Russian mafia back in the news

Russian mafia back in the news

Two ex-FBI agents, known as Z and Louie, appeared on CBS News this past week to talk about their nearly 10 years working undercover against the Russian mob – part of the network’s way of covering the US Justice Department’s recent announcement that they would change strategies to fight the security threats of international organized crime.

Posing as Atlantic City high rollers and wise guys, the agents wined and dined Russian contacts some 100 nights per year until and after the agents found an in. And what they found were Russian mob hands in crimes ranging from diamond and arms dealing to credit card fraud to cigarette smuggling, not to mention loads of violence. But there was a lighter side to some of the scams, to wit:

The Russians' massive smuggling operations run out of a port in Newark, N.J. One ingenious scam to avoid paying taxes had tanker loads of wood-grain alcohol being shipped back to the Mother Land - vodka with a twist.

"They would dye it blue. They would label it windshield washer fluid, ship it to Russia, un-dye it, and then sell it as vodka," Z said.

Less amusing was Z and Louie’s story about meeting a “Russian general” in Switzerland who offered to sell them various military hardware, major items such as long-range missiles and tanks. Said Z: “If they’ll sell that to a couple of mob guys from Jersey, what are they selling to al-Qaeda, terrorists?”

That’s one of the reasons that the US law enforcement is paying closer attention to these groups, and it was the number-one reason that US authorities were able to indict Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout earlier this month, for allegedly attempting to sell weapons to a US-designated terrorist organization. (In that deal, Bout was allegedly trying to sell heavy-duty stuff – surface-to-air missiles, armor-piercing rocket launchers, ultra-light planes that could be fitted with grenade launchers and missiles – to the FARC in Colombia, and when told that the weapons would be used to kill US troops in Colombia, allegedly said the fight against the United States was also his fight.) Bout was mentioned briefly in the CBS piece as an example of these Russians Gone Wild, selling anything to anyone.

But you gotta love television. CBS gravely noted that the former agents in the segment were “partially disguised,” but with only sunglasses blocking their features (the thin one, Louie, also sported a baseball cap), they looked less like protected insider sources than they resembled an easily recognizable Jack Nicholson courtside at an LA Lakers game. The segment also made no mention of any Russians they may have helped bring down, or if any of their work involving $2,000 dinners or fancy cars resulted in indictments. But the segment did say that hundreds of FBI agents were working on the organized crime problems posed by Russian, Albanian and Asian groups in New York alone.

Meanwhile, film piraters, Russian or otherwise, should beware in New York state: Attorney General Andrew Cuomo proposed a law earlier this month that would mean jail time for film piraters.

Currently, those caught committing piracy are hit with a violation that only carries a fine. Under the proposal, a first-time offender would face up to a year in prison, and a repeat offender would be charged with a felony. New York City already has upgraded film piracy to a misdemeanor with a penalty of up to six months in jail for a first offense.

The Motion Picture Association says a large chunk of bootlegged films are recorded in New York City theaters. The duplications are typically sold for mass reproduction or posted on the Internet, sometimes just hours after the movie has premiered.

UK’s Serious Organiz(s)ed Crime Agency Heads Back to Square One

On the other side of the Atlantic, the UK’s two-year-old Serious Organised Crime Agency has gone back to the drawing board after deciding to scrap its original plan – to go after 130 top crime bosses in Britain. The agency will now instead go after 500 criminal groups involving around 15,000 people, reports the Times of London.

Experienced officers are leaving the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) ‘in droves’ and the organisation’s original hitlist has been shelved…Sources said that it had spent two years pursuing a flawed strategy on the basis of poor intelligence.

Soca, which publishes its annual report this week, identified 130 crime barons it believed were controlling the drugs trade, human-trafficking and racketeering in Britain. Just a few of those key figures have been prosecuted and Soca has used groundbreaking powers to strike plea-bargain deals with supergrasses only seven times since 2006.

The Times also ran a piece analyzing SOCA’s problems. It was started two years ago to, as Tony Blair said at its inauguration, make life “hell” for criminals, but the agency has apparently been hamstrung by bureaucracy and cautious suits in its managerial offices. But give it time, says one source: “Two years ago we didn’t have an organization that only dealt with organized crime – people in Italy and the United States couldn’t believe it when I told them that,” said Alison Saunders, who works with SOCA at the Crown Prosecution Service. “There has been a cultural change in the way the UK looks at and tackles organized crime and that takes time.”

Israeli PM still in trouble

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will face more questioning by the police in connection with a corruption investigation that came to light earlier this month, reported some local press and AFP over the weekend.

Police couldn’t confirm it to AFP, but the local press reported that the police are interested in questioning Olmert before his lawyers hear the upcoming May 25 testimony by a US businessman accused of illegally giving Olmert money.

Last week, Israeli anti-fraud police raided Jerusalem’s city hall building, the Ministry of Trade, Labor and Industry building and several municipal buildings, seizing documents related to the investigation. Police suspect Olmert of taking large sums of money from a foreigner or foreigners over the course of various election campaigns. Olmert denies involvement in bribery and told the press last week that he would step down if indicted.

Good background on nearly half-dozen other investigations into Olmert’s business and other dealings can be found here.

Chinese construction corruption blamed for earthquake deaths

Local officials and construction companies are being blamed for many of the deaths that stemmed from last week’s earthquake in China, reports The Australian.

…fingers are being pointed in two directions in pinning down responsibility for the extent of the disaster, in which more than 20,000 people are known to have died, with thousands more still trapped under debris.

The first is "tofu buildings", which may have looked fine but were essentially as soft as tofu - partly, many local people believe, because corners were cut in their construction as a result of corruption involving builders and the local officials who contracted and approved their work.

The second accusation is that warnings, both scientific and in local folklore, of an imminent catastrophe were allegedly ignored by the authorities.

In The Observer, Will Hutton (author of the China book The Writing on the Wall) pointed out that “earthquakes don’t destroy strong, well-built buildings, they destroy weak ones.”

One mother told the Guardian: 'Chinese officials are too corrupt and bad ... They have money for prostitutes and second wives but they don't have money for our children.' It is the same story when it comes to food safety, drug standards or environmental regulations, of which only 10 per cent are enforced. Corruption is ubiquitous, which is why so many buildings were deathtraps. Another woman drew attention to the government and party buildings that remained standing, plainly built to the right specifications. The Politburo could anticipate what was going to be said; fast, open and effective action was its best riposte.

Former State Dept officials say Bush administration ignored Iraq corruption

Two former US State Department officials told the AP last week that the Bush administration repeatedly ignored corruption in Iraq at the highest levels and stifled potentially embarrassing information to save its relationship with Baghdad.

Arthur Brennan, who briefly served in Baghdad as head of the department's Office of Accountability and Transparency last year, and James Mattil, who worked as the chief of staff, told Senate Democrats on Monday that their office was understaffed and its warnings and recommendations ignored.

Brennan also alleges the State Department prevented a congressional aide visiting Baghdad from talking with staffers by insisting they were too busy. In reality, Brennan said, office members were watching movies at the embassy and on their computers. The staffers' workload had been cut dramatically because of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's "evisceration" of Iraq's top anti-corruption office, he said.

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