Semion Mogilevich
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Semion Yudkovich Mogilevich ( uk, Семен Юдкович Могилевич, Semén Yúdkovych Mohylévych ; born June 30, 1946) is a
Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...
-born Russian
organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...
boss. He quickly built a highly structured criminal organization, in the mode of an
American mafia The American Mafia, commonly referred to in North America as the Italian American Mafia, the Mafia, or the Mob, is a highly organized Italian American criminal society and organized crime group. The organization is often referred to by its membe ...
family; many of the organization's 250 members are his relatives. He is described by agencies in the European Union and United States as the " boss of bosses" of most
Russian Mafia Russian organized crime or Russian mafia (, ), otherwise known as Bratva (), is a collective of various organized crime elements originating in the former Soviet Union. The initialism OPG is Organized Criminal (''prestupnaya'' in Russian) Gr ...
syndicates in the world, he is believed to direct a vast criminal empire and is described by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
(FBI) as "the most dangerous mobster in the world." He has been accused by the FBI of "weapons trafficking, contract murders, extortion, drug trafficking, and prostitution on an international scale." Mogilevich's nicknames include "Don Semyon" and "The Brainy Don" (because of his business acumen). According to US diplomatic cables, he controls
RosUkrEnergo RosUkrEnergo is a Swiss-registered venture company that transports natural gas from Turkmenistan to East European countries. 50% of the company is owned by Gazprom, through its daughter Swiss-registered Rosgas Holding A.G., and another 50% by Swiss ...
, a company actively involved in Russia–Ukraine gas disputes, and is a partner of
Raiffeisen Bank Raiffeisenbank refers to cooperative banks in Europe that are rooted in the early credit unions of Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen. The name is found in: * Raiffeisen Bankengruppe (Austria), Austrian group of cooperative banks. ** Raiffeisen Zentralba ...
. Mogilevich currently lives freely in
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
, and has three children. He is closely associated with the
Solntsevskaya Bratva The Solntsevskaya Organized Crime Group (russian: Солнцевская организованная преступная группировка), also known as the Solntsevskaya Bratva (russian: link=no, Солнцевская братва), is a ...
crime group. He has alliances with political figures including Yury Luzhkov, the former Mayor of Moscow,
Dmytro Firtash Dmytro Vasylovych Firtash ( uk, Дмитро́ Васи́льович Фі́рташ; born 2 May 1965) is a Ukrainian businessman who heads the board of directors of Group DF. He was highly influential during the Yuschenko administration and th ...
, and
Leonid Derkach Leonid Vasylovych Derkach ( uk, Леонід Васильович Деркач; 19 July 1939 – 14 January 2022) was a Soviet and Ukrainian politician, intelligence officer, and general who was Head of the Security Service of Ukraine from 22 Apr ...
, former head of the
Security Service of Ukraine The Security Service of Ukraine ( uk, Служба безпеки України, translit=Sluzhba bezpeky Ukrainy}) or SBU ( uk, СБУ, link=no) is the law enforcement authority and main intelligence and security agency of the Ukrainian ...
.Rachkevych, Mark (December 3, 2010)
"U.S. Official: Austrian Bank's Ties to RosUkrEnergo Suspicious"
''
Kyiv Post The ''Kyiv Post'' is the oldest English-language newspaper in Ukraine, founded in October 1995 by Jed Sunden. History American Jed Sunden founded the ''Kyiv Post'' weekly newspaper on Oct. 18, 1995 and later created KP Media for his holdings. ...
''. Retrieved December 14, 2010.
Oleksandr Turchynov Oleksandr Valentynovych Turchynov ( uk, Олександр Валентинович Турчинов; born 31 March 1964) is a Ukrainian politician, screenwriter, Baptist minister and economist. He is the former Secretary of the National Sec ...
, who was designated the acting President of Ukraine in February 2014, appeared in court in 2010 for allegedly destroying files pertaining to Mogilevich. Shortly before his assassination, Russian FSB defector
Alexander Litvinenko Alexander Valterovich "Sasha" Litvinenko (30 August 1962 ( at WebCite) or 4 December 1962 – 23 November 2006) was a British-naturalised Russian defector and former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who specialised i ...
claimed Mogilevich had a "good relationship" with
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
from the 1990s.Listen: Alexander Litvinenko's apparent warning before his death
By Lyndsey Telford, Edward Malnick and Claire Newell 12:00PM GMT 23 January 2015.
William S. Sessions William Steele Sessions (May 27, 1930June 12, 2020) was an American attorney and jurist who served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas and Director of the Federal Bureau of Inv ...
,
Director of the FBI The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a United States' federal law enforcement agency, and is responsible for its day-to-day operations. The FBI Director is appointed for a singl ...
from 1987 to 1993 during the presidencies of
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
and
George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...
, was Mogilevich's attorney in the United States until Sessions' death on June 12, 2020.


