http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/fbi-investigating-handler-murder-case-involving-co/nXbps/



Chulpayev's an ex-member of the Gufield-Kutsenko Brigade, as I remember when I posted an NYtimes article some while ago about that group. He was the one who controlled the money in that group but later cooperated with the FED's.

I already read about this, here's some other info : San Francisco State guard/forward Decensae White, a former Texas Tech and Santa Clara player, faces a murder charge for his alleged involvement in the death of rapper Lil Phat, NBC Bay Area and the San Mateo County Times reported.

White’s arrest and extradition to Fulton County, Ga. were confirmed by San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe to the San Mateo County Times. He has a May 31 court hearing, a Fulton County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson told the paper.


Decensae White played Division I basketball at both Texas Tech and Santa Clara before landing at San Francisco State this past season. (AP Photo)
White is one of five men indicted in the death of the rapper, whose real name is Melvin Vernell III, NBC Bay Area reported. Vernell was found shot dead outside a hospital last June, where his girlfriend was giving birth, according to a Sandy Springs (Ga.) police spokesman.

Among the others arrested in Vernell’s death are Russian mobster Mani Chulpayev, who allegedly ordered the murder, police said. It’s unclear how White is believed to be involved.

“We are in total shock right now,” White’s father, David White, told NBC Bay Area. “He is the most non-violent person I’ve ever known in my life. This is beyond anyone's comprehension.”

White was a prep hoops star in the San Francisco area who opted to go play for coach Bob Knight at Texas Tech. He eventually transferred to Santa Clara, then found his way to San Francisco State this past season, where he averaged 12.5 points.

White reportedly was a former roommate of Texas Tech star WR Michael Crabtree, NBC Bay Area reported.

When reached Friday, San Francisco State was unaware of the murder charge against White, NBC Bay Area reported.

Another video on him.

update on the case. He only assisted in the killing, he had nothing to do with ordering it.


5 people conspired to kill Atlanta rapper, prosecutors say
By Kate Brumback
Associated Press
Thursday, July 4, 2013

Follow Crime & courts
ATLANTA — An Atlanta rapper was shot dead in a car outside a hospital where his fiancée was due to give birth in what prosecutors say was an elaborate murder-for-hire plot involving gang members, a former Russian mobster and a basketball star.
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Bradford
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Melvin Vernell III – known as Lil Phat – was killed after he stole 10 pounds of marijuana, prosecutors said. They’ve indicted five people, including a rapper they say belongs to an Alabama gang, a former Russian mafia member turned informant and a college basketball standout from California.
Vernell, who was 19 when he died, stole the drugs from Decensae Xavier White, a San Francisco State University point guard known as Griz, and Gary Bradford, a rapper who goes by El Dorado Red, prosecutors said. Angry and seeking revenge, the pair hired Deandre Washington and Maurice DeWayne Con­ner to kill him for $10,000, prosecutors said.
Washington and Conner tracked Vernell to the hospital on the outskirts of Atlanta by using GPS coordinates given to them by White and Bradford, who had gotten the information from Mani Chul­pa­yev, who runs a business leasing expensive luxury cars and had rented out the car Vernell was driving the day he died, prosecutors said.
Defense attorneys flatly deny that version of events.
At a June 13 bond hearing, prosecutor Sheila Ross and defense attorneys painted dramatically different portraits of the men accused.
Chulpayev, 38, was convicted in the late 1990s on charges related to his involvement in Russian organized crime and then became an FBI informant, said his original lawyer in the case, George Plumides. Plumides told ABC News in May that an FBI handler asked for and received from Chul­payev gifts of cash, jewelry, tickets to sporting events, hotel rooms and the use of luxury cars.
The FBI’s Atlanta field office has said the agency took immediate action to address those accusations and that the Justice Department’s Of­fice of the Inspector General was investigating.
Plumides, who withdrew from the case after prosecutors objected to a perceived conflict, said the FBI agent tried to keep local police investigating Vernell’s death away from Chulpayev. But that actually complicated things for him because Chulpa­yev was eager to talk to clear his name and offered to take a lie detector test, Plu­mides said.
Plumides said White had invested in Chulpayev’s luxury car business, which is how he had the tracking information – not because Chulpayev gave it to him to kill Vernell, Plumides said.
Ross said White was the one with a direct connection to Chulpayev and conspired with Bradford to have Vernell killed. White is not a gang member but associates with them, Ross said.
Bradford is a member of a violent street gang known as the Bang Get Money mafia, or BGM, out of Montgomery, Ala., and has previous convictions, Ross said. The 34-year-old says in a video, “If you cross the BGM, we will kill you,” Sandy Springs police Detective J.T. Williams testified at a bond hearing.
Lawyers for Bradford say he is a rapper with a registered company called BGM and that all the tough talk in his songs and the violent imagery in his videos are just part of his image.
Ross said Washington is also a member of the BGM gang with a prior murder charge that was dropped because of a lack of cooperation from witnesses, Ross said. He’s the one who fatally shot Vernell, she said.
At the bond hearing in last month, the judge granted bond only to White. The other three remain in jail. The fifth defendant, Maurice Conner, is in jail in Alabama. http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/crime-...ay?v=1372965322

