-20T09:18:24.000Z
2016-07-20T09:18:24.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russia-arrests-top-officials-charges-them-with-taki"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237076076,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237076076?profile=original" width="520" /></a>By Gangsters Inc. Editors</p>
<p>Agents of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested the deputy chief as well as the head of internal security of its Moscow branch yesterday during raids on the offices and homes of several Investigations Committee officials suspected of taking bribes from members of an <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-overview">organized crime group</a>.</p>
<p>Though <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-19/russia-raids-top-investigators-over-mob-ties-bribe-taking" target="_blank">details</a> remain a bit sketchy, several Russian newspapers report that the charges stem from an incident involving <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-overview">Moscow mob</a> bosses Zakharii "Junior" Kalashov and his right-hand man Andrei “The Italian” Kochuikov.</p>
<p>Kochuikov was involved in a deadly shooting in December of 2015 at a café in Moscow’s central Rochdelskaya Street that left two people dead and eight wounded - security cam footage below.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237076668,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237076668?profile=original" width="454" /></a>“Due to a strange turn of events, the investigator, who was looking into this case, simply forgot to request an arrest extension with the court,” The Moskovsky Komsomolets daily reported. “Security officers however had learned about it beforehand and detained ‘The Italian’ again, right at the entrance to the Matrosskaya Tishina detention center where he had been held. It was rumored back then that Kochuikov’s release was allegedly linked to corrupt officials. It was even said that a sum of $1 million U.S. dollars had been supposedly earmarked to bribe officers of the Investigations Committee Moscow department.”</p>
<p>Kalashov was arrested this month and charged with extorting 8 million rubles ($126,000 dollars) from the same café.</p>
<p>Russian President <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-dark-knight-of-mother">Vladimir Putin</a> was notified of the ongoing investigation, an FSB spokesperson told the media. One would think that goes without saying, but not in Putin’s Russia. Corruption has engulfed the country and bribery is considered a part of everyday life.</p>
<p>Even Putin himself has been <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-money-laundering-ring-in-spain-busted">linked</a> to Mafia groups and crime bosses, particularly the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-russian-mafia-in-spain">Tambovskaya</a> and Taganskaya Mafia groups. Leaders and members of both groups were <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-money-laundering-ring-in-spain-busted">recently busted in Spain</a> in a million-dollar money laundering case. Investigators there discovered that they maintained good contacts with Russian politicians, particularly with leaders of the United Russia party of Putin.</p>
<p>Interestingly, Kalashov, who was born in Georgia and is seen as one of Russia's most influential criminal bosses involved in the casino business, also spent quite some time in Spain. But due to a major police bust in 2005, he had to leave in a hurry to avoid arrest.</p>
<p>In a country so corrupt it doesn’t matter if a few mob bosses go down and a couple of corrupt investigators are caught. The system itself continues. With <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-dark-knight-of-mother">Vladimir Putin</a> at the helm it will be business as usual.</p>
<p>That is, if you know the right people, of course.</p>
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The Rat who became King: Triad boss Raymond Chow
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-rat-who-became-king-triad-boss-raymond-chow
2015-10-14T10:00:00.000Z
2015-10-14T10:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9881372089?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-rat-who-became-king-triad-boss-raymond-chow"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237041701,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237041701?profile=original" width="571" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Raymond Chow’s life story is one tailor-made for the cinema. It’s a rags to riches tale containing violence, murder, betrayal, political corruption, and secretive Chinese criminal brotherhoods in San Francisco’s Chinatown. It’s the story of a gangster who ratted on his Triad boss only to go on and become the leader of the underworld himself. Only in America.</p>
<p>Born in China, Chow’s grandmother bestowed him with the nickname “Shrimp Boy” to shield him from evil spirits. Little did she know that her young boy would grow up to haunt many people himself, even sending some off to the spirit realm… allegedly. </p>