Biography


Early life

Mogilevich was born in 1946 to a
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family in
Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
's Podil neighborhood. He graduated in economics from the
University of Lviv The University of Lviv ( uk, Львівський університет, Lvivskyi universytet; pl, Uniwersytet Lwowski; german: Universität Lemberg, briefly known as the ''Theresianum'' in the early 19th century), presently the Ivan Franko Na ...
. His first significant fortune derived from scamming fellow Soviet Jews (mainly Ukrainians and Russians) eager to emigrate, including to Israel, the country where Mogilevich himself briefly lived in 1990. According to some reports, Mogilevich earned a considerable amount of money as an intermediary selling jewelry and artwork belonging to Jews who emigrated from Kyiv in the 1980s. Mogilevich made deals to purchase their assets, sell them for fair market value, and forward the proceeds. Instead he simply sold the assets and pocketed the proceeds. He served two terms in prison, of 3 and 4 years, for currency-dealing offenses. In the 1980s, according to the FBI, Mogilevich was the key money-laundering contact for the
Solntsevskaya Bratva The Solntsevskaya Organized Crime Group (russian: Солнцевская организованная преступная группировка), also known as the Solntsevskaya Bratva (russian: link=no, Солнцевская братва), is a ...
.


Hungary

In early 1991, Mogilevich moved to Hungary and married his Hungarian girlfriend Katalin Papp. He has at least three children: a daughter by ex-wife Tatiana Markova, a son with ex-wife Galina Grigorieva, and a son with Papp. Through his marriage to Papp, he obtained a Hungarian passport. Living in a fortified villa outside
Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
, he continued to invest in many enterprises; he bought a local armament factory, "Army Co-Op", which produced anti-aircraft guns. In 1994, the Mogilevich group obtained control over
Inkombank Vladimir Viktorovich Vinogradov (Russian Владимир Викторович Виноградов) (19 September 1955 in Ufa — 29 June 2008 in Moscow) was the owner and president of Inkombank, one of the largest banks in 90s' Russia. Considere ...
, one of the largest private banks in Russia, in a secret deal with bank chairman Vladimir Vinogradov, getting direct access to the world financial system. The bank collapsed in 1998 under suspicions of
money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...
. The Hungarian mafia is closely associated with
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
mafia, especially from Fujian (Fuiying) (russian: Фуцзянь (Фуйин)) and Zhejiang (Zheiyang) (russian: Чжэцзян (Жейианг)).


Czech raid

In May 1995, a meeting in
Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
between Mogilevich and Sergei Mikhailov, head of the Solntsevskaya Bratva, was raided by Czech police. The occasion was a birthday party for one of the deputy Solntsevo mafiosi. Two hundred partygoers (including dozens of
prostitute Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...
s) in the restaurant "U Holubů", owned by Mogilevich, were detained and 30 expelled from the country. Police had been tipped off that the Solntsevo group intended to execute Mogilevich at the party over a disputed payment of $5 million. But Mogilevich never arrived and it is believed that a senior figure in the Czech police, working with the
Russian mafia Russian organized crime or Russian mafia (, ), otherwise known as Bratva (), is a collective of various organized crime elements originating in the former Soviet Union. The initialism OPG is Organized Criminal (''prestupnaya'' in Russian) Gr ...
, had warned him. Soon after, the Czech Interior Ministry imposed a ten-year entry ban on him, while the Hungarian government declared him ''
persona non grata In diplomacy, a ' (Latin: "person not welcome", plural: ') is a status applied by a host country to foreign diplomats to remove their protection of diplomatic immunity from arrest and other types of prosecution. Diplomacy Under Article 9 of the ...
'' and the British barred his entry into the UK, declaring him "one of the most dangerous men in the world."


Toronto exchange

In 1997 and 1998, the presence of Mogilevich, Mikhailov and others associated with the
Russian Mafia Russian organized crime or Russian mafia (, ), otherwise known as Bratva (), is a collective of various organized crime elements originating in the former Soviet Union. The initialism OPG is Organized Criminal (''prestupnaya'' in Russian) Gr ...
behind a public company trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), YBM Magnex International Inc., was exposed by Canadian journalists. On May 13, 1998, dozens of agents for the FBI and several other U.S. government agencies raided YBM's headquarters in Newtown, Pennsylvania. Shares in the public company, which had been valued at $1 billion on the TSX, became worthless overnight.


