4 Bodies Believed Tied to Kidnaps

Four bodies pulled from the murky depths of a Central California reservoir are believed to be the victims of a brutal kidnapping ring whose alleged members were indicted this month by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.

Although officials have not publicly identified the bodies, sources close to the FBI investigation said they believe the victims include a Beverly Hills businessman, his associate, his bookkeeper and a North Hollywood businessman. In the case of the Beverly Hills man, the kidnappers allegedly sought $5 million in ransom.

Although much about the case is unclear, it appears that the victims were kidnapped and killed, their weighted bodies tossed off bridges into the New Melones Reservoir along California 49 in the heart of the Mother Lode.

Like the four suspects now in federal custody, all four victims apparently had roots in the former Soviet Union.

It was not known whether the four killings are linked to a body found floating in the same waters last October. Those remains were identified Tuesday as real estate developer Meyer Muscatel of Sherman Oaks, the only victim whose identity has been verified. Muscatel’s daughter said the family has not yet been told details of the investigation into her father’s death.

“They said, ‘This is a lot for you to hear right now,’ ” said Rachel Muscatel, recalling her meeting with Los Angeles Police Department detectives.

The March 5 indictment identified two men, Georgy Safiev of Beverly Hills and Alexander Umansky of North Hollywood, as kidnap victims of a group of four Russian-speaking men.

Indictment Names Four Suspects

The indictment alleges that Iouri Mikhel and Jurijus Kadamovas “seized and detained” Umansky sometime around Dec. 13, demanded a $234,628 ransom from his family and threatened to injure or kill him if it wasn’t paid. The indictment also alleges that Petro Krylov and Ainar Altmanis “aided and abetted” the crime.

Umansky is president of Advanced Mobile Technologies, also listed as Hard Wired Auto Accessories, in North Hollywood. The small business started in 1998 and sells electronics and security systems.

On Jan. 20, the indictment alleges, Mikhel and Kadamovas kidnapped Safiev and similarly threatened his life unless a ransom of $5 million was paid.

Records and interviews identify businessman Safiev as president of Matador Communications, a Santa Monica film production company. Nick Kharabadze, according to records, is the company’s chief executive.

Attorneys for three of the four suspects either could not be reached or declined to comment on the case. Krylov’s lawyer, George Buehler, said he had no idea authorities might be investigating links between his client and the bodies found at New Melones, and that the kidnapping case against his client is “very thin.”

“The government has been extremely tight with information,” he said.

Krylov’s wife, Natalie, said Wednesday that her husband is innocent.

“He’s not a gangster,” she said. “I don’t know how he [could be] related to this nightmare.”

In a related case, two men were arrested Feb. 11 and charged with helping to transfer $240,000 in ransom paid to the kidnappers for the release of Umansky. One of them, Andrei Agueev, a Dubai businessman, was “kidnapped” by the American government from his homeland last month, said his defense attorney, Victor Sherman.

Agueev has pleaded not guilty and his trial has been set for April 9. The other man, Andrei Liapine, also has pleaded not guilty. His attorney said he is a Russian citizen who lives in the United Arab Emirates.

The indictment against the four main suspects does not mention the other two people who authorities believe were kidnapped. Law enforcement officials identified them as Kharabadze, and Safiev’s bookkeeper, 39-year-old Rita Pekler of West Hollywood. Pekler vanished on Dec. 5, Kharabadze sometime later.

However, one law enforcement source said the disappearance of the two has been linked to the four suspects. That official and another law enforcement source said the kidnapping investigation led to the search and discovery of the four bodies pulled this week from New Melones, a deep, narrow reservoir east of Modesto that is popular for boating and fishing.

Those bodies, authorities have said, include three men and a woman.

The bottle-green reservoir, created as part of a federal flood-control project in the 1960s and ‘70s, looks more like a river as it snakes through the oak- and pine-dotted hills of Calaveras and Tuolumne counties. It was there that authorities found Muscatel’s body floating last October, a week after his disappearance. And it was there that divers found two bodies Sunday, another Monday and one--the woman’s--on Tuesday.

Investigators returned to one of the bridges to search further on Wednesday. For hours, FBI agents and sheriff’s deputies from the two adjoining counties bobbed on an aluminum pontoon boat above a remote-controlled submersible, but the operation was suspended in midafternoon, with authorities saying they believed there were no more bodies in the reservoir.

