22 Facts About Tscherim Soobzokov

Tscherim "Tom" Soobzokov was a Circassian spy, American politician, SS Obersturmfuhrer, and Nazi fugitive.

Tscherim Soobzokov rose to prominence in the New Jersey Democratic Party and the Circassian community in Paterson, New Jersey.

Tscherim Soobzokov was accused of collaborating with Nazi Germany during the invasion of the Soviet Union's North Caucasus before coming to the United States.

In 1985, Tscherim Soobzokov was murdered by a pipe bomb at his house.

Tscherim Soobzokov was publicly supported by Pat Buchanan and New Jersey Congressman Robert Roe.

Tscherim Soobzokov was born August 24,1924, in Takhtamukay, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

In some documents, Tscherim Soobzokov listed his year of birth as either 1918 or 1921, although these were most likely lies.

In 1940, Tscherim Soobzokov was arrested and sentenced to 1 year imprisonment for either hooliganism or embezzling farm tax funds.

One of the Circassians who had journeyed on the same ship from Italy to Jordan later accused Tscherim Soobzokov of trying to defraud the other passengers and stealing silverware from the ship's dining room.

In 1950, Tscherim Soobzokov was first approached for employment by the CIA.

Tscherim Soobzokov settled in Paterson, New Jersey and became a naturalized US citizen in 1961.

In 1972, the Social Security Administration began investigating Tscherim Soobzokov based on reports of his participation in a Social Security fraud scheme.

Tscherim Soobzokov sued Blum's publisher, Quadrangle Books for libel in 1977.

Tscherim Soobzokov was implicated in the abduction and murder of Bachir Tlekhuch and Valeghei Skhazhok by Tlekhuch's father, and by one Tscherim Soobzokov's colleagues in the Nazi Punitive Detachment.

Several said that Tscherim Soobzokov had tried to intimidate them by bringing up his political connections.

Tscherim Soobzokov had confidentially admitted to the CIA that he had indeed participated in an execution unit and hunted for Jews and Communists.

In 1957, Tscherim Soobzokov resumed working for the CIA as part of project AEACRE in the REDSOX program.

The assignment was cut short after the Agency learned that Tscherim Soobzokov was openly flaunting his CIA affiliation and running a scheme promising to use his connections to help refugees emigrate to America.

Tscherim Soobzokov had falsely told the CIA that he had attended a Soviet military academy, a claim he later recanted when the Agency decided to send him to a bomb-making course in Fort Meade, Maryland in 1958.

Finally, after a 1959 debriefing, a CIA examiner concluded that Tscherim Soobzokov was an "incorrigible fabricator," after which the Agency cancelled his operational approval.

The first attempt on Tscherim Soobzokov's life came in 1979, when someone mailed a package containing a bomb to his house.

Tscherim Soobzokov was released from prison on July 24,2024.