Semyon Mogilevich,

Semyon Mogilevich, a Ukrainian-born Russian citizen whom the FBI has identified as a major figure in international crime, was detained in Moscow late Wednesday, said Angela Kostoyeva, spokeswoman for the Russian Interior Ministry's anti-organized crime unit. Semion Yudkovich Mogilevich (June 30, 1946 in Kiev, Soviet Union, in Russian Семен Могилевич, also written as Semyon) is a notorious organized crime boss who is believed to control the largest Russian Mafia syndicate in the world. His business activities are alleged to include arms dealing, drug trafficking, prostitution and money laundering. He is nicknamed "The Brainy Don", because of his business abilities and because he holds a degree in Economics from the Lviv University.
Mogilevich was born into a middle-class Jewish family At the age of 22 he earned an advance degree in economics from the university in Lviv. In the early 1970s he became part of the Lyubertskaya crime group in Moscow and was involved in petty theft and fraud. He served two terms (3 and 4 years) for currency dealing offenses.
During the 1980s scores of Russian Jews emigrated to Israel, on short notice and without ability to quickly transfer their possessions. Mogilevich offered to buy their properties, sell them on the markets and then send the money. Nothing was ever sent and the money were invested in black economy and crime.
In 1990, already a millionaire, Mogilevich moved to Israel, together with several top lieutenants. Here he invested into wide range of legal businesses and continued to operate world-wide network of prostitution, arm and drug smuggling through complex web of offshore companies. [1]
In 1991 Mogilevich married his Hungarian girlfriend Katalin Papp and moved to Hungary, obtaining Hungarian passport. At the time he was a citizen of Russia, Ukraine, Israel and Hungary. Living in a fortified villa outside Budapest he continued with investment in wide array of enterprises, including buying local armament factory "Army Co-Op" producing anti-aircraft guns. [2]
Mogilevich is also suspected in participation in large scale fraud where un-taxed heating oil was sold as highly taxed car fuel. Estimates are that up to one third of sold fuels went through this scheme, resulting in massive tax losses for countries of Central Europe (Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia). [3]
His criminal organisation became one of the largest and most feared in the world, employing private army of brutal killers. In 1993 Mogilevich joined forces with the Solntsevo crime syndicate (Solntsevskaya bratva), one of Moscow’s dominant crime families to trade with art and antiques stolen from churches and museums in Central and Eastern Europe.
A 1995 meeting between Mogilevich and Solntsevo group in Prague, Czech Republic, in restaurant "U Holubů" owned by Mogilevich, was raided by police. Two hundred people (including dozens of prostitutes) were detained, thirty expelled from the country. [4] It was rumored that the Solntsevo group intended to execute Mogilevich at the meeting. [5]
In 1994 Mogilevich group obtained control over Inkombank, one of the largest private banks in Russia. [6], in a secret deal with bank chairman Vladimir Vinogradov, getting direct access to the world financial system. Through the bank he obtained, in 1996, significant shared in Sukhoy, a large military aircraft manufacturer. The bank collapsed in 1998 under suspicions money funelling. [7]
In 1997 he allegedly financed selling three tons of stolen enriched uranium (the deal failed when Czech police detained some of its participants in Karlovy Vary, city known as holiday resort of Russian mobsters).
In 1997 and 1998, the presence of Mogilevich, Sergei Mikhailov and others associated with the Russian Mafia behind a public company, YBM Magnex International Inc., trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange, was exposed by Canadian journalists. On May 13, 1998 dozens of agents for the FBI and several other U.S. government agencies raided YBM's headquarters in Newtown, Pennsylvania. Shares in the public company, which had been valued at $1 billion on the TSE, became worthless overnight. [8]
Until 1998 Inkombank and Bank Menatep participated in US$ 10 billion money laundering scheme through Bank of New York. [9] [10] [11] [12]
FBI put Mogilewich in 2003 on the "Wanted by the FBI List" for participation in scheme to defraud investors in Canadian company YBM Magnex International Inc.
Mogilevich was detained under the alias of Sergei Schneider, the spokeswoman said, adding that he has used 17 other names and holds passports from several countries. A Moscow court approved his formal arrest Thursday.
The arrest was made in connection with an investigation into an alleged tax evasion scheme by the owners of Arbat Prestige, a successful chain of Russian cosmetic stores.
Police grabbed Mogilevich on the street near a supermarket, along with Vladimir Nekrasov, the majority owner of Arbat Prestige. The two men, who were accompanied by a large group of bodyguards, surrendered without resistance.
Russian state television on Friday showed video of Mogilevich as police held him and some bodyguards up against a car. They also broadcast video of the seldom-photographed figure in custody, wearing jeans, a cap and leather jacket.
Police said Arbat Prestige was suspected of evading about $2 million in taxes.
The U.S. Embassy declined to comment on the arrest. The United States has no extradition treaty with Russia.
Mogilevich is wanted by the FBI on charges of racketeering, securities fraud, mail fraud and money laundering, according to the bureau's Web site. He described himself as a commodities trader in a 1999 interview with the British Broadcasting Corp.
The U.S. charges stem from a 2003 indictment in Philadelphia, in which Mogilevich and an associate were accused of manipulating the stock of a Pennsylvania-based company, YBM Magnex Inc. The billion-dollar corporation collapsed in May 1998.
In its ``wanted'' notice on Mogilevich, the FBI says the businessman set up a complex network of companies based in more than 20 countries to ``create the illusion that YBM was engaged in a profitable international business, primarily the industrial magnet market.''
Ukrainian officials said in 2005 they were investigating Mogilevich's alleged connections to several companies involved in gas exports to Ukraine.
Media reports in 2006 linked Mogilevich to RosUkrEnergo, a Russian-Ukrainian joint venture that acts as a middleman in Ukrainian gas purchases. RosUkrEnergo officials said their company had no relationship with the fugitive.
Mogilevich, who has an economics degree, has lived in Moscow for the past several years, according to news accounts. The 61-year-old businessman lived in Israel before moving to Hungary in 1995.
The businessman moved again, this time to Moscow, in 1999, after the FBI set up a task force in Budapest targeting his activities there.