“Semen Mogilevich is quite an elderly man to be dealing with petty fraud and then running away from the police,” said his attorney.
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Extradition to U.S. Possible for Semen Mogilevich
Russia’s Interior Ministry officially confirmed on Friday the news about the arrest of ‘heavyweight’ businessman Semen Mogilevich (alias Sergei Schneider in the criminal case) in Moscow. He is indicted of tax evasion in complicity with Vladimir Nekrasov, owner of Arbat Prestige perfumery chain. However, Mogilevich’s role in illegal operations is not specified by law-enforcement officials. The Interior Ministry might be planning to extradite Mogilevich to the U.S., where he is indicted of graver crimes. The police arrested his ex-wife on Friday, so as to prove that Mogilevich could have been in fictitious marriage and could have illegally obtained Russian citizenship.
On Friday, Semen Mogilevich turned out to be that very business partner with whom Vladimir Nekrasov, owner of Arbat Prestige perfumery chain, met on January 23 in the World Trade Center (WTC) in Moscow. Apparently, the talks passed under control of police officers of the Interior Ministry’s main department for the Central Federal District.
Soon after Mogilevich and Nekrasov left the WTC, they were arrested. Special-task police blocked the BMW car with the two businessmen and their escort jeep with bodyguards near the WTC parking lot’s barrier. In a few seconds, all men from the cars stood at gunpoint with their legs wide apart and hands on car hoods. The bodyguards were let go soon. Nekrasov and Mogilevich were put in a police minibus. Waiting to be taken to the temporary detention facility on Petrovka, 38, Nekrasov was very anxious. On the contrary, his alleged accomplice was calm. The officers who took part in the arrest said Mogilevich discussed current events and bad weather with them, and only afterwards said that he lived quietly and peacefully in Moscow and did not commit any crimes.
Mogilevich kept the same stand when the police department’s investigator, in the attorney’s presence, served an enactment on involving him as a suspect in the case on tax evasion, precisely 49 million rubles of taxes from a company which is part of Arbat Prestige group.
“Arbat Prestige?” echoed Mogilevich. “I know the stores of that brand, I know their owner Vladimir Nekrasov, but I have no relation to them. Moreover, I have never dealt with that company’s taxes.”
According to documents, Mogilevich was indeed a member of a different organization: he was an advisor in Evergate agency specializing in management and commercial real estate consulting. Anyway, he was, just like Nekrasov, officially declared suspect for the tax evasion case. Investigators think that Mogilevich was Arbat Prestige’s shadow owner. Consequently, tax evasion by means of three fictitious companies – Magnolia, Alkion, and Original – from January 2005 to December 2006 could have been committed in his interests.
Moscow’s Ostankino Court considered the investigators’ request for restraint measure for Mogilevich already after his accomplice Nekrasov had been arrested for two months.
“The court received printouts from the FBI website. Besides, the prosecution said that Mogilevich is a notorious criminal who was repeatedly suspected in grave and very grave crimes, and who can escape from investigators with the help of his numerous contacts abroad,” said the businessman’s attorney Alexander Pogonchenkov. He added that his client and Nekrasov have been friends for many years, bringing their families together for holidays and celebrations, but “each has a business of his own”.
“It is at least strange to suspect Mogilevich of participation in tax evasion allegedly committed by Arbat Prestige. Vladimir Nekrasov is a large businessman who created a company with a capitalization of around $450 million. He is absolutely independent in his decisions, and does not need anyone’s prompting,” said Pogonchenkov.
The attorney believes that even if the friends discussed the tax optimization issue in private, it gives no grounds to charge Mogilevich with complicity. “Complicity’s criterion is a certain action committed by the suspect,” explained the lawyer. “However, in the documents provided by investigators, my client’s role is not described. Anyway, investigators did without specific facts at the hearing on choosing the restraint measure, but they will certainly need them if charges are served to Mogilevich.” “Mogilevich is quite an elderly man to be dealing with petty fraud and then running away from the police,” added the attorney. Nevertheless, the court arrested Mogilevich too, for two months.
