US targets 'Thieves-in-Law,' Russian mafia royalty
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BY DAVE CLARK (AFP)

US authorities moved Friday to blacklist one of Russia's oldest and most notorious organized criminal gangs, the so-called "Vory v Zakone" or "Thieves-in-Law."

The Thieves-in-Law, a group born in the Soviet Union's prisons, are kingpins in an underworld network that has spread beyond Russia to the world's great financial centers.

Authorities have targeted the Thieves before, but the Treasury's designation of the entire network as a "Transnational Criminal Organization" is the first measure that treats them as a single group.

"The Thieves-in-Law is a Eurasian crime syndicate that has been linked to a long list of illicit activity across the globe," said John Smith, director of Office of Foreign Assets control.

"Treasury is designating the Thieves-in-Law as part of a broader strategy to disrupt the financial infrastructure of transnational criminal organizations that pose a threat to the United States and our allies."

Under the designation, US individuals and firms are banned from doing business with the group or designated persons linked to it, and any assets held by the Thieves on US soil can be frozen.

In addition to listing the group, the Treasury also named four members of the shadowy group -- alleged veteran mobsters whose addresses and multiple identity papers span Russia, Central Asia, Israel, Belgium and Italy.

A luxury spa hotel in the Russian resort of Sochi is listed as a front organization and a Moscow publishing house and public relations agency is said to be owned by a Dubai-based suspect.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world.../article/510687

I must say this comes as a surprise to me , since I was under the impression that the vors are/were a ( mostly extinct ) subculture as opposed to a proper organized crime group .

Of course I imagine the usual American ignorance is to blame for this among other things .

About a dozen well known thieves are currently in a European prison. Mostly Georgians.

Among ethnic Russians it is, but in the Caucasus the thieves world is alive and kicking.

Taiwanchik commented on hitting the sanctions list and said that the American authorities are bandits themselves.

The list also includes Zakhary Kalashov (Shakro Molodoy), Vasily Khristoforov (Vasya Voskres), Kamchibek Kolbaev (Kamchi Bishkeksky), Lasha Shushanashvili (Lasha Rustavsky), Vladislav Leontyev (Vadik Bely), Yury Pichugin (Pichuga), Vladimir Tyurin (Tyurik), Gafur Rakhimov (Gafur Cherny) and Ruben Tatulyan (Robson).

It is claimed that all above-mentioned persons are involved in commission of a set of transnational crimes. In particular, Gafur Rakhimov, Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov and Ruben Tatulyan rendered material support to ‘thieves-in-law’, according to the American department. Thus, Rakhimov, the president of Asian Boxing Federation, is called by the American authorities one of the main in the criminal environment of Uzbekistan and the important person in the organization of heroin traffic.

When i went to miami evryones who works in the bars or hotels in south beach russian.

Russian-Armenian ‘Crime Figure’ Blacklisted By U.S.

https://www.azatutyun.am/a/28938199.html

Yeah the Russians prefer Miami like the Colombians.

Rosneft Lawyer Arrested Over Bribe From Russian Mafia Boss
Dec 27, 2017 — 14:14 — Update: 14:14

A lawyer at the Rosneft oil giant has been detained on suspicion of accepting a bribe from a notorious Russian criminal boss.

The mafia boss, known as “Shakro the Young,” is standing trial together with his accomplices for their alleged involvement in a 2015 shootout at a Moscow restaurant. Shakro has been called “the leader of the Russian criminal community” by Russian investigators and was blacklisted by the U.S. alongside nine criminal mobsters last week.

Alexander Kramarenko, the lawyer at Rosneft, was arrested for allegedly accepting the bribe from Shakro the Young, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Tuesday.

He accepted the money to allegedly help secure the release of Andrei Kochuikov "The Italian," another crime boss implicated in the 2015 shooting.

Kramarenko had worked at Russia’s Investigative Committee prior to taking the job at Rosneft in March 2017.

A Rosneft spokesman denied that Kramarenko’s arrest had to do with his work at the oil giant.

“This is related to his previous work,” he told the Gazeta.ru news website.

“We have no legal department. The employee engaged in, shall we say, security questions.”

https://themoscowtimes.com/news/rosneft-lawyer-arrested-over-bribe-from-russian-mafia-boss-60064

They also flock to the westside of Florida as well.