<p>As a teenager on the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/asian-youth-gangs-and-the">mean streets of San Francisco</a> Chow (photo above) had no qualms about violence and immersed himself in the gang life. He joined the Hop Sing Boys where, the <a href="http://m.sfgate.com/crime/article/The-enigma-of-Raymond-Chow-self-proclaimed-5398313.php" target="_blank">San Francisco Gate</a> reported, “Chow quickly distinguished himself […] with his blend of charisma and ruthlessness.” As a result, between the late 1970s and the end of the 1980s, he spent two stints in prison totaling a combined decade behind bars for robbery and assault.</p>
<p>After having proven himself as a capable enforcer Chow made it big in the 1990s. Together with Triad boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/triad-boss-peter-chong">Peter Chong</a> he embarked on an ambitious plan to combine several <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/triads-overview">American Tongs and Chinese street gangs</a> into one big <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/triads-overview">Triad</a>, which was to be called Tien Ha Wui, or Whole Earth Association. Before they could achieve their goal, however, law enforcement indicted them on a host of racketeering charges. Chong managed to flee to Hong Kong in 1992, but was extradited to stand trial in the United States in 2000. He was convicted and sentenced to a prison term of fifteen years.</p>
<p>Chow's trial had already taken place in 1996 and had ended in a mistrial. But he was subsequently convicted of gun charges and given a twenty-five-years to life sentence. It was too much for Chow who had seen enough prison cells in his lifetime. He cut a deal with the government, pleaded guilty in federal court to racketeering involving murder for hire, conspiracy to distribute heroin, arson and other crimes, and testified against <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/triad-boss-peter-chong">Chong</a>, his former boss. As part of his deal, Chow was released from prison in 2003.</p>
<p>Fresh out of prison, Chow claimed to be a reformed man who found religion and wanted to do good. He wanted to help young kids stay away from gangs. Members of law enforcement found it interesting that while warning youngsters to stay away from gang life, Chow himself went straight back to the streets of Chinatown and renewed his contacts with members of Asian gangs, including his former Hop Sing Tong underlings.</p>
<p>He did so without being shot on sight as a known informant or, in street slang, rat. Apparently, there is no “stop snitchin’” movement in Chinatown.</p>
<p>The Hop Sing Tong was now led by Allen Ngai Leung, already the boss of the Chee Kung Tong, who had become the leader while Chong and Chow were in prison. He arrived in California during the 1970s, at the age of twenty. During the late seventies, he became a member of the Hop Sing. As he became a successful businessman, he started playing a bigger role within the Tong, quickly becoming its leader. When Chow was released from prison, an associate of his allegedly sent word to Leung that several young Hop Sing members needed money “to do business.” When the Hop Sing Tong leadership voted against lending the younger members money its front door was shot at by unknown assailants the next day.</p>
<p>It was all too much for Leung, who decided to cooperate with authorities in solving this case. It was a dangerous move, and one that didn't have a happy end. In February of 2006, Leung was shot to death in his office by a gunman wearing a mask while his wife watched in horror.</p>
<p>No one has been charged with the murder. And though Chow was a suspect, he was never charged. During Leung's funeral hundreds of people came to pay their respects, among them a cabinet minister from Taiwan. Raymond Chow was also there, telling Chinese reporters he came to pay his respects to “Big Brother,” a term used by Triad members to pay respect but also indicate one of their leaders. He did so, while wearing a white suit - photo below. Authorities claim it was a sign of disrespect and that he had taken control, though Chow denies that. “The white suit he wore was a sign of humility and respect, and it was his combination of life experiences and his well-known reformation that caused the elders of the community [who] asked him to be Dragonhead of the Chee Kung Tong,” according to a filing by Chow’s attorneys.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237041493,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237041493?profile=original" width="450" /></a>The king is dead, long live the king. Chow now ascended the throne of the San Francisco Chinatown underworld.</p>
<p>And the feds took notice.</p>
<p>Always on the lookout for a career-making “Mr. Big” the FBI was keen to take down Raymond Chow. Starting in 2009 the FBI kicked off an undercover operation aimed specifically at gathering enough evidence of Chow’s criminal activity to put him back in jail. One undercover agent managed to become friendly with a member of the Chee Kung Tong, as a result of this, another undercover FBI agent posing as an Italian-American “<a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in">made guy</a>” from the East Coast was introduced to Chow.</p>
<p>In the following years, the undercover agent started the long process of winning Chow’s trust and getting him to participate in criminal activities. From his conversations with Chow and other Tong members it became clear that he had infiltrated a bonafide criminal organization.</p>
