Practically the groups that do white collar crime are those groups that did violent crimes when they started. For example a group formed in Russia in 90's, back then it did extortion, drug busines, murder for hire even, nowdays they think smarter that extortion and drugs won't get them big money, they need something better. So they create these scams with credit cards or medicare fraud, a popular scam in Latvia is to make fake business deals and get the tax money recounted, with that making the country to pay a part of your paid taxes to be paid back to you.

Groups that still do violent crimes are groups that haven't developed much. Or their leadership is just oneside-minded, for example they run a drug trafficking business and their leaders just wants to be there. But that's rarely. Most of what I've seen, they try to develop forming more of these scams where the big money is, at least that's what happening here in Latvia.

But there are also both type groups, that have a smart top, where leaders practice out all this white collar crime. And the bottom members of the group do the dirty work such as extortion and so on.

An example of scams and big groups in North America - Semyon Mogilevich and Sergey Mikhailov's YBM Magnex International Inc. scam that Mogilevich is for indeed now on FBI's most wanted list.

Agron Evsei and Marat Balagula's groups were the very first one's formed in Brighton Beach, both of these guys were Russian Jews. What I've read is that when Vyacheslav Ivankov came to Brighton Beach both of these were scared shitless because of the influence and power Yaponchik held.

But wasn't Agron already dead when Ivankov arrived? I read Ivankov was in jail from 1982 to 1991.

Yeah, Agron was dead, died on 1985. I mistook him with Nayfield.

Ivankov was on trial in these years: 1974, 1976, 1982(14 years sentence given), 1986, 1988. But yeah, he did time from 1982 to 1991, and in 1992 he went to USA. Where in 1995 he was arrested in USA.

By the way, who do you think killed Agron? Was it the Cosa Nostra or was it a struggle inside his own organization?

I'm more on that he got killed by Boris Goldberg. They were having a big feud before his death. There were two times when Evsei got attacked, but the style kind of reminds me of how LCN kills people. I think it was Goldberg all behind it.

And a correction from me, I before mentioned Balagula and Nayfield, the two mob bosses were Balagula and Goldberg who were scared of Ivankov.

Actually Balagula was already in prison a few years before Ivankov arrived...

Found this article.
http://russianmafiablog.blogspot.co.uk/2007/03/russian-mafia-bosses-evsei-little-don.html
Agron was supported by 2 very powerful allies: The Genovese Family and Ronald Greenwald. In turn for their friendship the Italians got Russian manpower and expaned their operations to the Russian neighborhoods. The friendship with the Italians was very important for Agron, they had an enormous army of soldiers and the political connections to get them out of trouble. And eventhough they made lots of money together there was some friction between the Russian gangsters and the Italian mobsters. Most of the Italians lived modest and would try not to attract any attention, the Russians on the other hand love the attention and love to show their wealth. The Russians also don't have the same codes as the Italians, the Italians don't kill civilians not even the family members of mobsters who flipped, the Russians don't have these rules. The other friend that was of importance to Agrons expanding power was Ronald Greenwald. Greenwald was a jewish rabbi who was active in politics.

By the mid 1980s Agron was at the top of his game. He was feared and his power had seriously grown. He was doing bigger heists and making more money than ever before. But eventhough Agron was sort of a Godfather and he was working with professional crime groups the Russian groups in his neighborhood were still running rampant and out of control. Eventhough he was THE power in Brighton Beach, he still could get killed any moment because there was just no structure and control. In January 1984 while he was walking towards his front door, Agron was shot again. A hitman shot Agron 2 times, once in the face and once in the neck, both from close range. Agron was brought to the Coney Island hospital for a second time and survived. But his face would be damaged for the rest of his lifetime, it would look like he was smiling, a weird grin would stay on his face. Again he told the police that he would handle business himself. Agron had a few ideas about who might be behind the attack. The prime suspect was Boris Goldberg, an Israelian ex army officer from Russia. Goldberg ran a group of crminals along with David "Napoleon" Shuster, a crminal mastermind. The Goldberg group had enormous firepower stashed away safely, among the weapons were: guns with silencers, boxes of grenades and plastic explosives with detonators. The group sold cocaine to streetdealers. Goldberg was living together with the daughter of Bob Guccione, the guy behind Penthouse Magazine.

