Vyacheslav Kirillovich Ivankov was a Russian mafia boss and thief in law who was believed to have connections with Russian state intelligence organizations and their organized crime partners.
18 Facts About Vyacheslav Ivankov
1.
2.
Vyacheslav Ivankov operated in both the Soviet Union and the United States.
3.
Vyacheslav Ivankov was an amateur wrestler in his youth and served his first prison time for his participation in a bar fight, in which he claimed he was defending the honor of a woman.
4.
Vyacheslav Ivankov's gang used forged police documents to enter houses and then burglarize them.
5.
Vyacheslav Ivankov arrived in the United States in March 1992, despite having served a prison sentence of around ten years and a reputation as one of the fiercest and one of the most brutal criminals in Russia.
6.
Unlike the Cosa Nostra, where the boss gives out the orders, Vyacheslav Ivankov used to go out and extort himself.
7.
Vyacheslav Ivankov had arrived on a regular business visa stating that he would be working in the film industry.
8.
The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs advised the FBI that Vyacheslav Ivankov had come to "manage and control Russian Organized Crime activities in this country", advice that the FBI took on board.
9.
However Alexander Grant, editor for newspaper Novoye Russkoye Slovo said in 1994 Vyacheslav Ivankov had left Russia because it was too dangerous for him there, since there are "new criminal entrepreneurs who don't respect the likes of Yaponchik" and that he was not criminally active in the United States.
10.
However, Vyacheslav Ivankov did become criminally active in the United States.
11.
Vyacheslav Ivankov was arrested by the FBI on June 8,1995, charged with the extortion of $2.7 million from an investment advisory firm known as Summit, ran by two Russian businessmen, and in June the next year he was convicted along with multiple codefendants.
12.
At the time of his arrest, Vyacheslav Ivankov was found to be in possession of thousands of dollars and seven different passports under different names and countries.
13.
Vyacheslav Ivankov stated that Russia "is one uninterrupted criminal swamp," the main criminals being the Kremlin and the FSB and that anybody who thinks he is the leader of the so-called Russian mafia is foolish.
14.
Vyacheslav Ivankov was transferred from a jail in Brooklyn to the more secure Manhattan Detention Complex in Manhattan and then Otisville FCI.
15.
Vyacheslav Ivankov was incarcerated with his cousin Eugene Slusker, who was charged in the case.
16.
On July 13,2004, Vyacheslav Ivankov was deported to Russia to face murder charges over two Turkish nationals who were shot in a Moscow restaurant following a heated argument in 1992.
17.
On July 28,2009, at around 19:20 Moscow time, Vyacheslav Ivankov was shot while leaving a restaurant on Khoroshevskoye Road in Moscow.
18.
When Vyacheslav Ivankov left for the United States in March 1992, Petrov headed Vyacheslav Ivankov's affairs in Moscow, Russia, and Europe.