<p>During one meeting at a karaoke bar, Chow allegedly whispered into the agent’s ear that, “although [he] was no longer involved in criminal activity, [he] knew of and approved all criminal activities within his organization.” He described himself as a judge, who, “when there is a dispute between the organization’s members and if one member kills another member, Chow decides if the killing was justified.”</p>
<p>Talking to George Nieh, the agent found out more about the group’s hierarchy. “Nieh explained that he is also considered a leader within the organization, but that [he] still reports to Chow, whom [he] described as the equivalent of a general.” Nieh lead Wah Ching, a San Francisco street gang, and is also a member of Chee Kung Tong, sometimes working as Chow’s driver.</p>
<p>According to prosecutors, from March 2011 through December 2013, Chow, Nieh, and four others collectively laundered $2,290,000 in purportedly illicit funds for the undercover agent. They were paid a 10% fee for their work.</p>
<p>Pushing even further, the undercover FBI agent now asked three other gang members to launder $1,048,764 in drug proceeds for him. Others would launder $1,5 million more.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237042055,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237042055?profile=original" width="256" /></a>Each time Chow (left) made the introductions and accepted cash gifts but stayed far away from the actual activities. It proved to be insufficient to dodge an indictment.</p>
<p>In March of 2014, Chow was charged with seven counts of money laundering, two counts of conspiracy to transport and receive stolen liquor, and one count of conspiracy to traffic untaxed cigarettes - with the contraband provided by the FBI.</p>
<p>Along with Chow, prosecutors hit several of his underlings, including George Nieh, as well as former state Senator Leland Yee and former school board member Keith Jackson, two men who seemed squeaky clean. But, according to the indictment, both men engaged in corruption, bribery, and trafficking firearms with Chow and member's of his organization. Jackson was also charged with conspiracy to distribute narcotics and a murder for hire conspiracy.</p>
<p>This past summer, Leland Yee and his cronies entered guilty pleas, while in early September six of Chow’s co-defendants pleaded guilty, including George Nieh. Former senator Yee will be sentenced on October 21.</p>
<p>Now, only “Shrimp Boy” remains standing tall while professing his innocence. And he is doing so loudly with interviews in many regional and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/magazine/shrimp-boys-day-in-court.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=2" target="_blank">national</a> newspapers and on social media. His <a href="https://www.facebook.com/raymondshrimpboychow/" target="_blank">personal Facebook page</a> frequently features “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/raymondshrimpboychow/photos/a.348704995189965.78978.320363858024079/946712128722579/?type=3" target="_blank">Free Shrimp Boy</a>” merchandise and messages offering proof of his innocence.</p>
<p>Though he faces up to 20 years in prison for each money laundering count alone, he is eager to take his case to court. His trial is scheduled to begin on November 2.</p>
<p>As that date nears, the prosecution continues to add more charges to Chow’s indictment. With the help of two of Chow’s co-defendants, 37-year-old Kongphet Chanthavong and 42-year-old Andy Li, who have agreed to testify against their former boss, prosecutors plan on charging Chow with soliciting the murders of his predecessor Allen Leung, in San Francisco in 2006, and of a former associate, Jim Tat Kong, in Mendocino County in 2013.</p>
<p>Because of the added charges Chow is entitled to a 30-day delay, but he refuses to take it. “I have been waiting for this trial for a very long time,” he told the judge. “I don’t want to wait any more time and I’m looking forward to the start of the trial.”</p>
<p>If he is found guilty he has more to worry about than life in a cell. His reputation as a government witness might not have been a problem on the streets of San Francisco, but it will surely be an issue in prison.</p>
<p>At age 55, Raymond Chow is no longer the physical threat he once was when he came up through the ranks sporting his boyish nickname. After dodging prison once by ratting, it’s karma that he now finds himself going up against two former underlings snitching on him.</p>
<p>It proves once more that despite all the brash talk there is no loyalty among thieves.</p>
<p>On August 4, 2016, a judge <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/san-francisco-crime-boss-shrimp-boy-chow-gets-two-life-terms-in-p">sentenced Chow to two life terms in prison</a> for racketeering and murder. "Shrimp Boy" plans to appeal his sentence.</p>
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<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/triads-overview">Triads section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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FIFA capo Sepp Blatter boozing with Russian mob boss
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/fifa-capo-sepp-blatter-boozing-with-russian-mob-boss
2015-05-28T09:50:42.000Z
2015-05-28T09:50:42.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/fifa-capo-sepp-blatter-boozing-with-russian-mob-boss"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237044868,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237044868?profile=original" width="540" /></a></p>
