Feds Grab Everyone But The Vor

Friends of Ours ^ | 04/22/13 | Friends of Ours

[AtlasStalled]

Nearly two dozen defendants were arraigned last Friday in a Manhattan federal court for their alleged roles in a gambling ring for the fabulous people but missing from the crowd was reputed Russian mobster Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov who remains a fugitive as reported by Richard Behar for Forbes:

"The feds call him a 'major figure in international Eurasian Organized Crime' who has been involved in 'drug distribution, illegal arms sales and trafficking in stolen vehicles.' In the current gambling case, he's accused of using his status as a thief-in-law (or vory v zakone) -- a select group of the highest-level criminals in Russia -- to resolve disputes with gambling clients with threats of violence."

Tokhtakhunov has often been linked to Semion "The Brainy Don" Mogilevich, the supposed "boss of bosses" over Russia's organized crime networks, who is under federal indictment for allegedly "swindling Canadian and U.S. investors out of $150 million in a complex international financial scheme" as previously reported by Jeanne Meserve for CNN.

It's unlikely that the feds ever will bring Tokhtakhunov or Mogilevich to justice given that the United States has no extradition treaty with Russia where both men are living.