Madoff was running a money-laundering operation to get mob money out of the US to offshore accounts. Seems his investors were in on the game and figured if Bernie was helping the Ruskis steal, they oughta make a few bucks on it......out of sight of the taxman and US banking laws.
The FBI has fingered the Russian mob in all kinds of frauds---billion-dollar staged auto accidents, billion-dollar Medicare/Aid fraud, billion-dollar insurance and securities fraud, ID theft, sex crimes, child porn......you name it.
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REFERENCE----EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE TRI-STATE JOINT SOVIET-EMIGRE ORGANIZED CRIME PROJECT. RUSSIAN-EMIGRE CRIME IN THE TRI-STATE AREA
Gangsters from the former Soviet Union have established a strong and abiding presence in the New York/New Jersey/Pennsylvania region, engaging in a wide array of crimes that range from sophisticated financial frauds to narcotics trafficking to murder.
Evidence also shows that members of disparate Russian-emigre crime groups here have the potential to develop into one of the most formidable organized crime challenges to law enforcement since the advent of La Cosa Nostra.
These are among the key findings of the Tri-State Joint Soviet-Emigre Organized Crime Project, a cooperative research and investigative effort launched four years ago by four agencies in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania - the New York Organized Crime Task Force, the New York State Commission of Investigation, the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation and the Pennsylvania Crime Commission.
Investigative agents and staff from these agencies conducted the project in conjunction with criminal justice experts from Rutgers University. The Project's report presents the first comprehensive public assessment of the threat posed to this region by criminal elements emanating from within the former Soviet Union.
The report catalogues the history and growth of Russian-emigre crime networks, from their core base in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn to their current reach well beyond the New York metropolitan area into the counties of central New Jersey and the suburbs of Philadelphia.
One of the most troubling aspects is evidence of links between individuals here and criminal elements in the former Soviet Union, a phenomenon that lends a disturbing and complex international dimension to this emerging domestic law enforcement problem.The range of criminal and illicit activities linked to these groups is impressive.
The Project report details Russian-emigre involvement in a variety of highly sophisticated frauds and confidence schemes, financial crimes, including money laundering, counterfeiting and securities fraud, narcotics trafficking and an assortment of vice crimes.Russian-emigre criminals are no strangers to violence either.
THE NATURE OF RUSSIAN-EMIGRE CRIME
Crimes of Deception
Motor Fuel Tax Fraud
Insurance and Entitlement Fraud
Confidence Schemes
Counterfeiting
Violent Crimes
Homicide/Attempted Homicide
Extortion and Kidnapping
Drug Trafficking
Money Laundering
Vice Crimes----Regpay, a Florida credit card processing company operated by Byelorussians, was nailed for processing online child porn payments. NOTE Minx, Belarus, once a constituent republic of the Soviet Union (independent since 1991) is the country of origin of many of these predators now thieving on US soil.
--SNIP--PDF LONG READ http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:Ahm0dOHcKHEJ:www.state.nj.us/sci/pdf/russian.pdf