<p>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>The FBI dealt a huge blow to one of the world’s most corrupt “legitimate” organizations, yesterday, when it charged nine officials of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) with racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracies after they enriched themselves through the corruption of soccer and its most prestigious tournament, the World Cup. FIFA boss Sepp Blatter, however, managed to escape indictment, for now.</p>
<p>How he achieved this is anyone’s guess. Journalists and officials have compiled plenty of evidence of corrupt behavior by Blatter, but were unable to make anything stick in court. Until now, perhaps.</p>
<p>Blatter enforces a strict code of silence within FIFA and has a large following of loyalists eager for another payday. Unfortunately for him, his underlings are greedier than he thought. One of them, Charles Blazer, the long-serving former general secretary of CONCACAF and former U.S. representative on the FIFA executive committee, was caught by the FBI in an unrelated scheme and was given the choice to cooperate or go to prison. Blazer spilled his guts and taped numerous meetings and conversations with corrupt FIFA members.</p>
<p>And FIFA has many of those corrupt members scheming round the clock.</p>
<p>Several alleged schemes relate to the payment and receipt of bribes and kickbacks in connection with the selection of the host country for the 2010 World Cup and the 2011 FIFA presidential election. That election was won by current FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who, a FIFA spokesperson told reporters yesterday, was “relaxed and calm.”</p>
<p>It’s the typical reaction reporters and the public have come to expect from Blatter. After decades of scheming around the world without any crackdown by law enforcement, he grew more arrogant by the minute. Never was this clearer then when he awarded the 2018 World Cup tournament to Russia and the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.</p>
<p>Playing soccer in the middle of the summer in the heat of Qatar? Let’s just agree that FIFA officials were blinded by the Qatar sun and millions of dollar bills.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237045496,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237045496?profile=original" width="312" /></a>And regarding Russia, well, Blatter had decided on that one somewhere around 2005 when he had a cozy meeting and a few bottles of expensive booze at the trendy China Club in Moscow with Russian Mafia boss Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov (that's him on the far right toasting with Blatter on the far left.)</p>
<p>Tokhtakhounov was officially there in his role as chairman of the Russian Football Association, but unofficially he was there to get Russia to host the 2018 World Cup. And the one person to see about that, of course, is Sepp Blatter.</p>
<p>Always eager to meet new big spenders with an interest in sports, Blatter saw no problem in hanging out and drinking some booze with Tokhtakhounov. Why would he? How could he have known this was a hardcore <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-overview">Russian mobster</a>?</p>
<p>Well, he could’ve checked the Gangsters Inc. website where a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russian-boss-alimzhan">profile of Tokhtakhounov</a> has been up since 2002 or he could have googled his name to find out he was the man who had fixed the figure ice skating competition at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and was wanted by the FBI.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237045856,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237045856?profile=original" width="312" /></a>Not to mention that Tokhtakhounov had been convicted in Italy of money laundering and working with the Italian Mafia and spent one year in prison there before he was released and fled to the safety of Moscow. In Russia he continued his career which revolved around racketeering and sports.</p>
<p>Cheers to that, you can imagine Blatter saying.</p>
<p>You can also imagine what the FBI must’ve been thinking when it saw the FIFA president laughing and boozing at an exclusive Moscow nightclub together with a Russian mob boss they were seeking to arrest.</p>
<p>“[This] should send a message that enough is enough. After decades of what the indictment alleges to be brazen corruption, organized international soccer needs a new start—a new chance for its governing institutions to provide honest oversight and support of a sport that is beloved across the world, increasingly so here in the United States. Let me be clear: this indictment is not the final chapter in our investigation,” stated Acting United States Attorney Currie at a press conference announcing the charges against FIFA.</p>
<p>Let us hope so. Since the capo di tutti capi is still out there. And I’m not talking about Russian Mafia boss Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov. Though, technically, he’s still out there as well.</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>
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<p> </p></div>
Camorra’s
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/camorra-s-sistema-rules-supreme-in-politically-corrupt-italy
2014-06-05T11:00:00.000Z
