[Calpernia]

FBI Tracked Alleged Russian Mob Ties of Giuliani Campaign Supporter

By Knut Royce / The Center for Public Integrity


LONG READ REST HERE: http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:IbwSNBinJ5QJ:store.publicintegrity.org/report.aspx%3Faid%3D323+SEMYON+KISLIN+Big+political+donor+&hl=en


WASHINGTON, December 14, 1999 — The Center for Public Integrity is investigating how billions of dollars of allegedly corrupted money from the former Soviet Union have found a haven in the United States, despite strict anti-laundering laws. Last month, the Center reported how a small San Francisco bank became a conduit for questionable funds as it, like many other banks around the country, aggressively pursued the cash from the former Soviet Bloc.

Today the Center reports on how political campaigns, also aggressively chasing after cash, end up with equally questionable contributions as suspected Russian organized crime figures seek to move into the U.S. political mainstream In future articles, the Center will show how the failure to sift the good money from bad is being replayed all over America.

A prominent commodities trader who acknowledges a business history with a reputed Soviet Bloc crime figure and a notorious arms dealer has been one of New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's top campaign supporters. Giuliani is expected to be the Republican candidate next year for a U.S. Senate seat from New York (as of Dec 14, 1999).

Commodities trader Semyon (Sam) Kislin and his family also lavished thousands of dollars in contributions to Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer, to the Clinton-Gore re-election campaign, to former Republican Sen. Alfonse D'Amato and to a number of state and city politicians. Kislin sits on the New York City Economic Development Board.

Kislin is not alone among emigres from the former Soviet Union who have successfully established themselves in the United States while law enforcement agencies, particularly the FBI, track their alleged associations with organized crime.

The Center for Public Integrity has obtained confidential law enforcement documents detailing the activities of dozens of the emigres, but authorities rarely make cases and still less share the intelligence outside their departments.

A 1996 Interpol report claims that Kislin's firm, Trans Commodities, Inc., was used by two reputed mobsters from Uzbekistan, Lev and Mikhail Chernoy, for fraud and embezzlement. And a confidential 1994 FBI intelligence report on the Brooklyn, N.Y., mob organization headed by Vyacheslav Ivankov, the imprisoned godfather of Russian organized crime in the United States, lists Kislin as a "member/associate" of Ivankov's gang. It claims that his company co-sponsored a Russian crime boss and contract killer for a U.S. visa and asserts that he was a "close associate" of the late notorious arms smuggler Babeck Seroush, who later settled in Russia.

In a telephone interview on Dec. 17, Kislin confirmed he had employed Mikhail Chernoy at Trans Commodities, but said he didn't know Ivankov. "I never met this guy; I never saw him in my life," he said. He said that someone had forged his signature to obtain the hit man's visa. And, he confirmed, "I used to do business with Babeck Seroush."


Giuliani's prospective Democratic opponent, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, returned a $1,000 contribution several weeks ago after the newsmagazine U.S. News & World Report disclosed it had been given by the wife of one of Bulgaria's alleged top racketeers, Ilia Pavlov, who lives in the United States.


Recipient
Amount
Source of Funds

Kathleen Brown $25,000 Golden ADA contribution to gubernatorial campaign

Alan Hevesi $11,000 Sam, David and Henry Kislin

Rudolph Giuliani $14,250 Semyon and Ludmila Kislin, direct contributions, 1994 and 1997. Kislin hosted a fund-raiser for Giuliani at a Brooklyn restaurant: amount raised unknown.

Rudolph Giuliani $1,000 Arik Kislin, 1995.

Jules Polenetsky $7,700 Kislin contribution when Polenetsky ran

New York Liberal Party $30,000 Kislin donation during Giuliani mayoral campaign on that ticket.


Clinton-Gore $2,000 Semyon and Ludmila Kislin, primary committee 1995.


Hillary Clinton $1,000 Wife of an alleged Bulgarian top racketeer, Ilia Pavlov. The money was subsequently returned.

National Republican Congressional Committee $2,750 Jacob Bogatin, president of YBM Magnex, donations in 1996 and 19997.

Charles Schumer $8,000 Sam, Ludmila, son David and daughter Regina, $2,000 each, 1998.

Former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato $1,000 Sam Kislin

Bob Dole $250 Ludmila Kislin


Sources: Federal Election Commission, New York Campaign Finance Board, Guiliani campaign and news reports

33 posted on 12/20/2005 12:07:35 PM EST by Liz

[Calpernia]

Another excerpt from that link:

Emphasis: >>>One of the Russian companies allegedly shipping money to be laundered by three "affiliated" companies in the United States was Magic Ltd.<<<

Elaborate Scam

According to Russian authorities, the Chernoys in the early 1990s defrauded the Russian Central Bank of more than $100 million through an elaborate scam involving dozens of fictitious companies. The brothers then used the funds as seed money as they and a London-based holding company, Trans World Group, through a maze of offshore companies and alliances, rapidly gained control of Russia's aluminum industry and acquired a large stake in the processing and distribution of other metals and petroleum products.

Kislin said Mikhail Chernoy tried to enlist him as "cover" or "legitimate front" in the plan to grab control of the aluminum industry, but that he declined. "I said aluminum is not for me," Kislin said. "I cannot do with aluminum because aluminum is a very dangerous business (in Russia)." Indeed, what followed has been dubbed "The Aluminum Wars" by the Russian press, as many businessmen, most of whom opposed the Chernoy takeover, were killed.

Kislin said that the brothers obtained licenses "to buy the aluminum for $10 and sell it for $1,500" by bribing top Russian officials. "The corruption is unbelievable," he said.

And, he said, he severed his business relation with Mikhail.

In the mid-1990s, Russian investigators asked U.S. law enforcement for assistance in tracking allegedly embezzled funds that had been laundered in the United States around 1993. One of the Russian companies allegedly shipping money to be laundered by three "affiliated" companies in the United States was Magic Ltd., according to a federal law enforcement official who did not want to be further identified. He said that Trans Commodities was one of those "affiliated" companies identified by the Russian authorities.

It is unclear whether U.S. investigators provided the Russians with significant information.

But Kislin said that he and his company were cleared of any suspicion in that investigation and that he received a letter from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles in 1996 notifying him that he no longer was a target. He provided the Center with a copy of the letter, which says, in part, that the prosecutors had "declined to pursue a civil penalty action against Trans Commodities or Sam Kislin."