Because of their criminal interests it was inevitable that Agron and Goldberg would meet. One of the things that had caused friction between the two had been the extortion areas. They had had several meetings discussing which area would belong to who and every time things went wrong. After the botched hit on Agron in May 1984 Agron himself called Goldberg for a sitdown at Agrons Country Club. When Goldberg and a trusted soldier arrived they were welcomed by 50 silent, heavily armed Russians who sat at a round table. After a heated discussion in which Agron asked Goldberg if he was behind the hit things started getting out of hand. Agron didn't believe Goldberg and wanted to kill him, Goldberg then said: "If you want trouble.....I'm ready" Agron told one of his guys to look outside and see if Goldberg was bluffing, he wasn't. The parking lot in front of the Country Club was filled with armed men running around. Agron decided to leave it at that and the sitdown ended without bloodshed. Agron felt he had located his attacker and felt safe, the guy now knew not to try again. Agron forgot however that Goldberg wasn't the only enemy who wanted him dead.

On May 4, 1985, Agron was getting himself ready to go out on the town and relax in a nice Turkish bath in Manhattan. While he was relaxing Agron felt he could also discuss some business there. He got dressed and stepped outside his appartement. At 8.35 in the morning Agron pressed the elevator button. Out of nowhere a guy wearing sunglasses stepped out of the shadows and shot Agron from close range. Agron was shot in the head twice, he fell to the floor and at the age of 53 the Little Don died. Agron was probably the first Russian Godfather who set up an Organization in the U.S. he sure wouldn't be the last.

About Boris Goldberg's sentence:

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=search&case=/data2/circs/2nd/952216.html