In its turn, the Interior Ministry, that officially confirmed Mogilevich’s arrest on Friday, did not go into details of the alleged crime. Meanwhile, the Ministry’s official reports underlined that Mogilevich has been on the international wanted list for a long time. “Detained Sergei Schneider, better known as Semen Mogilevich, has around 12 different last names, including Simon, Suvorov, Telesh, Palagnyuk,” said the police department’s spokesperson Angela Kastueva. “For over 15 years, he was wanted by law-enforcement agencies of Russia and a number of other states. For instance, the U.S. wanted him on suspicion of fraud, money laundering, and racketeering.” Interpol made a similar statement on Friday. Russian police officers said they had been keeping an eye on Mogilevich for a long time. Also, they have no idea why the command to arrest the businessman came only now. However, they do not doubt the issue of Mogilevich’s extradition to the U.S., where he has been wanted since long ago, might be raised soon. They also remember their ‘debt’ to the FBI: it sent Vyacheslav Ivankov (Yaponchik) to Russia in 2004. Mogilevich’s Russian citizenship is the chief obstacle for extradition. Article 61 of the Constitution clearly prohibits to Russia to extradite its citizens for criminal persecution abroad. So, it is necessary to prove that his citizenship is fictitious, to make the extradition possible.
On Friday, the police detained Mogilevich’s last wife, lawyer Olga Schneider (they are officially divorced now). Some sources say that part of Mogilevich’s business belongs to her. Besides, she has been working as lawyer in Arbat Prestige recently, according to ITAR-TASS news agency. The company itself neither confirmed nor disproved the information.
“Semen Yudkovich Mogilevich once decided it is difficult to live in the USSR with a name and a patronymic like that, and changed them,” said the attorney. “For the same reason, every time he got married he would take his new wife’s last name. So, he became Sergei Yurievich Schneider in 1996. However, it does not mean he was trying to hide from anyone this way. In 1996, he also received Russian citizenship. On these grounds, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia has already refused to extradite him to the U.S.”
When asked whether law-enforcement agencies can achieve finding his last marriage fictitious and deprive Mogilevich of citizenship in order to extradite him to the U.S., the attorney said: “It cannot be done lawfully. It is not allowed to dispute citizenship and marriage in court after so many years, but everything is possible in our lawlessness.”
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Criminal Record
Charges to Semen Mogilevich
1974, Ukraine. Mogilevich was sentenced to three years in jail for foreign currency machinations, and convicted for fraud in 1977. After leaving jail, he settled in Moscow, where he organized illegal distribution of vodka, and soon became one of the leaders of Solntsevo criminal grouping, according to mass media’s data.
1990. He left the country, and organized in Eastern Europe a criminal organization which dealt with drug distribution, money laundering, recruitment for prostitution, smuggling, selling weapons, illegal selling of jewelry and objects of art, according to various law-enforcement agencies’ data.
May 1998. Belgium’s police department for organized crime said that German intelligence service BND enrolled Mogilevich. BND did not comment on the news. However, German police said that Mogilevich offered to them his services of informer, but his offer was declined.
August 19, 1999. Newsweek and New York Times announced that Russian mafia laundered $10 billion in the Bank of New York. Allegedly, the machinations were carried out via the accounts of Benex Worldwide Ltd company founded by Mogilevich.
September, 2001. According to a Spanish newspaper, Mogilevich rubbed shoulders with associates of Osama ben Laden, leader of Al-Qaeda terrorist network, and was going to sell to them the enriched uranium stolen from former Soviet territory.
April 24, 2003, Philadelphia, U.S.A.. Mogilevich was charged with framing up the financial accounting of YBM Magnex International company, racketeering, money laundering, and other crimes. According to investigators, the scheme cost $150 million to the company’s investors. In the U.S., Mogilevich faces 390 years of jail.
July 2005. Former head of Ukraine’s security service Alexander Turchinov said there was “indirect evidence” that Mogilevich controlled Rosukrenergo AG company, the only supplier of natural gas to Ukraine. Mogilevich was earlier mentioned in Ukrainian mass media as the true owner of Hungarian company Eural Trans Gas, the supplier of Turkmen gas to Ukraine.
Sergei Mashkin, Oleg Rubnikovich
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 26, 2008
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