If this russian guy is a rat, his old pals know where to find him!

theres video of the interview in the link.
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/russian-mobster-turned-fbi-informant-proclaims-inn/nZ5Sb/
Russian mobster-turned FBI informant denies murder charge
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Mani Chulpayev speaks one-on-one with Channel 2 Action News
Related

Still no arrests in Northside Hospital shooting


ATLANTA — A former Atlanta car dealer who worked as a Russian mobster and FBI informant spoke to Channel 2 investigative reporter Jim Strickland while in custody at the Fulton County Jail.

Mani Chulpayev is expected to be the star witness in the case of a murdered rapper.

Rapper Lil Phat was shot and killed in his car in the parking lot of Northside Hospital in June 2012.

Prosecutors say it was a revenge killing ordered by drug dealers who believe the rapper stole from them. Prosecutors have accused Chulpayev of helping an assassin squad to hunt down the victim.

Strickland has learned that suspects charged in the murder are customers of Chulpayev's Atlanta car-leasing business.
INFORMANT TURNED SUSPECT
However, Chulpayev told Strickland in the jailhouse interview that he was actually gathering intelligence on the drug operation for the FBI.

"If I'm such a bad guy and so violent and such a convicted criminal, why are three or four agencies simultaneously using me over and over again like a whore?" Chulpayev said. "Of course I'm mad."

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard says Strickland's investigation into Chulpayev's car business helped break the Lil Phat murder case.

Chulpayev says he's actually the one who solved it.

"I'm telling you, the phone records and everything, they got most of the warrants from the judges because of me, because I was a reliable source," Chulpayev said.

"Do you think that 12 strangers can look at Mani Chulpayev and see an innocent man?" Strickland asked.

"On this case? Without doubt. Without a doubt, I have faith," Chulpayev responded.
GPS TRACKING KEY TO CASE
A confidential police report obtained by Channel 2 Action News shows Chulpayev's GPS tracking system in the car was accessed nearly two dozen times the day of the murder.

"This crime could not have occurred had this defendant not told the killers where to find the victim," Senior District Attorney Sheila Ross said during a May 2013 hearing.

The same case report shows Chulpayev called police from Florida only six hours after the killing when he learned from an employee his car was involved. The report shows Chulpayev also called his FBI handler, Dante Jackson, and named suspects Decensae White and Gary Bradford.

"He says, ‘Do not talk to anybody about this case but me. I'm going to be the agent in charge.’ Every interview I ever had was controlled by Dante. ‘This is what you tell 'em and this is what you don't tell 'em,’" Chulpayev said.

Chulpayev said half of his high-end customers leasing cars with GPS tracking were drug suspects under federal surveillance. The trackers in the cars did not require warrants or approval from the FBI. Chulpayev told Strickland that Jackson, along with the DEA and Secret Service, had the credentials to track a vehicle.

Ross said Decensae White, also known as "Grizz", and another Chulpayev client, known as "Eldorado Red" ordered the murder of Lil Phat over 10 pounds of stolen marijuana.

"Drugs and stuff like that is not even my business. I was never into it, through the whole history and all past history. I was never into drugs, I was never into guns," Chulpayev said.

A contract obtained by Strickland showed White agreed to bankroll part of Chulpayev's car business. Chulpayev said
White had access to the GPS tracking, too.

"The kid just invested $160,000 in a month's period of time. So as a partner, I'm obligated to give him the login," he said.
DELAY IN INVESTIGATION
The case report shows Sandy Springs detective J.T. Williams didn't learn there might be a GPS tracker on the vehicle until four months after the killing. It was February before police got a warrant to retrieve and analyze the trackers. Chulpayev said the FBI never divulged their existence.

"Why wait all the way until Paul Howard says to search my car when you had the GPS login all along for your other cases. Why couldn't you use this for this?" Chulpayev said.

The report also shows Jackson interrogated Chulpayev on July 30 and didn't tell Sandy Springs police about it for six weeks.

The FBI confirmed that the Office of the Inspector General has launched a criminal investigation into Jackson's relationship with Chulpayev.