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
S U M M A R Y O R D E R
THIS SUMMARY ORDER WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED IN THE FEDERAL REPORTER AND MAY NOT BE CITED AS PRECEDENTIAL AUTHORITY TO THIS OR ANY OTHER COURT, BUT MAY BE CALLED TO THE ATTENTION OF THIS OR ANY OTHER COURT IN A SUBSEQUENT STAGE OF THIS CASE, IN A RELATED CASE, OR IN ANY CASE FOR PURPOSES OF COLLATERAL ESTOPPEL OR RES JUDICATA.
At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, held at the United States Courthouse, Foley Square, in the City of New York, on the 10th day of January, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-six.
Present: HONORABLE J. EDWARD LUMBARD,
HONORABLE RALPH K. WINTER,
HONORABLE JOHN M. WALKER, JR.,
Circuit Judges .
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
BORIS GOLDBERG,
Plaintiff-Appellant ,
- v. - No. 95-2216
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Defendant-Appellee .
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Appearing for Appellant: Boris Goldberg, pro se .
Appearing for Appellee: Emily Berger and William Gurin, Assistant United States Attorneys, E.D.N.Y.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Nickerson, Judge ).
This cause came on to be heard on the transcript of record from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York and was submitted.
ON CONSIDERATION WHEREOF, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that the judgment of the District Court is hereby affirmed.
Boris Goldberg, pro se , appeals from Judge Nickerson's order denying his motion to vacate his sentence and set aside his guilty plea pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255. We affirm.
On January 9, 1992, Goldberg pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c). As part of the plea agreement, the government agreed that the criminal activities encompassed in the plea would be limited to events occurring prior to November 1987 and thus the United States Sentencing Guidelines would not apply. Judge Nickerson sentenced Goldberg to a prison term of 15 years, a fine of $250,000, and a special assessment of $50.00.
On June 8, 1994, Goldberg filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 alleging that the district court erred in accepting his guilty plea because the allocution was insufficient and the court did not fully appraise Goldberg of the maximum sentence he faced. He also raised a challenge to his sentence based on ineffective assistance of counsel. The district court dismissed the petition.
On appeal, Goldberg contends that he received ineffective assistance of counsel at his sentencing proceeding. He further argues that the district court erred in failing to determine whether he could afford to pay the fine imposed by the court; in not ordering an evidentiary hearing to consider whether he could pay the fine or whether a new presentence report (PSR) was warranted; and in denying his motion for a new presentence investigative interview and PSR. We reject each claim.
Goldberg is unable to demonstrate that his attorney's performance fell below an objective standard of reasonableness as required by Strickland v. Washington , 466 U.S. 668 (1984). His argument that counsel should have mounted a statute of limitations defense is without merit because the indictment charged Goldberg with a predicate act of mail fraud that clearly occurred within five years of indictment. See United States v. Persico , 832 F.2d 705, 714 (2d Cir. 1987)(only one of the predicate acts charged needs to have occurred within five years of the indictment), cert. denied , 486 U.S. 1022 (1988).
Goldberg's claim that counsel promised him a sentence of no more than seven years is also baseless because he stated during the plea colloquy that he had not been promised anything with regard to his guilty plea. See United States v. Gonzalez , 970 F.2d 1095, 1101 (2d Cir. 1992)(a defendant's statements during plea colloquy should be regarded as conclusive in the absence of a believable reason for justifying a departure from the apparent truth of those statements). Moreover, even assuming that his attorney provided a mistaken estimate of Goldberg's likely sentence, this is insufficient to support a claim for ineffective assistance of counsel. Cf. United States v. Sweeney , 878 F.2d 68, 69-70 (2d Cir. 1989)(lawyer's "erroneous estimate" of guideline sentencing range not ineffective assistance of counsel).
Appellant's argument that his attorney was informed of alleged inaccuracies in the PSR and nevertheless failed to challenge them is also meritless. Goldberg's attorney at the presentence hearing challenged the credibility of the hearsay witnesses at the presentence hearing who alleged Goldberg's involvement in various criminal activities in order to rebut the PSR's contention that Goldberg was a "leader" of the enterprise. The attorney also argued the unreliability of those witnesses on direct appeal. Moreover, other than disputing the PSR's characterization of him as a "leader" of the criminal enterprise, Goldberg did not articulate any specific flaws in the PSR until this appeal. Thus, his counsel responded to the PSR in an appropriate fashion. Finally, Goldberg praised his counsel's performance in a letter to Judge Nickerson requesting that the same counsel be assigned for sentencing. Thus, his ineffective assistance of counsel claim is wholly undermined by the record.
Because Goldberg did not raise in his direct appeal or in his original Section 2255 motion before the district court his claim that the sentencing court failed to determine his ability to pay the fine, he is procedurally barred from raising it here. See Campino v. United States , 968 F.2d 187, 190 (2d Cir. 1992). Moreover, his claim lacks foundation in law since, under the pre-Guidelines regime, a fine may be imposed regardless of a defendant's ability to pay. See United States v. Torres , 901 F.2d 205, 247 (2d Cir.), cert. denied , 498 U.S. 906 (1990) (indigency does not bar a substantial fine).
The district court did not abuse its discretion in failing to hold an evidentiary hearing on the questions of whether a new PSR was required or whether the fine imposed was too harsh because Goldberg did not raise either of these issues in his petition. Similarly, because Goldberg's ineffective assistance claim is meritless, Judge Nickerson did not err in refusing to hold a hearing on this question.
Although Goldberg requests a new PSR, he failed to designate any inaccuracies in the PSR in his district court petition, and he is thus barred from making this claim now. See Sales v. Harris , 675 F.2d 532, 540 (2d Cir.), cert. denied , 459 U.S. 876 (1982) (appellate court cannot consider claims not raised in habeas petition in district court); cf. United States v. Brody , 808 F.2d 944, 947 (2d Cir. 1986) (issue not raised at sentencing or in Rule 35 motion is waived on appeal).
We therefore affirm.


He is already out if there were no other convictions, does anybody know if he is still active in the USA ?

I doubt he could operate in Brighton Beach, maybe in another state. But as long as I'm getting info, Brighton Beach is still under Yaponchik's old Brigade that also is basing itself in Moscow.

I know there are Uzbeks and Kyrgyz involved in drug smuggling, but are they as influential on the street or in the big cities as the Russian, Jewish, Chechen, Georgian, Armenian, Azerbaijani or Kurdish gangsters ?

They are influental yeah, they hold their rackets in their area which they control. Most of the times in Moscow these groups are either paying up to a larger Russian crime group or to a Vor V Zakone, that stands for them.