Does not matter if they are Russians , Italians , Albanians , once in the life its next to impossible for the majority to get out .

These guys don't go away and start working for Walmart they continue in crime maybe not as big or organized , then again there is always a chance they will grow giving the right circumstance like many different nationalities and crime groups .

L/E can not infiltrate all so they eventually thrive .

36-year-old Vor David Alkhanishvili, who was part of the clan of famous thief-in-law Tariel Oniani (Taro), was shot dead on December 22, near one of the restaurants in Istanbul.

My 2009 article on Tariel Oniani, a lot has happened since. Usoyan and Yaponchik have been killed and Oniani in prison.

http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russian-boss-tariel-oniani

Vasily Khristoforov (Vasya Voskres) became the temporary successor of the main thief-in-law in Russia, Zakhar Kalashov. Khristoforov got control over the common fund of the clan, in addition, he began receiving ‘walkers’ from all over Russia, who turn to him with their problems or wishes about the criminal world.

He's one of the top Slavic thieves and fled Russia most likely to Italy.

Great article from the best site in english on this subject.

Thieves in law 2017: Main events of criminal world

https://en.crimerussia.com/criminalautho...s-elimination-/

More than 30 thieves in law convened last weekend in Greece at a global gathering.

https://en.crimerussia.com/criminalautho...ans-via-phone-/

IOC 'worried' for Olympic boxing body, organized crime links
Jan 28, 2018 Updated 3 hrs ago

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The IOC says it is "extremely worried" about the governance of Olympic boxing body AIBA, whose new interim president has been linked to organized crime by United States federal authorities.

The International Olympic Committee's executive board will "decide on further measures" at a meeting next weekend in South Korea which was already due to discuss AIBA's issues, including an ongoing funding freeze.

On Saturday, AIBA named its longest-serving vice president, Gafur Rakhimov of Uzbekistan, as leader until November elections in Moscow.

Rakhimov was described by the U.S. Treasury Department last month as "an important person involved in the heroin trade" connected to the "Thieves-in-Law" crime group.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control froze Rakhimov's assets in American jurisdiction and prohibited Americans "conducting financial or other transactions" with him.

Thief Andrey Kazakov, aka Chili, survived a murder attempt in Palanga, Lithuania, Kazakov was ‘crowned’ in 2012. He is called the last ‘godson’ of Aslan Usoyan aka Ded Hassan.

Boxing faces being expelled from Olympic programme at Tokyo 2020

https://www.insidethegames.biz/arti...s-to-organised-crime-chosen-to-lead-aiba

Influential thief-in-law shot dead in Turkish resort may provoke war among thieves

https://en.crimerussia.com/criminal...-s-murder-may-provoke-war-among-thieves/

Greek authorities have agreed to extradite to France the influential Georgian thief-in-law Lasha Shushanashvili the suspected head of an international crime ring specializing in robberies and burglaries.

Spanish police said they captured seven key members of the Armenian faction of thieves-in-law described as Europe’s most dangerous gang. About 130 members of the crime group have been arrested in Spain and France. They uncovered a turfwar between Armenian and Georgian thieves-in-law. They started the investigation after the assassination of two Georgians in Barcelona in January 2016.

They are not extinct and not even near to be extinct. However numbers of crowned Thieves in Law have decreased since the creation and also a rising number of Thieves in Law from Caucasus have became bigger. But the people who are connected with this society is still big in numbers.

Thieves in Law by simple definition would be called a loose prison gang or more can be explained to be a Criminal Society that has went outside of the prison developing to the present day standards. In the very start Russian prison system had several different gangs emerging also, but Thieves in Law were the ones who overpowered the other gangs. There are clans of Thieves - simply Vory who work together and there can be gangs and groups ran by a Thief or many Thieves in Law.

The sub-culture which you are speaking about is currently popularized AUE(Arestantskoe Urkaganskoe Edinstvo - Arrested peoples Banditry Unity). The whole Thieves in Law live by the Ponyatiya(right ideas). This is a set of code and rules that each person must follow who enter prison or are associated with people who have been in prison and/or engaging into criminal activities. Usually people associated with the ponyatiya will judge others by their ideology even if those others are not connected with Vorovskoi Mir.

Any more explinations or questions about Thieves in Law are welcome. However, I am not informed about all the personas who are there in this society, but I can find the information in Russian if requested.

