I am part Russian and have always been curious about Russian OC. It seems like we know so much about Italian OC structure but nothing about Russian. Is that because the organization is minimal, or is because it is more secretive?
With that in mind. Does anyone know if what the org is like? Do they have a similar or some type of initiation? Is it like cosa nostra where you have to be an associate for over a decade to get in?

Russian groups typically are more criminal enterprises than organized crime; meaning they don't have the fixed structure of the Mafia. One report put it this way:

Eurasian OC has a non-traditional loose structure, i.e "a core groups of 6 or 7 individuals will engage in a crime. That group will disband. 4 of those criminals will combine with 2 new criminals to commit another crime." This is due, in part, to Eurasian OC coming of age in a time of great technological and transportation advances. Also, they desire to avoid tight hierarchical structure that brings RICO charges. Yet another reason is Eurasian OC groups are highly entreprunurial, pariticularly in insurance and other frauds.

The Russian gangsters that are most similar to La Cosa Nostra are the Vor-V-Zakone (Thief in Law). They are more traditional and have initiation rites.

Thanks Ivy. The thing is when you read these indictments with cosa nostra it always starts with "the enterprise"; and it discusses the structure in a very lengthy way. Then, in other cases with less organized groups who get charged with rico, the "enterprise" discussion will be like 1 paragraph. It just seems like the feds throw this at any group even if teh structure is highly debatable, which makes it easy to see why they have used it with such success with cosa nostra.

Ivy does the fbi charge the Russians under rico? After all its a racketeering entreprise

Recent case where a bunch of russains were charged with rico

Three Staten Islanders were among 34 people charged Tuesday in what investigators said was a Russian organized crime scheme that included illegal, high-stakes poker games for the rich and famous.

Federal authorities in New York City weren't naming names, but they said the poker players included pro athletes, Hollywood celebrities and Wall Street executives. None of them were facing charges.

The money-laundering investigation led to arrests Tuesday in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and elsewhere around the country. There also were FBI raids at an apartment in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue and a Madison Avenue art gallery owned by two of the defendants.

Among those named in an indictment filed in federal court was a wealthy Russian fugitive, Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov. He was already under indictment in a separate U.S. case accusing him of bribing Olympic figure skating judges at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

The Staten Islanders arrested were Arthur Azen, 43; Ilya Rozenfeld, 53, and Joseph (Joe the Hammer) Mancuso, 29.

Azen was charged with RICO conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, two counts of operating an illegal gambling business, two counts of extortion conspiracy and unlawful internet gambling. He faces up to 115 years in prison, 24years of supervised release and a $2.25 million fine if convicted.

Rozenfeld was charged with money laundering conspiracy. He faces up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $500,000 fine if convicted.

Mancuso was charged with operating an illegal gambling business as well as interstate and foreign travel or transportation in aid of racketeering enterprises. He faces up to 10 years in prison, six years of supervised release and a $150,000 fine if convicted.

According to the indictment, the money-laundering ring paid Tokhtakhounov $20 million in illegal proceeds during a two-month period beginning in late 2011.

Along with the illegal poker games, the ring operated "an international gambling business that catered to oligarchs residing in the former Soviet Union and throughout the world," the indictment said.

Prosecutors allege proceeds were laundered through shell companies in Cyprus and in the United States.

Is that mancuso related to Mike mancus?o of the bananas

Ya i was wondering the same thing but i cant find any info on him that would link him to the bonnano family at all, so i dont think so. But i could be wrong.

You'll notice that much of the length in those LCN indictments is due to the feds giving a standard back story of the LCN (i.e. it's very existence having been legally proven in the past), it's structure, how it operates, etc.

Criminal enterprise can simply mean criminals engaged in a certain illegal activity. Even if the crime itself is highly organized, the organization in terms of "organized crime" is about whether they had some kind of formal structure.

Maybe the easiest way to put it is, an organized crime group (like the LCN) could also be called a criminal enterprise. But a criminal enterprise (like a loose band of Eastern European crooks running some kind of scam) isn't necessarily organized crime.



Sometimes. Other times, as said above, groups will be charged with enterprise corruption. Organized crime/criminal enterprise...RICO/Enterprise corruption...there are some differences but a lot of overlap and similarities.