5 Southland Victims, 1 Northern Watery Grave

The five victims whose bodies were pulled from a distant lake came from different worlds. Three Russian immigrants with ties to Hollywood. A Sherman Oaks developer with deep religious beliefs. A North Hollywood business owner.

George Safiev had made his money in banking in Russia, family associates said. He was 38, and a partner in a new film company called Matador Media.

One of his partners and best friends was Nick Kharabadze. He was 29 and a charmer who had cultivated important Hollywood friendships.

Rita Pekler, 39, kept the books for Matador. She was known as somebody with connections in the Russian community. And somebody who wanted to make it big.

Pekler disappeared Dec. 5. Safiev and Kharabadze vanished six weeks later.

Months earlier, Sherman Oaks real estate developer Myer Muscatel, 58, had disappeared. The father of two children, Muscatel was a devout Jew who worked closely with disadvantaged children. His body was pulled from the Calaveras County lake Oct. 18, the first of the victims to be found.

Then there was Alexander Umansky, 35, a North Hollywood businessman who disappeared Dec. 13. Later there would be ransom demands, and they would be met. But his body also was added to the lake.

Missing a Script Meeting

After weeks of dwindling hope, Mat Shatz got a call from the FBI on Wednesday night informing him that one of the bodies found in New Melones Lake was that of his stepson Nick Kharabadze.

On Thursday morning, Shatz, a native of St. Petersburg, sat at a backyard table at his Woodland Hills home as he told the story of Nick’s disappearance. Inside the house, there were cries from his grieving wife, Rusiko Kiknadze, 56, Kharabadze’s mother and a famous model and actress in her native Georgia.

The day he vanished, Shatz said, Kharabadze missed a script meeting with him and an appointment with a film executive at 20th Century Fox.

Shatz became worried the next morning when he saw that Nick’s BMW 740 was not in the driveway.

For four days after that, he and others received strange phone calls from Nick, who said he was in Las Vegas and needed money.

Word of the serial kidnap-slayings reverberated through the Hollywood community Thursday, where Safiev and Kharabadze already had made an impression as would-be producers.

“We’ve been aware of the kidnapping for some time and think it’s an abomination,” said director Ronald Shelton, a friend of both men. He said Kharabadze was like a younger brother to him.

“Nick had a very bright future.”

Kharabadze had taken John Malkovich and Dolph Lungren on a trip to Moscow to introduce them to the Russian film industry.

Safiev and Kharabadze also were planning a lavish, weeklong birthday party in Jamaica for a Russian friend, featuring rock bands KISS and the Scorpions.

After they disappeared, Olga Preiss and Victoria Pevan of Matador Media made sure the party took place. “We wanted to be able to say we kept things going,” Preiss said.

“They loved the life they were leading,” said another friend.

Living for His Family

George Safiev had passports from Russia, the United Kingdom and Greece, said Preiss, who works at his production office.

She and others described him as a self-made man who traveled the world on business and lived for his family--a wife, a teenage daughter and a 4-year-old son.

When he decided to make a run at Hollywood--with Nick Kharabadze as his guide--Safiev bought a $2.5-million house in Beverly Hills and began taking meetings with Nick’s Tinseltown contacts.

Safiev spoke very little English. Nick did the translating.

They were supposed to go into pre-production for a love story film in March, co-workers said.

Making Money Helping Immigrants

Safiev hired Rita Pekler about a year ago. She had moved to the United States from St. Petersburg in 1979 and was well-known in Russian L.A. Her bookkeeping business was called the Pekler Group.

Friends said Pekler was smart, attractive and a shrewd businesswoman. She was married and had a 5-year-old son.

One law enforcement source said she also had a reputation of always looking for ways to make money, including by helping immigrants with visa problems.

“The kidnappers could have grabbed her first, thinking it would be a way to get to Safiev,” the source speculated.

“But if that was the case, it didn’t work.”

Catching Attention of Kidnappers

Alex Umansky started his Hard Wired Auto Accessories business in 1989, incorporating it in 1998 as Advanced Mobile Technologies.

The small North Hollywood company grew by 200% in the last three years and reported annual sales of $1.2 million in 2001, according to Dun and Bradstreet.

Umansky installed televisions and entertainment systems in high-end cars, vans and sport utility vehicles.

One of the alleged kidnappers, Petro Krylov, had worked for him and was fired. Umansky’s shop manager, Todd Provencio, said he worries that the business’ perceived success caught the kidnappers’ attention.

“It’s so scary to me that something like this could happen to such a good person,” Provencio said. “I know he wasn’t involved in anything bad.”

Frustrated by the Authorities

Myer Muscatel hitchhiked from New York City to Los Angeles as a teenager and worked numerous sales jobs to support himself as a young man before launching his own real estate development business, his daughter Rachel Muscatel said.

Muscatel married and moved to the San Fernando Valley shortly after his first wife gave birth to Rachel and her twin brother, Eric.

He remarried recently and is also survived by his widow, Nancy Shapiro Muscatel, and her two children.

A memorial service was held for him Sunday, his daughter said. He prayed daily and observed the Sabbath and sacred holidays.

His widow stressed her family’s frustration with the response by authorities to his disappearance, criticizing the time it took for authorities to identify his remains.

“I was haunted by it on a daily basis,” she said.

“I knew my husband was harmed, but I never felt this case was being worked aggressively enough.”

*

Times staff writers Patrick J. McDonnell, Jessica Garrison, Carol Chambers, Karima A. Haynes, Hector Becerra and Andrew Blankstein contributed to this report.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Victims and Suspects

FOUND IN LAKE

* George Safiev, of Beverly Hills, president of Matador Media, Santa Monica

* Rita Pekler, 39, of West Hollywood, a bookkeeper whose clients included Safiev

* Nick Kharabadze, 29, of Woodland Hills, CEO of Matador Media

* Alexander Umansky, president of Advanced Mobile Technologies, North Hollywood

* Myer Muscatel, 58, Sherman Oaks real estate developer, owner of Best Avnet (found in lake in October)

IN CUSTODY

* Iouri Mikhel, 36, of Encino, co-owner of Designed Water World, charged with kidnapping Umansky and taking Safiev hostage

* Jurijus Kadamovas, 35, of Encino, co-owner of Designed Water World, charged with kidnapping Umansky and taking Safiev hostage

* Petro “Peter” Krylov, 29, of West Hollywood, charged with aiding and abetting the kidnapping of Umansky

* Ainar Altmanis, 42, of Sherman Oaks, charged with aiding and abetting the kidnapping of Umansky

* Andrei Agueev, a Russian national living in the United Arab Emirates, charged with receiving ransom money

* Andrei Liapine, of Russia, charged with receiving ransom money

Sources: Times’ news files, U.S. attorney’s office, Central District