Toxic waste scheme with Italian American Mafia

In 1998, an FBI informant told the bureau that one of Mogilevich's chief lieutenants in
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
met two Russians from
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
with
Genovese crime family The Genovese crime family, () also sometimes referred to as the Westside, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and New Jersey as part of the American M ...
ties to broker a scheme to dump American toxic waste in Russia. Mogilevich's man from L.A. said the Red Mafia would dispose of the toxic waste in the Chernobyl region, "probably through payoffs to the decontamination authorities there," says a classified FBI report.


Money laundering and tax evasion

Until 1998, Inkombank and Bank Menatep participated in a US$10 billion
money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...
scheme through the
Bank of New York The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, commonly known as BNY Mellon, is an American investment banking services holding company headquartered in New York City. BNY Mellon was formed from the merger of The Bank of New York and the Mellon Financ ...
. Mogilevich was also suspected of participation in large-scale tax fraud, where untaxed heating oil was sold as highly taxed car fuel – one of the greatest scandals that broke around 1990–1991. Estimates are that up to one-third of fuels sold went through this scheme, resulting in massive tax losses for various countries of
Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the area' ...
(Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland). In the Czech Republic the scandal is estimated to have cost the taxpayers around 100 billion CZK (≈US$5 billion) and involved, besides others, murders and the attempted assassination of a journalist writing about the problem. In 2003, the United States
Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
placed Mogilevich on the "Wanted List" for participation in the scheme to defraud investors in Canadian company YBM Magnex International Inc. Frustrated by their previous unsuccessful efforts to charge him for arms trafficking and
prostitution Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in Sex work, sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, n ...
, they had now settled on the large-scale fraud charges as their best hope of running him to ground. He was considered to be the most powerful Russian mobster alive.Glenny (2008), pg 77. In a 2006 interview, former Clinton administration anti-organized-crime czar Jon Winer said: "I can tell you that Semion Mogilevich is as serious an organized criminal as I have ever encountered and I am confident that he is responsible for
contract killing Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may be ...
s." Mogilevich was arrested in Moscow on January 24, 2008, for suspected
tax evasion Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the taxp ...
. His bail was placed, and he was released on July 24, 2009. On his release, the Russian interior ministry stated that he was released because the charges against him "are not of a particularly grave nature". Ivan Fursin has been closely linked to Mogilevich.


U.S. efforts to apprehend

On October 22, 2009, the FBI named Mogilevich as the 494th fugitive to be placed on the
Ten Most Wanted list The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives is a most wanted list maintained by the United States's Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Dire ...
. The Bureau removed him from the list in December 2015, indicating that he no longer met list criteria, for reasons relating to living in a country with which the United States does not maintain an extradition treaty. According to FBI reports, Mogilevich had alliances with the
Camorra The Camorra (; ) is an Italian Mafia-typeMafia and Mafia-type orga ...
, in particular with Salvatore De Falco, a lower-echelon member of the Giuliano clan. Mogilevich and DeFalco would have held meetings in Prague in 1993. Mogilevich lives freely in Moscow, according to the FBI. As to Mogilevich himself, government law enforcement agencies from throughout the world had by then been trying to prosecute him for over 10 years. But he had, in the words of one journalist, "a knack for never being in the wrong place at the wrong time". Both Mogilevich and his associate Mikhailov ceased to travel to the West in the late 1990s. On April 6, 2022, the Bureau refreshed its effort to apprehend Mogilevich, working in tandem with
United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...
. The State Department's Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program now offers a reward of up to $5 million for information "leading to the arrest and/or conviction" of Mogilevich.


See also

*
Solntsevskaya Bratva The Solntsevskaya Organized Crime Group (russian: Солнцевская организованная преступная группировка), also known as the Solntsevskaya Bratva (russian: link=no, Солнцевская братва), is a ...


Notes


References


External links


Mogilevich's FBI Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitive AlertMogilevich's profile on ''America's Most wanted''
* ttp://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/events/panorama/transcripts/transcript_06_12_99.txt "The Billion Dollar Don"(Transcript of BBC Panorama documentary on activities in gas, YBM Magnex etc., incl. interview w. Mogilevich)
Papers from Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, Helsinki, 2003
(PDF, describes the YBM Magnex scheme)
Semyon Mogilevich, the 'East European mafia boss', captured in Moscow
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mogilevich, Semion 1946 births Confidence tricksters FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives Fugitives Fugitives wanted on fraud charges Fugitives wanted on organised crime charges Living people Businesspeople from Kyiv Russian fraudsters Russian crime bosses Russian gangsters Ukrainian fraudsters Ukrainian Jews Ukrainian gangsters Ukrainian money launderers University of Lviv alumni Soviet Jews Russian businesspeople in the United States Fugitives wanted by the United States Transnational organized crime