Alleged Russian Mob Boss Arrested in N.Y. on Extortion Charges

A reputed Russian mob boss who operated in Brooklyn’s “Little Odessa” section after entering the United States illegally was arrested with five of his associates Thursday and charged with attempting to extort millions of dollars from an investment advisory firm.

As part of the alleged scheme, the father of one of the firm’s top officials was murdered in Moscow in April and two of the concern’s other officers were kidnaped from New York City and taken to a restaurant in New Jersey where they were forced to sign a contract agreeing to pay $3.5 million to one of the defendants.

FBI officials said Vyacheslav Kirillovich Ivankov, 55, allegedly one of the most powerful Russian crime leaders in the United States, was arrested after an investigation that was aided by the Russian Ministry of the Interior and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

James K. Kallstrom, assistant director in charge of the New York office of the FBI, labeled Ivankov’s seizure “the most important arrest ever made . . . in Russian organized crime in the United States.”

The assistant director said Ivankov’s arrest “sends a signal to emerging groups, and particularly Russian organized crime groups, [that] they are not in the old Soviet Union . . . “

“This is a classic case of international cooperation,” he added.

According to court papers, Ivankov--who was arrested at the home of his girlfriend in Brooklyn--founded a major criminal organization in 1980 in Russia, where he and associates used fraudulent militia documents to search the homes of wealthy individuals and steal money and other valuables.

After being convicted in Russia of crimes relating to these thefts, Ivankov was sentenced to 14 years in jail. But Russian law-enforcement officials said Ivankov and his associates bribed a Russian Supreme Court judge to reduce his sentence and he was released after only 10 years in prison.

After violating probation in Moscow, Ivankov illegally entered the United States three years ago to manage and control Russian organized-crime activities in America, authorities said. FBI agents said they observed Ivankov meeting with other known Russian mobsters in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn.

A criminal complaint filed in federal court in Brooklyn charged that Russian organized-crime groups use businesses in the former Soviet Union, Western and Central Europe and the United States to serve as fronts for money laundering and for other illegal purposes.

“Rife with corruption, this commerce thrives on such illegal practices as extortion, kickbacks, bribery of public officials, collection of protection money and threats and violence directed toward rivals,” the court papers said.

Prosecutors charged that last November, Ivankov and several of the defendants began to extort several million dollars from Summit International, a New York City investment advisory firm and Alexander Volkov and Vladimir Voloshin, two of its officers.

During the investigation, FBI agents learned the defendants were acting on behalf of Ivankov, who allegedly supervised the extortion scheme, with demands ranging from $2.7 million to $5 million.

Prosecutors charged that on May 25, several of the defendants kidnaped Volkov and Voloshin in New York City and took them to a restaurant in Fairview, N.J., where they were forced to sign a contract agreeing to pay $3.5 million to a defendant acting on Ivankov’s behalf.

Three other suspects--two of them believed to be in Russia--are still being sought in the case, authorities said.

“It is important that Russian organized crime not be permitted to mature in this country as domestic organized crime has,” said U.S. Atty. Zachary W. Carter.