: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48006-2000Jul15.html : Washington Post : July 16, 2000 : Book World : Crime Tsars : By Peter H. Stone : Peter H. Stone is a staff correspondent for the National Journal. : RED MAFIYA : How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America : By Robert I. Friedman : Little, Brown. 296 pp. $25.95 : In Red Mafiya, New York freelancer Robert I. Friedman, who has broken : several : important stories about the emergence of the Russian mob in the United : States, tells a chilling tale of how over the last two decades Russian : criminals have often been in the vanguard of international money : laundering, : drug dealing and weapons sales. Friedman provides a detailed road map of : inroads made by Russian organized crime into U.S. communities from : Brighton : Beach to Miami Beach, and infiltrations of such major institutions as : Wall : Street and the National Hockey League. Russian mobsters present a unique : and : new kind of threat, in the author's eyes, because they have built a : strong : international organization that stretches from Moscow to Israel to the : United : States, one combining old-fashioned brutality with high-technology : skills. : Starting in the late 1970s, the Russian mob began to gain power in the : Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn. Long known as a solid working-class : Jewish community, Brighton Beach was transformed in the 1970s with the : arrival of some 40,000 Russian Jews, a number of whom had extensive : criminal : backgrounds. The community's character changed, too, as such : organized-crime : haunts as the Odessa, a nightclub owned by Marat Balagula, sprang up. In : partnership with a few other Russian wiseguys, Balagula masterminded one : of : the biggest tax scams in U.S. history by collecting gasoline taxes : through : phony corporations and never paying the Internal Revenue Service what : was : owed. Eventually in 1989, he was arrested for credit-card fraud and : received : an eight-year sentence; a few years later he received an additional 10 : years : for evading taxes on the sale of four million gallons of gasoline. : Then there's Semion Mogilevich, whom Friedman dubs the "Brainy Don." : Mogilevich, who has an economics degree from Lvov University, has : created an : international network of criminal enterprises, including arms sales and : drug : running, that's known as the Red Mafiya. Relying on extensive political : and : police connections in Hungary, Israel, Russia and other countries, : Mogilevich : has in recent years shuttled among these nations (and even visited the : United : States despite a State Department visa ban), in and out of various : criminal : scams. Perhaps most notably, Mogilevich's name surfaced in the : laundering of : billions of dollars through the Bank of New York. : While digging into the Russian mob's operations, Friedman received two : death : threats, including a $100,000 contract on his life reportedly put out by : Mogilevich. While several of the mobsters profiled by Friedman are in : prison, : the Russian mafia appears to be flourishing in the United States and : abroad. : In Friedman's eyes, the FBI was slow to respond and still needs to put : more : resources into the fight. Not until 1994 did the New York FBI set up a : task : force to deal with the Russian mafia. : Through interviews with law enforcement officials and Russian mobsters : and : research into classified intelligence reports, Friedman does a : first-rate job : of showing why FBI director Louis Freeh has said that the Russian mob : poses : an "immense" threat. At times Friedman tends to generalize very broadly, : and : the book would have benefited from more documentary evidence. Still, Red : Mafiya serves as a useful guide to understanding one of Russia's most : dangerous exports. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