In the 90's, Orekhovskaya had a hitman nicknamed Soldat - he was responsible for various murders of gang bosses done. There is info that he sat in prison first of all in when he tried to stop bank robbers in a robbery they performed, the police were also involved in it, so they made the blame on him. After coming out of prison, he started to work in the local market. There his girlfriend was picked on by the Uzbek gang that controlled the market. It all went to the thing that Soldat got beaten up and told by the Uzbeks to bring them ten thousand dollars or he would die. In prison he had become friends with a high ranking member of Orekhovskaya. So, he decided to go to them and become a criminal working for them in exchange for protection from the Uzbeks. Eventually the Uzbek gang leader came and apologized to his girlfriend on his knee's with flowers in his hands.

This shows that larger crime groups in Moscow have control over smaller. On the other hand in south cities of Russia where there's a majority of one such nationality for example like Uzbeks, they'll be a dominant force there. As well that would happen in Uzbekistan.

I also know that in smaller cities of Russia, groups usually don't divide by ethnicity, for example if there's 10 guys who have been in the same school since first class and they all turn to crime later because they're good friends, they'll be all criminal, even if there's like one of the is Russian, another is a Chechen and somebody's an Uzbek in the gang.

The most influental criminals in Moscow are Russians, then comes Georgians and then you could put up Chechens there. It's very rare nowdays that criminal groups would go in war with each other over ethnical feud's, it's not the 90's anymore. They work together to earn more money or they don't work together and kill each other.

I read Kamchibek Kolybayev (Kolya the Kyrgyz) turned himself in after being deported from the UAE. Why did he do that? So nostalgic of his beloved prison walls?

In terms of 'Caucasian' organized crime I've heard that, although the Chechens have been the most significant Caucasian group in the history, the Ingush criminal groups have also become a major force and that they make tons of money.
Dagestanis, from what I've heard, seem to be more involved in rape and assault and less in the major organized criminal activities the Chechen and Ingush gangsters conduct.

Yeah, Chechens are very violent. All these Hachi* groups are violent and they kind of have their own laws to deal with stuff. If you look at Russian Groups they more or less nowdays tend to put the approach in a more civilized manner like the Cosa Nostra with sitdowns. But still usually these sitdowns end with one part being the loosers and then eventually someone gets killed.

In Chechenya/Dagestan and that region down there in the map, I've heard people say it's still the 90's. Terrorist rebels aren't the only groups ruling the game there. There's also criminal groups that control their areas, extortion, murder, robbery and general crime happens there.

I for fact know that in Latvia there's also a Chechen criminal group which is very large and very thight-knit organized. But they weren't let to do criminal activities in the capital city Riga in the 90's, they were forced out of the city by the local Russian groups.

*Hachi - Middle Asians/Caucasians/Churki in Russia.

Haven't heard really a lot about him. And yeah, have no real idea why did he do that either. But I know he's a Thief in Law, maybe he's one of those types who are close to prison and wants to achieve more in the Vorovskoi Mir. There have been even situations when Thieves in Law go into a shop and do shoplifting just to get back into prison.

What role do russian neo nazi gangs play?Are they powerful?
i heard their pretty active and also are they in favour with the general public and police?

Sorry for the long answer, man.

Anyway, neo nazi gangs play the role to fight against other ethnicities in Russia, generally that happens in Moscow.

They are not so powerful, I got two friends living over the Ural mountains in Chelyabinsk and Magnitorsk, what they stated to me - In the 2000's there were nazi's around, then they usually got beaten up very hard and so on, so they didn't have any big force. The people who were doing this were small time criminals(gopniki) now in these days these gopniki already have their own things going on and they make good money.

Some Russians support these gangs, there's even politicians who support them. But the general public doesn't. Due to all the ethnic disputes there's been a lot of killings when Russian nazi's kill some Caucasians or Caucasians kill Russians.

The big role is now played by higher organized groups that concentrate on making money, not beating Kyrgyz old ladies in the metro.

However these nazi gangs have got big trainings, they have their own gyms where they train in hand to hand combat, they train also in military and so on.

Thanks.
Their pretty brutal, didnt they murder a girl and then film themselves mutilating the girls corpse.
Is there alot of beef between them and armenians?

Nazi's have beef with everyone who's not Slavic, some groups even go so far that they only accept Russians and no-one else. But mostly they're just against the Middle Asian ones.

