WASHINGTON, October 23 (RIA Novosti) - The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation has put Ukrainian-born businessman Semion Mogilevich, an alleged organized crime boss also known as Sergei Shnaider, on its Ten Most Wanted list.
Mogilevich, who holds several citizenships including Russian, was arrested in central Moscow in early 2008 but released this year.
"Semion Mogilevich, a Ukrainian businessman, is charged in 40 economic crimes carried out in dozens of countries around the world, including bilking investors in a Philadelphia company out of $150 million. He is the newest addition to our Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, and we are offering up to $100,000 for information leading directly to his arrest," the FBI said in a statement on its website.
Mogilevich has been on the wanted list of a number of countries for more than 15 years for alleged involvement in organized crime and corruption. Believed to control the largest Russian mafia syndicate, he is suspected of involvement in arms dealing, drug and sex trafficking, and money laundering.
He served two jail terms in the Soviet Union in the 1970s for illegal currency dealings and fraud.
The FBI said Moglievich "has his primary residence in Moscow, Russia. He is known to utilize a Russian passport, but may also possess Israeli, Ukrainian, and Greek passport."
He was arrested in January 2008 along with his business partner Vladimir Nekrasov, the head of cosmetics retailer Arbat Prestige.
Russian prosecutors said Mogilevich, going by the name of Sergei Shnaider at the time of his arrest, was behind a tax evasion scheme used by the store chain.
They were both released from custody in July this year and were subjected to a travel ban. The Russian Interior Ministry said the charges against Mogilevich and Nekrasov were "not of a particularly grave nature so investigators had no particular reason to keep them imprisoned."
Arbat Prestige was established in 1989 and opened its first retail outlet in 1998. The chain, which at one time had around 100 outlets throughout Russia and 20 in Ukraine, is now almost defunct, and is undergoing bankruptcy procedures.
source: ria novosti
2. aangirfan: the bad guys are getting away with it?
In 1966, Professor James Coleman, in the USA, found that the single biggest factor determining how well you do at school isn't parents, teachers, school buildings or genes.
It is the other kids in the classroom. (Transforming education )
If a fair number of the kids are disruptive and disobedient, you won't learn much.
But if the great majority are hard-working and stick to the rules, you will probably learn. (Transforming education )
...
On 22 October 2009, we read that in the UK some serious assaults are being dismissed by the police as 'no crimes'
According to the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, thousands of incidents of serious violence are being written off by officers when they should be properly investigated as crimes.
read more @ aangirfan
also see this story from yesterday, where a man is arrested for being naked in his own home after a woman and young child trespass through his yard at 5:30 am, and she calls the police, who arrest the man and say they 'believed he wanted to be seen by the public.'
3. not for the faint of heart: There's Something About Henry by David McGowan
"Henry is an unusual prisoner. He's been given a high security cell and a few special amenities ..."---Jim Boutwell, Sheriff of Williamson County, Texas
On June 30th of 1998, Henry Lee Lucas, arguably the most prolific and certainly one of the most sadistic serial killers in the annals of crime was scheduled for execution by the state of Texas. Given the advocacy of the death penalty by Governor George W. Bush, things clearly weren't looking good for Henry at that time.
Bush had not granted clemency to any condemned man in his tenure as governor. In fact, no governor of any state in the entire history of the country has carried out more judicial executions than has Governor George. At last count, the state of Texas had dispatched 130 inmates on Bush's watch.
So Texas was definitely not the place to be for a man in Henry's position. And considering the nature of Henry's crimes, it seemed a certainty that nothing would stand in the way of Henry's scheduled execution. There weren't likely to be any high-profile supporters, a la Karla Faye Tucker (though even personal appeals to Bush from the likes of Pat Robertson failed to dissuade the governor from proceeding on schedule with Miss Tucker's execution). Not likely because Henry's crimes were of a particularly brutal nature, involving rape, torture, mutilation, dismemberment, necrophilia, cannibalism, and pedophilia, with the number of victims running as high as 300-600 by some accounts - including Henry's own, at times - though this figure is likely inflated.
By all accounts though, Lucas, frequently working with partner Ottis Toole - a self described arsonist and cannibal - savagely murdered literally scores of victims of all ages, races, and genders. All indications were then that this was pretty much of a no-brainer for America's premier hanging governor. But then a most remarkable thing happened. On June 18, just twelve days before Henry's scheduled demise, Governor Bush asked the State Board of Pardons and Paroles, whose members are appointed by Bush himself, to review Henry's case. Strangely enough, eight days later the Board uncharacteristically recommended that Henry's execution not take place.
The very next day, just three days short of Henry's scheduled exit from this world, Lucas became the first - and to date only - recipient of Governor Bush's compassionate conservatism. The official rationale for this act of mercy was, apparently, that the evidence on which Lucas was sentenced did not support his conviction. There was a possibility that Henry was in fact innocent of the crime for which he was convicted. Never mind that many of the 130 death row inmates who did not get special gubernatorial attention prior to their executions had credible claims of innocence that were met with by nothing but scorn and mockery.
read more if you dare. see how your world really operates.
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