Semion Mogilevich, mafia boss, agent of russian intelligence service

Ukrainian-born, alleged Russian organized crime boss, believed by European and United States federal law enforcement agencies to be the “boss of bosses” of most Russian Mafia syndicates in the world. Mogilevich is believed to direct a vast criminal empire and is described by the FBI as “the most dangerous mobster in the world.” He has been accused by the FBI of “weapons trafficking, contract murders, extortion, drug trafficking, and prostitution on an international scale.”

He started working first with foreign currency in the USSR which was illegal at the time. He was indicted for currency trading in 1974 and in 1977 was indicted for fraud.

Was criminal leader in Kiev where was hired by PU KGB (First department of KGB, Foreign Intelligence) in 80’s. Then moved to Moscow in 1985, was cofounder of powerful Solntzevskie criminal group well known by their links with FSB (russian secret service, ex-KGB).

“He [Semion Mogilevich, the “boss of the bosses” of the Russian mafia according to the FBI) now lives in Moscow. They are on good terms with Putin. They are familiar with Putin since the days when Putin was in Leningrad ”(Melnichenko’s films, a record of February 8, 2000, the head of the SBU, General Derkach, reports to President Kuchma about his interaction with Semyon Mogilevich).

Then moved to Eastern Europe (Hungary) in 1990. Under the cover of SVR (russian service of foreign intelligence) in Europe he was trading USSR arms to criminal groups and terrorists, also to some third-world governments Russia don’t want to deal with directly. Later another russian secret service agent Shabtai Kalmanovich was joined his organization in Budapest.

Later acted with Michailov (“Mihas”, the leader of the Solntzevskie organized crime group) in transportation and smuggling. They created illegal factory of vodka in Hungary, by producing counterfeit vodka Ábsolut in industrial amounts. With drugs it was exported to Russia and other eastern european countries.

Mogilevich ran a whole factory of fake vodka Absolute in Hungary. At some point, Mogilevich’s plant completely “killed” the Russian market for the manufacturer of the original Absolute. The Swedes made an enormous effort to find out who did it, especially since Mogilevich’s vodka was made from cheap potato alcohol and subsequently a really low-quality beverage was sold under the Swedish brand.

In The Red Mafia, Robert Friedman cites the report of Israeli intelligence, according to which Mogilevich with his Hungarian vodka factory was the largest smuggler of alcohol at the time.

In 1995, Mogilevich’s vodka factory located in the vicinity of Budapest got busted. The police seized 600 000 bottles of fake Absolute, ready to be shipped to the former USSR. Another 770 000 bottles were found empty at the warehouse, ready for bottling. However, Mogilevich did not face any consequences.

Mogilevich’s criminal organization in East Europe was under protection of SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service) and some operations were controlled by Yevgeniy Primakov.

He was involved in money laundering of Russian mafia assets on the Toronto stock exchange through a company named YBM Magnex International Inc., through the Bank of New York and through Eastern European states (Hungary, Ukraine, Czech Republic). He arranged the barter schemes for trading gas from Turkmenistan for food, equipment, textiles, spare parts etc.

It was called by FBI as SMO (Simeon Mogilevich Organisation) and acted as european branch of Solntzevskie criminal group).

In Cassette scandal there was some information about Mogilevich, this is recorded conversation between then Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and Ihor Smeshko, who was then head of Ukraine’s military intelligence:

Smeshko: “So, this is why [the American FBI] thinks that Mogilevich’s organization, it is working completely under the cover of SBU [Ukraine’s secret service.] This is why there is this kind of cooperation there!”

Kuchma: “He [Mogilevich] has bought a dacha in Moscow, he keeps coming.

