{"id":125213,"date":"2018-12-26T21:00:57","date_gmt":"2018-12-27T02:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breaking911.com\/?p=125213"},"modified":"2018-12-26T12:13:43","modified_gmt":"2018-12-26T17:13:43","slug":"russian-thief-in-law-gets-45-years-in-boxing-champ-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breaking911.com\/russian-thief-in-law-gets-45-years-in-boxing-champ-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian ‘Thief-In-Law’ Gets 45 Years In Boxing Champ Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vor v Zakone Committed Kidnappings, Assaults, Frauds, Money Laundering, and Extortions Through Coast-to-Coast Criminal Enterprise<\/em><\/p>\n

Razhden Shulaya, a vor v zakone or \u201cthief-in-law,\u201d was sentenced to 45 years in prison by United States District Judge Loretta A. Preska. The sentence followed the June 2018 trial conviction of Shulaya and Avtandil Khurtsidze, a boxing world champion and Shulaya’s violent enforcer, on racketeering and related charges in connection with a sprawling and violent criminal enterprise operating in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and abroad. Khurtsidze was sentenced on September 7, 2018, to 10 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest.<\/p>\n

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: \u201cRazhden Shulaya led a vast and violent criminal enterprise engaged in an array of criminal schemes that included extortion, theft, trafficking in stolen goods, and fraud. Shulaya, a \u2018thief-in-law,\u2019 is a convicted thief under U.S. law, and has deservedly been sentenced to a lengthy prison term.\u201d<\/p>\n

As established by the evidence at trial:<\/p>\n

The Shulaya Enterprise was an organized criminal group operating under the direction and protection of Shulaya a\/k\/a \u201cBrother,\u201d a\/k\/a \u201cRoma,\u201d a \u201cvor v zakone\u201d or \u201cvor,\u201d which are Russian phrases translated roughly as \u201cThief-in-Law\u201d or \u201cThief,\u201d and which refer to an order of elite criminals from the former Soviet Union who receive tribute from other criminals, offer protection, and use their recognized status as vor to adjudicate disputes among lower-level criminals. As a vor, Shulaya had substantial influence in the criminal underworld and offered assistance to and protection of the members and associates of the Shulaya Enterprise. Those members and associates, and Shulaya himself, engaged in widespread criminal activities, including acts of violence, extortion, the operation of illegal gambling businesses, fraud on various casinos, identity theft, credit card frauds, trafficking in large quantities of stolen goods, money laundering through a fraudulently established vodka import-export company, payment of bribes to local law enforcement officers, and the operation of a Brooklyn-based brothel.<\/p>\n

The Shulaya Enterprise operated through groups of individuals, often with overlapping members and\/or associates, dedicated to particular criminal tasks. While many of these crews were based in New York City, the Shulaya Enterprise had operations in various locations throughout the United States (including in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Nevada) and abroad. Most members and associates of the Shulaya Enterprise were born in the former Soviet Union and many maintained substantial ties to Georgia, Ukraine, and the Russian Federation, including regular travel to those countries, communication with associates in those countries, and the transfer of criminal proceeds to individuals in those countries.<\/p>\n

Shulaya oversaw and personally committed multiple acts of brutal violence in his role as a vor. Evidence at trial included testimony regarding Shulaya’s pistol-whipping of his own family member; testimony regarding Shulaya’s public beating of a supposedly disrespectful underling; and photographs of the badly disfigured face of Shulaya’s former lieutenant, co-defendant Mamuka Chaganava. Shulaya, protected by Khurtsidze, acted with impunity in the brutal assault of Chagaanva, a man whom he previously had held in high regard, and Shulaya took pride in the brutality of that assault: Shulaya photographed Chaganava\u2019s battered face in order to share his \u201chandiwork\u201d with another vor. In later explaining that he was unafraid of any retribution or reports to law enforcement by Chaganava, SHULAYA explained the perceived power of his position: \u201cFor him, I am a god.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shulaya accomplished additional acts of violence and extortion through Khurtsidze, formerly a middleweight boxing champion, who acted as his chief enforcer. Khurtsidze was captured on video twice assaulting others in service of the Shulaya Enterprise, participated in recorded acts of extortion of gambling debts, and planned additional acts of violence with Shulaya targeting associates of the Shulaya Enterprise whom Khurtsidze and Shulaya perceived as having disrespected Shulaya’s status as a vor.<\/p>\n

Shulaya also orchestrated a scheme to defraud casinos by targeting particular models of electronic slot machines using a complicated algorithm designed to predict the behavior of those machines. Shulaya obtained the technology used to commit that fraud through violence, including through the 2014 kidnapping of a software engineer in Las Vegas. Shulaya refined that technology by training lower-level members of the Shulaya Enterprise to execute this casino scam using smartphones and software developed by the Enterprise.<\/p>\n

Following a two-week trial before Judge Forrest, Shulaya was found guilty of one count of racketeering conspiracy, one count of conspiring to traffic in stolen goods such as luxury watches, one count of conspiracy to traffic in contraband tobacco, one count of identification document fraud, and one count of wire fraud conspiracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vor v Zakone Committed Kidnappings, Assaults, Frauds, Money Laundering, and Extortions Through Coast-to-Coast Criminal Enterprise Razhden Shulaya, a vor v zakone or \u201cthief-in-law,\u201d was sentenced to 45 years in prison by United States District Judge Loretta A. Preska. The sentence followed the June 2018 trial conviction of Shulaya and Avtandil Khurtsidze, a boxing world champion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5409,"featured_media":95057,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[54,4479],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nRussian 'Thief-In-Law' Gets 45 Years In Boxing Champ Case - Breaking911<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breaking911.com\/russian-thief-in-law-gets-45-years-in-boxing-champ-case\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Russian 'Thief-In-Law' Gets 45 Years In Boxing Champ Case - Breaking911\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Vor v Zakone Committed Kidnappings, Assaults, Frauds, Money Laundering, and Extortions Through Coast-to-Coast Criminal Enterprise Razhden Shulaya, a vor v zakone or \u201cthief-in-law,\u201d was sentenced to 45 years in prison by United States District Judge Loretta A. Preska. The sentence followed the June 2018 trial conviction of Shulaya and Avtandil Khurtsidze, a boxing world champion […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/breaking911.com\/russian-thief-in-law-gets-45-years-in-boxing-champ-case\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Breaking911\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Breaking911\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-12-27T02:00:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-12-26T17:13:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/breaking911.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/C0x6NC1XgAE2LRn.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"T. 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