It took an international dragnet of Russian, Canadian and FBI agents nearly two years to arrest a mobster who authorities say controlled Russian organized crime activities in the United States.
On Monday, it took a federal jury less than a day to convict Vyacheslav K. Ivankov in an extortion scheme.Ivankov, 56, was convicted with three co-defendants of trying to extort $3.5 million from two owners of Summit International, an investment advisory firm for Russian emigres. Ivankov faces up to 60 years in prison and a $750,000 fine.
The foursome's acts of intimidation included kidnapping Summit owners Alexander Volkov and Vladimir Voloshin, and the 1995 slaying of Voloshin's father in Moscow, authorities said.
Ivankov, who spent 10 years in a Soviet prison for running a ring of thieves, bribed a judge to gain early release in 1991, according to the FBI.
In 1993, Russia advised the FBI that he had jumped probation and entered the United States to control organized crime activities among Russian immigrants, operating from Brooklyn's Brighton Beach area.
He and the three others were arrested on the extortion charges in New York in June 1995 following an FBI investigation aided by Russia's Ministry of the Interior and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The FBI helped the two Summit owners set up a sham contract to ensnare them.
Along with Ivankov, Sergei Ilgner, 33, Valery Novak, 46, were convicted on the extortion, conspiracy and attempted extortion charges. A fourth man, Vladimir Topko, 35, was convicted on conspiracy charges. They face 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count.
The convictions capped a six-week trial and just one day of jury deliberation. Sentencing is pending.