"When does the FBI take responsibility for this so-called handler who was handling me without pay? They hadn't paid me since 2011," he said. "When Dante finally gets under investigation, he disappears, and Mani gets arrested. It's that simple. They were supposed to protect me, not arrest me."

Chulpayev says his desire to bury his father in Israel was the FBI's leverage.

"I still want my green card, so I'm doing everything I can do to please my handler, to get my green card expedited," he said. "I'm sitting here waiting, for what? Waiting to go to trial for murder."

"I'm just a juicy story for Paul Howard. You can put that on TV," Chulpayev said.

Strickland called and emailed Dante Jackson and received no response. The District Attorney's Office will not comment on the case until it is over. The trial is expected to begin in three weeks.

Channel 2 Action News confirmed that Strickland is on the witness list, as is Jackson. Chulpayev called Strickland over the weekend to tell him he intends to testify.

http://thesource.com/2014/03/13/russian-mob-boss-denied-bail-in-murder-of-lil-phat/
March 13, 2014

Just moments ago Mani Chulpayev was denied bond by Fulton County Judge, in the murder case of Atlanta based rapper Lil Phat
By Curt Cramer

Just moments ago, it was reported that former Russian Mafia boss Mani Chulpayev has been denied bond by the judge presiding over his accessory to murder case in Fulton County, GA. Chulpayev is accused of facilitating a GPS coordinate that assisted the killers of aspiring Trill Entertainment rapper Melvin Vernell III known better in the hip hop world as “Lil Phat”.

Lil Phat was visiting his newborn son at an Atlanta hospital when he was gunned down. Chulpayev’s “business partner” Decensae “Grizz” White has now admitted to prosecutors that he ordered Lil Phat murdered because of a drug deal gone bad. Shockingly, he is also expected to cooperate with investigators, and testify he ordered the murder with the understanding he would only receive a maximum of 8 years in prison, according to the Hip Hop Enquirer. Decensae is also an aspiring rapper from California, and was the leading scorer for San Francisco State University’s basketball team.

In a previous hearing this past summer, rapper Eldorado Red (collaborator of such acts as Yo Gotti, Waka Flocka Flame) was also denied bond. Along with the murder, he was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm during a felony, and participation in criminal street gang activity, according to documents from the case.

Chulpayev is amongst the men accused, according to Fulton County prosecutors, since Chulpayev wanted the rapper dead as he believed that Lil Phat was going to testify against him for selling him a car that was stolen. During a recent hearing, Chulpayev’s defense attorney Tanya Miller told the judge that her client didn’t know that when he gave the GPS tracking codes to Decensae, the men were looking to kill Lil Phat.

-Curt Cramer (@CurtisRemarc)

Murder charges dropped against former Russian mobster in Fulton Co.
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By Jim Strickland
FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Fulton County prosecutors dropped murder charges against a former Russian mobster turned FBI informant.

District Attorney Paul Howard called Channel 2 consumer investigator Jim Strickland with the news. Howard had previously credited Strickland with helping break the case, and had subpoenaed Strickland to testify at Mani Chulpayev's trial in the murder of rapper Lil' Phat.

Chulpayev will soon have his freedom, and the Georgia State Supreme Court ruled two of his statements to police must be stricken. The opinion also put his final statement and much of the evidence gathered from his discussions with police in doubt. Promises made to Chulpayev by his FBI handler were key in the courts finding that the statements were involuntary.

"Our case against him was essentially gutted," Howard told Strickland. "It's still our feeling that he was involved in the death of this young man."

An Alabama gang member is doing life for gunning down Lil' Phat at Northside Hospital in 2012 in a murder for hire over stolen drugs.

Others involved are sentenced anywhere from eight to 30 years.

Chulpayev once told Strickland he wanted to testify at his murder trial, but he'll soon be released after waiting two years to face a jury.

"This defendant, Mani Chulpayev, got away with murder," said Howard.

Chulpayev has consistently maintained his innocence. The rapper was shot in a car Chulpayev, a one-time Atlanta car dealer, had leased the victim.

Chulpayev is expected to be transferred to DeKalb County, where he faces theft charges relating to the car business.

He's also being ordered to pay $30,000 to car customer Travis Jones. Jones' tip first triggered Strickland's investigation, which later became part of a Nightline segment with ABC's chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross.

Chulpayev's FBI handler, Dante Jackson, remains under investigation. Jackson used Chulpayev as an informant without official sanction from Jackson's superiors.

American cops suck. I hoped that, Russian cops not being able to deal with their mafia, my compatriot gangsters would get what they deserve at least in other countries. Instead, it seems you guys are going soft on them as well.