I see and thanks for the answer . As far as questions go , how much influence do you think vors have within the US based Russian speaking underworld ? Also do vors who operate in the US tend to be of the old school or new school variety or is it more of a mix ?

United States is a completely different territory if we compare to Russia for Thieves in Law. In Russia and ex-USSR states they have very big influence on the groups as Vory V Zakone run majority of prisons in Russia and almost every region has an assigned Vor V Zakone to look it over. In US I guess the influence is less for various reasons:
First of all, they are not the major crime group in US. Second, the prison system in US is different, as I know Russians stick together in foreign prisons, but most of the times are recruited by white prison gangs such as Aryan Brotherhood. So Vory V Zakone probably don't have a straight influence on the inside process of US prisons to make any moves to influence Russian criminals imprisoned there.

On the outside there have been lot of examples of Vory V Zakone operating in US, such as Vyacheslav Ivankov, who by rumors have organized a brigade in Brighton Beach consisting of 100 people in it. Later he got prosecuted for extortion.

Armen "Pzo" Kazarian is a Vor V Zakone arrested few years ago for medicare fraud and has been speculated of running a gang there. On primecrime it is written that Pzo has had a conflict with La Eme.

There is also a story of Aleksey Cvetkov who was crowned as a thief in law in Alenwood federal prison while doing time. It is speculated that the crowning happened trough Skype.

Boris "Borya Ushatiy" Komin is a prominent Vor V Zakone living in US, he is very old traditional and currently 91 in age. There is very little information about him tough, but it is speculated that he is in Yaponchik's place in the US at the moment.

Razhden Shulaya, a Georgian thief in law was recently also under trial in US.

To answer your question about the influence - they definitely are based also in US and run criminal operations there, have close members and associates linked to them so they hold an influence on the Russian speaking underworld in US, but it could be divided in regions and recognition of groups. As not all Russian speaking crime groups are connected with Vory V Zakone and have different ways of operation and ideology.

On the type of Vors in US - there are very less old school ones, such as Komin. I guess there might be a few who have immigrated along other ex-USSR emigrates since 1970's. Also there are new ones like Razhden who was crowned in 2013.

Razhden Shulaya was actually convicted on multiple charges by a jury in June, including racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to traffic in stolen goods, conspiracy to traffic in contraband tobacco, identification document fraud and wire fraud. This guy was allegedly a "lieutenant" in the Thieves-in-Law. He'll likely never see the light of day again, although a judge hasn't handed down sentencing yet. Also convicted was his enforcer, Avtandil Khurtsidze, who will probably be locked up for about 40 years. Two more Georgian mobsters put away by the government.

Avtandil Khurtsidze was actually a successful professional boxer up until his RICO indictment. He was getting ready for a world title shot against Billy Joe Saunders or Gennady Golovkin before everything fell apart. For a 5'4" guy, he did really well in the middleweight division. Most famously, he had a hilarious moment in between rounds where he kissed his trainer and then said in broken English how much he likes Mike Tyson before going on to finish the fight exactly how Mike would. Its a shame his future has been destroyed by all this but he made some poor decisions. He'll be seeing a lot more jail time than Tyson...

Apparently these two men were close criminal associates going back to the Soviet Union and ran a wide enterprise in Brooklyn.

There is no such thing as a "lieutenant" rank in Thieves in Law. Shulaya is a crowned Thief in Law, that means he is the top boss or one of the bosses or a close person to the actual boss(like an adviser). If he ever decided to become a lower rank in any organization and take orders from someone that could be an end to his Vor V Zakone title.

Good to know. I used the term "lieutenant" because it came directly from the Department of Justice. The government must still be using LCN ranks for other OC groups.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/p...ya-pleads-guilty-manhattan-federal-court

If he really admitted the crime and pleaded guilty, his status as a Thief in Law can be taken from him. One of the main rules to become a Vor V Zakone is to never admit your crimes. However, I do not have information if this rule has been changed in present day like we see that Thieves in Law have families and properties, which was also against the rules in the past.
I've also read that the Armenian Thief in Law Armen "Pzo" Kazaryan has pleaded guilty in trials before. But there is no information of him being de-crowned by other Thieves in Law. Maybe just because he is all the time in USA.