Lt. John Steely, chief deputy coroner of Tuolumne County, said he couldn’t say how long the bodies had been in the water. He also said that autopsies were being conducted on the two bodies pulled out Sunday, but he could not say what had been learned.

FBI spokesman Nick Rossi said the search for the bodies began on March 4 at another nearby body of water, Don Pedro Reservoir.

Although the full outline of the case remained hazy, the few details that have trickled out so far suggest a ruthless group of kidnappers who terrorized victims into seeking out large sums of money in a hurry.

According to one knowledgeable source, whose information mirrors some official accounts, after Safiev disappeared, a colleague received a telephone call from him in which he reportedly said, “I need money wired--no questions asked.”

Subsequently, the FBI learned that more than $1 million was wired from Moscow to the United States in connection with the case.

According to the indictment, Safiev was seized on Jan. 20 in Los Angeles County. Two kidnappers allegedly attempted to extort $5 million in ransom from Kostantinos Tezhik, believed to be another associate of Safiev.

A business associate of Pekler, Nellie Faktorovich, said she left their West Hollywood office for a business meeting on Dec. 5 and never returned. “Honestly, I don’t see any reason why,” Faktorovich said. “She was loved and respected in the Russian community.”

Pekler’s name and business mailing address, records show, were listed for a real estate company whose registered agent is Safiev. Her accounting firm reported an estimated $600,000 in business last year.

Kharabadze, 29, lived in Woodland Hills, but was originally from Tbilisi, Georgia. He was an aspiring film producer and son of Rusiko Kiknadze, a famous Georgian film and stage actress, according to stepfather Mat Shatz.

Kharabadze and Safiev, 38, had spent the last year as business partners, Shatz said.

Pekler balanced the company’s books. She was the first to disappear. In a final, befuddling phone call to Safiev, she asked to see him right away, Shatz said. Safiev told her he was boarding a plane; it was the last anyone heard from her, Shatz said. On Wednesday, Shatz said, the FBI told the family they assumed two of the bodies were those of their son and Safiev, but they still had to check dental records.

At Kharabadze’s Woodland Hills home, a group of depressed and angry friends gathered in the backyard Wednesday, speaking Russian and English around a table covered with cigarettes, ashtrays, and a fat stack of photos of the aspiring filmmaker. Kharabadze’s mother appeared briefly, but broke down and ran up the stairs before saying anything.

Shatz painted a vivid picture of his stepson, a USC graduate who hoped to carry on his mother’s artistic legacy by producing feature films. “I don’t even care who should be jailed,” he said. “I want my boy back. He was an angel. This guy never had any problem with anybody.”

Although no links have been drawn between the four alleged kidnap victims and Muscatel, some aspects of his disappearance are similar. He was last seen on Oct. 11, when he told his daughter that he had a business meeting with a potential investor in a Malibu housing development. He subsequently tried to withdraw money from his bank, saying he was in danger.

Family Frustrated by Father’s Case

Rachel Muscatel described her father as a successful real estate developer who combined street smarts with deep spiritual values. A devout Jew, he launched his company, Best Avnet, about 12 years ago, buying and rehabilitating modest, single-family homes in the San Fernando Valley.

“He took pleasure in providing homes for people,” his daughter said.

When he wasn’t working, she added, Muscatel spent time playing chess or dreaming of setting up learning centers for disadvantaged children. “He wanted to get out of real estate and devote his time to community outreach work,” she said.

Rachel Muscatel said family members were frustrated by what they considered to be a lack of attention to her father’s case.

“They said a lot of 58-year-old men pack up and leave their lives,” she said. “They made it sound like he was on the beach somewhere drinking margaritas. We knew something was wrong; we just didn’t know what.”

For five months, relatives pressed law enforcement to find Muscatel. They hoped that he would call or walk through the door of his home. There were no clues of nefarious business practices, his daughter added. “I wish there were,” she said. “Maybe we could have found him sooner.”

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Times staff writers Andrew Blankstein, Richard Fausset, Kristina Sauerwein, Jean Guccione, Garrett Therolf, Karima A. Haynes, Massie Ritsch, William Overend, Mitchell Landsberg, Jessica Garrison, Hector Becerra and researcher John Tyrrell contributed to this report.