Smeshko: “He has received a passport already. By the way, the passport in Moscow is in a different name. And what is level in Moscow is … Korzhakov [the head of Boris Yeltsin’s personal security] sent two colonels to Mogilevich in Budapest in order to receive damaging information on a person … He himself did not meet them. His organization’s lieutenant, [Igor] Korol, met these colonels and gave them the documents relating to ‘Nordex’. Mogilevich has the most powerful analytical intelligence service. But Mogilevich himself is an extremely valuable agent of KGB, PGU … When they wanted to … Mogilevich … When the Soviet Union collapsed UKGB ‘K’ command did not exist yet. When one colonel wanted to he is retired, he lives there when he tried to arrest him, he got his pennyworth, they told him ‘Stop meddling! This is PGU [SVR, Russian foreign intelligence service] elite’. He has connections with [Russian businessman and former Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly] Chubais.”

By the orders from russian secret service, Mogilevich “paid off” to corrupted european politicans to make them act in pro-russian controlled way:

“In the 1990s I lived in Budapest, where I was doing consulting and owned a private security company SAS. There I met a well-known businessman Semion Mogilevich. We established relations of trust, partially because both of us were religious Jews. In the mid 1990s, actually between 1993 and 1996, he asked me to hand over cash to various people. One of them was Sándor Pintér (the current Hungarian Minister of Interior Affairs, The Insider.) At that time I only knew that he was a senior police officer and that he was working for Mr. Mogilevich. 

Once in the spring of 1994, on the eve of the parliamentary elections, Mogilevich’s interpreter brought me a suitcase with almost one million Deutsche Marks. This money was supposed to be handed to a young man. However, the young man refused to enter my home.

 I’ve told him: “Listen, I have the suitcase with the damn money, and I am not going to step out to the street with this cash. If you refuse to enter, I’ll give the suitcase with the million back to Mr. Mogilevich. I don’t care.” He went up to my place with another elderly looking gentleman, and I handed over the suitcase with cash. I didn’t care who he was. Only after the parliamentary elections I realized that the young man was Viktor Orbán from the Fidesz. 

He became acquainted with Rem Viahyrev, the former head of Gazprom head, who had kicked Michailov (“Michas”) from the gas business at the very start, maybe with Mogilevich’s help. He may have helped to initiate Michailov’s arrest in Switzerland. He is associated with Dimitry Firtash, one of the owners of RosUkrEnergo, a middleman company between Gazprom and the Ukrainian gas services that has earned huge profits for seemingly doing nothing.

“I know beyond the doubt that Mogilevich is FSB’s long-standing agent and all his actions including the contact with al Qaida are controlled by FSB — the Russian special services. For this very reason, the FSB is hiding Mogilevich from the FBI.”

In Russia, criminals and intelligence services aren’t adversaries. They are birds of a feather. They share information. The Mob helps the state, and in return, Russian criminals like Mogilevich get to share in the riches and remain free.

As Mark Galeotti, an expert on Russian history and security issues, writes:

“The Russian state is highly criminalized, and the interpenetration of the criminal ‘underworld’ and the political ‘upperworld’ has led the regime to use criminals from time to time as instruments of its rule.”

Mogilevich’s ties to the Russian political “upperworld” go deep. Very deep.

nd 1994, Putin was deputy mayor of St. Petersburg. He was known in St. Petersburg as the man who could get things done. His approach to the criminal world was a practical one, Karen Dawisha writes in Putin’s Kleptocracy:

The mafia and the KGB had always had points of intersection and conflict — the 1990s were no different, and the mafia had its uses. It was global, it could move money, it could hide money, and in any case, some of the money would come back to St. Petersburg for investment. So how did Putin operate? First and foremost, he made illegal activity legal.

In Russia Semyon Mogilevich made a bid on two of his trusted associates, the natives of Donetsk – Vladimir Nekrasov and Stanislav Nikolaev. First, as a top manager, he managed the structure of Don Simeon Arbat Prestige. And the second, in the same capacity, “ruled” the company “Mercator”. The history of Arbat Prestige and Nekrasov is well known. Nekrasov, along with his boss Mogilevich (who changed his name and surname to Sergei Schneider) were arrested for non-payment of taxes. However, then both went free.

Annually from the Moscow city budget billions of rubles go to the company “Mercator”, which owns Stanislav Nikolaev, the “right hand” of Semen Mogilevich. He is in the government of Moscow and in the GBU Avtodor, which together pay the budget billions to the structure of Nikolaev for the purchase of various equipment.