2014-06-05T11:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/camorra-s-sistema-rules-supreme-in-politically-corrupt-italy"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237021301,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237021301?profile=original" width="520" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p><em>“I don't want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me.”</em> – Fictional mob boss Frank Costello in The Departed</p>
<p>It’s a quote befitting of the situation in Italy, which is one drenched in Mafia intimidation, corruption, and malpractice. It’s also the topic of accusations between (former) members of the Camorra, Naples’ Mafia organization, and Italian politicians, who are asking each other the question: Who created this corrupt mess?</p>
<p>According to Camorra boss-turned-<a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gangsters-inc-s-mafia-speak">pentito</a> Antonio Iovine organized crime in and around Naples was able to prosper because of widespread corruption in the local political system. “There was money for everyone in a system that was completely corrupt,” Iovine told investigators last month. “It made no difference what political side a mayor came from because the system operated, and operates, in the same way.” He continues, “I'm well aware of the crimes that I've stained myself with. But I'm explaining to you a system in which the Camorra is not the only one to blame.”</p>
<p>Nice of him to accept at least part of the blame, no?</p>
<p>50-year-old Antonio Iovine knows all about guilt and blame. For decades he was one of the top leaders of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-casalesi-clan-of-the">Casalesi Clan of the Camorra</a>, a group from Casal di Principe in the province of Caserta. Nicknamed “o’ninno” (the baby) because he was made a capo at a very young age Iovine was a force to be reckoned with inside the Camorra. As always with organized crime, Iovine’s strength lay in his clan. In their fight for control the various crime families of the Casalesi were responsible for over 1,000 murders in 30 years.</p>
<p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/casalesi-clan">The families of the Casalesi</a> were involved in all sorts of criminal activity, but they specifically exerted great control over the construction industry. Of course, construction is, by itself, a legitimate business with many honest and hardworking businessmen at its core. Men who are in frequent contact with politicians and civil servants about permits, licenses, and the needs of a city.</p>
<p>But, if you believe Iovine, many of those businessmen and politicians were very eager to cooperate with the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/camorra-overview">Camorra</a> to fill their pockets with cash. Some even became more than partners.</p>
<p>Then again, some of those accused politicians are quick to point out the Camorra’s violent reputation as a tool for mobsters to get their way. They were mere victims of a ruthless Mafia organization. Lorenzo Diana, for instance, was named by Iovine as one of those corrupt local politicians, he claims “there was nothing we could do, the Camorra dominated things, Iovine has discovered hot water.”</p>
<p><a href="http://amzn.to/1mdNRj4" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237022456,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237022456?profile=original" width="165" /></a>After spending 15 years as a fugitive Antonio Iovine (right) was captured by police in November of 2010. In absentia he had been sentenced to life in prison for racketeering and several murders. He had been languishing away in prison under the prison regime titled article 41-bis, which is reserved for Italy’s most dangerous gangsters and criminals.</p>
<p>Behind bars Iovine made the stunning decision to become a pentito, a turncoat or cooperating witness. He wants to repent and tell all he knows about the Camorra’s criminal empire and its contacts in business and politics.</p>
<p>While Camorristi and shady politicians are still reeling from the news and possible consequences life in Italy continues as always. After numerous trials involving corrupt political bigwigs Iovine will have to do dish up a lot more dirt if he wants to shock Italian citizens. The story of political corruption and Mafia influence has become a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/mafia-state-trial-exposes-italy-s-corrupt-political-system">very familiar one</a>.</p>
<p>As recent as yesterday, Roberto Vargas, yet another Camorra turncoat, <a href="http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2014/06/04/informant-says-berlusconi-ex-undersecretary-cosa-nostra_3b8841c2-a232-45e3-a5b6-08d5b0474d67.html" target="_blank">testified</a> that politician Nicola Cosentino, a former undersecretary to three-time premier Silvio Berlusconi, was in fact a member of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/sicilian-cosa-nostra-overview">Cosa Nostra</a>. He also said that Cosentino had met with Casalesi boss Francesco “Sandokan” Schiavone to talk about contracts and politics. Furthermore, he pointed out the politician as the one who accepted bribes on behalf of other construction companies.</p>
<p>Cosentino, meanwhile, was arrested back in April and charged with extortion and unfair competition in favor of his family’s petrol-pump business in southern Campania. A year ago he was also arrested on suspicion of collusion with the Casalesi Clan.</p>