Maybe someone got a question?

Lol, That's funny because the original Nazi Ideologies look down upon slavs and here are a bunch of idiots saluting the swastika.
I have a question, can you name some Russian criminal groups in the US today, say similar to that of the Five families or the Albanian Rudaj organization.

Is it possible to say which Russian OC (Organized Crime) group is the most powerful one right now? I would think it would be between the Solntsevskaya Bratva and the Semion Mogilevich organization. Maybe I am wrong though.

I know that the brigade made by Vyacheslav Ivankov in USA still runs in New York and also bases itself there. They're also present in Russia.
The guy that I met in prison, who was doing time in America, he stated that from all major groups of Moscow like Solnetsevskaya or Izmailovskaya, their brigades are operating also in USA.
Don't know other group names, I know there are a lot of them tough, mostly small brigades, and then bigger organizations. As my prison friend stated, all Russian criminals in USA aren't into small things, when they do time, they're doing for big and serious stuff, that's why in prison they're very well respected by everyone else.

I think it is Solntsevskaya, they got really good cover, rumors say they're under FSB's and government's protection even. Mogilevich is a powerful figure, but all I know about his criminal connections is that he was with Lyubertskaya group. Maybe he has his own, but I haven't heard anything about it yet.

Ahhh okay interesting thanks. I did not know that Mogilevich was part of the Lyubertskaya group. For some reason I thought that he had his own organization. I think I read that somewhere before but I could be wrong.

Another thing that I do not fully understand is how does one even end up in prison in Russia when everything is so corrupt? That is to me it seems like the OC groups in Russia control pretty much everything. Who goes to jail then people who go against them of people high up in the government? It just does not seem as clear cut as it does here in Canada or in the USA. Maybe I am wrong about this though and my mind has been a bit brain washed by living in the West lol.

There is too much corruption, but there are honest cops even in Russia. However, to put a REALLY POWERFUL gangster in prison in Russia, he has to step on the toes of somebody more powerful than him: for example, Vladimir Kumarin (the boss of the Tambovskaya in St Petersburg) was arrested after some of his underlings tried to extort a friend of the regional governor who had connections in Moscow.
As for smaller and middle-sized groups, their bosses sometimes get arrested when they become too violent or flashy and too much complaints reach the capital. In case the gangsters whom the complaints are made against have no direct ties to the people in charge of the country, there is a chance the investigation is delegated to people from Moscow and taken away from the local police which is already bought by gangsters. However, this doesn't mean the Moscow police is honest: they are compromised with the mafia too, but have no problem in investigating groups from other cities they have no ties to.
Also, it is always easier to put a gangster-politician in jail if he doesn't belong to the "United Russia" party which is the one in charge.
However, things are not so bad now as they were in the 90s: it's not like you can't walk on the streets without getting shot, most of the trouble stays in the big business.

Usually to prison goes small time people. Like a guy who stole a bottle of vodka from a store. Or some guy who killed his wife while he was drunk. Big organizations go down only when they step on someone's toes, as Dwalin said it.

Ahhh okay thanks again for the answers that makes sense then. So basically it all changed a lot after the Soviet Union collapsed correct? That was when the OC groups in Russia stepped into the power vacuum and pretty much took over everything right?

Yes, before the collapse of the Soviet Union the situation was different because private economy was non-existent, you couldn't become a banker or president of a big corporation. The gangs at those times extorted money from illegal businessmen who paid also because, their activities being illegal, they couldn't report the extortion to the police. I think I read the first gang that really made extortion their large-scale business was active in the 70s and was headed by one Gennadiy "The Mongol" Korkov. The future thief in law "Little Japanese" Ivankov made career in the same gang. However, whatever there was before the 90s, in terms of economical power they were just angry babies compared to the nowadays' Russian mafia.

Right okay that is pretty much what I thought. So then before the 90s gangsters in Russia could be locked up pretty easily just like anyone else?

Major part of the ROC groups were born in the late 80's and most of them in 90's. Before the 90's in communism, everyone could get locked up easily for the smallest shit. Such as like if you today offered your friend to buy your euros that you got left from the last trip to Europe, in USSR you'd get in prison for that. My grandfather was in prison three times, twice was for selling meat and aluminium spoons.