<p>People in Naples call it <em>‘o sistema</em>. It’s when the Camorra works in unison with corrupt politicians and businessmen to create an environment which fits their needs. Those who want to change or influence the system can only do so by becoming a participant themselves. They need to play along according to the rules of the system. Those that oppose and try to change or fight the system will be dealt with.</p>
<p>After journalist Roberto Saviano released <a href="http://amzn.to/1mdNRj4" target="_blank">Gomorra</a>, his best-selling indictment of <em>‘o sistema</em>, he became an instant target. Camorra hit men were tasked with finding and murdering him. Life as he knew it was over. Never again could he sleep peacefully. The system had spit him out for exposing its <a href="http://amzn.to/SwSWuZ" target="_blank">dirty</a> secrets.</p>
<p>Saviano later told reporters that his book had ruined his life. He said he could have exposed the Camorra's criminal empire “with the same commitment and courage but with prudence, without destroying everything. I was too impetuous, too ambitious.”</p>
<p>Still, with his life in ruins and with his good intentions cast aside, a civil appeals court in Milan yesterday upheld the libel conviction of Saviano for defamatory statements in his 2006 <a href="http://amzn.to/1mdNRj4" target="_blank">book</a>. “The appeals court confirmed the November ruling of a lower court that Saviano must pay 30,000 euros in damages to Enzo Boccolato for insinuating involvement in the La Torre clan,” newspaper <a href="http://www.gazzettadelsud.it/news/english/94806/Appeals-court-upholds-Saviano-conviction-for-libel.html#.U49D45p7vJA.twitter" target="_blank">Gazetta Del Sud reported</a>. According to the ruling, “the statements contained in the book are objectively offensive, and the veracity of the news was not proven, in the evocative way that emerges from the sentences of the published text.”</p>
<p>Justice has prevailed after all.</p>
<p>The only question now is whether or not justice can also break the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/mafia-state-trial-exposes-italy-s-corrupt-political-system">corrupt system</a> which has been running things in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/italian-organized-crime">large parts of Italy</a> for so long now. Because in the end it doesn’t really matter who created the mess. It matters most who cleans it up and makes sure it doesn’t happen again.</p>
<ul>
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Russian Mafia Boss Rakhimov and the Sochi Olympics
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-boss-rakhimov-and-the-sochi-olympics
2014-02-03T15:31:20.000Z
2014-02-03T15:31:20.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-boss-rakhimov-and-the-sochi-olympics"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237017697,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237017697?profile=original" width="384" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Russian organized crime and politics have become so intertwined that it is difficult to distinguish a member of the country’s parliament from a member of the vor z zakone, popularly known as the Russian Mafia. With President Putin as boss of bosses mobsters in Russia are feasting on rampant corruption and seizing the opportunities. Among them is Uzbek crime boss Gafur Rakhimov.</p>
<p>Born on July 22, 1951, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, as a youngster Rakhimov became fond of boxing. In the former Soviet Union sports were among the scarce areas where a citizen could achieve success coupled with fame and, a little bit of, wealth. Athletes participating in combat sports were, and still are today, among the most respected men in the country. <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-overview">Russia's Mafia groups</a> also enjoyed employing them as muscle.</p>
<p>After his boxing career ended, Rakhimov took on coaching other fighters. He also became a businessman, which, in a country strife with corruption, intimidation, and where laws were meant to be broken or bended, usually meant becoming involved in nefarious operations.</p>
<p>On his website, he writes about starting an import and export company as the Soviet Union was about to fall. His company, his website <a href="https://reportingproject.net/occrp/index.php/en/ccwatch/cc-watch-indepth/1393-what-is-the-brothers-circle" target="_blank">says</a>, exports consumer goods, raw materials for chemical, automobile, and light industry. Furthermore, he says he “carries out his business transactions via a number of companies where he is a leader and main share-holder. Namely these companies for ten years already have been performing fruitful cooperation on a solid economic basis with the world-known companies of England, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Holland, the USA, Switzerland, France.”</p>
<p>Though an import and export company always has a shady ring to it, this all sounds very impressive. His positions as vice-president of the Olympic Council of Asia, a group of nations that are members of the International Olympic Committee, and the AIBA World Boxing Association also add a lot of respectability. And with the administration of Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov calling him an “active promoter of sport at the international level” and awarding him with two awards you cannot help but see Rakhimov as anything other than a respected and very successful businessman.</p>
<p>The U.S. Treasury Department sees a different type of businessman, though. In a 2012 <a href="http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/tg1430.aspx" target="_blank">press release</a> they state: “Rakhimov is one of the leaders of Uzbek organized crime with a specialty in the organized production of drugs in the countries of Central Asia. He has operated major international drug syndicates involving the trafficking of heroin.”</p>
<p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-boss-rakhimov-and-the-sochi-olympics"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237018489,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237018489?profile=original" width="300" /></a>Former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, spoke up about Rakhimov’s alleged criminal activities as well. “He is one of the four or five most important people in the heroin trade in the world,” Murray told <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/alleged-heroin-kingpin-helped-russia-win-olympics-sochi/story?id=22295531&singlePage=true" target="_blank">ABC News</a>. “He's absolutely a very major and dangerous gangster.”</p>
<p>Luckily for Rakhimov (right), being a “very major and dangerous gangster” isn’t something that is considered a problem in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-dark-knight-of-mother">Putin’s Russia</a>, where everyone is in the business of making money first and does not even consider anything second. So while Rakhimov made his money trafficking heroin from Uzbekistan to Russia and the rest of Europe he also worked closely with politicians in Russia and Uzbekistan.</p>
<p>His work for the Olympic Council of Asia and the AIBA World Boxing Association also continued without any issues. Having been used to the acceptance of his work as an exporter of heroin in Eastern Europe he saw no harm in accompanying the Uzbek Olympic boxing team to the 2000 Sydney Olympics. But Australia’s former Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock did have a problem with a drug lord entering his country to be a part of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He denied Rakhimov's entry over “serious issues of character.”</p>
<p>In other words, gangsters were not welcome at the Olympics.</p>
<p>Oddly enough the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had no problems with Rakhimov. As <em>their</em> man in Asia, he is responsible for <em>communications</em> between the IOC and its member countries there. There have been many allegations of corruption and bribes surrounding the IOC and men like Rakhimov play an integral part in those conspiracies as fixers and middlemen making sure member nations vote according to the wishes of those above.</p>
<p>Apparently, Rakhimov had done an excellent job. In 2007, the International Olympic Committee voted to award the Winter Olympics of 2014 to the city of Sochi, Russia. The head of the Russian Olympic Committee publicly thanked Rakhimov for his “singled minded work” in getting the votes of some Asian countries, “without which it would have been hard for Sochi to count on the victory.”</p>
<p>When contacted by <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/alleged-heroin-kingpin-helped-russia-win-olympics-sochi/story?id=22295531&singlePage=true" target="_blank">ABC News</a>, last week, Rakhimov confirmed that he had played a role in getting Russia the needed votes, but not because of any bribes or unsavory behavior. “He convinced them because of his good relations with these people. He has great influence,” Rakhimov’s translator, who was also a spokesman for Rakhimov, told <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/alleged-heroin-kingpin-helped-russia-win-olympics-sochi/story?id=22295531&singlePage=true" target="_blank">ABC News</a> during a phone interview.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.sochi2014.com/" target="_blank">2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi</a> will start this Friday, February 7th. Despite Rakhimov’s denial of paying bribes to secure Russia’s 2014 Olympic bid, allegations of bribes and corruptions have persisted. Businessman Valery Morozov exposed a bribery racket involving contracts for the 2014 Winter Olympics. The Sochi Olympics is now estimated to have cost more than $50 billion, more than the last 21 Winter Games combined, and more expensive than any Summer Games ever held.</p>
<p>Whether the allegations will ever be proven remains to be seen. <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-overview">Russia</a> is a country where those kinds of secrets tend to stay hidden. One thing is certain, though. The man responsible for bringing the Olympics to Sochi will not attend the event himself.</p>
<p>With both U.S. and Uzbek authorities wanting a piece of him, Rakhimov has sought refuge in Dubai, away from the possibility of extradition and nosy investigators. “<em>If you can’t stand the heat, then get the hell out of the kitchen.</em>” Rakhimov exchanged one type of heat for another as he now soaks up the Middle-Eastern sun, no doubt enjoying the riches he made while working in the good ol’ import and export sector.</p>
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