Sergei Mikhailov

Sergei Mikhailov ( _ru. Сергей Анатольевич Михайлов) is a Russian businessman suspected to be a head of the
Solntsevskaya bratva, a crime family in the Russian Mafia.

Early life

Sergei Anatol'evich Mikhailov was born on 7 February, 1958 in Moscow, Russia. At first, he did not try to indulge in a life of crime, working as a waiter in several Moscow restaurants. But he found the wages he was being paid as a waiter were meager at best and turned to crime full-time, before the law caught up with him in 1984 and he was sentenced to six months in prison for petty theft.

Rise to power

During his time in prison, Mikhailov made a lot of underworld contacts and came out a hardened criminal. On his release, he soon teamed up with fellow gangster Viktor Averin and formed his own gang, the Solntsevskaya bratva. He chose to ignore the old Russian criminal traditions of the thieves in law and instead chose to run the organization in a more Western style. The gang ultimately became the most powerful criminal organization in the south-west of the city.

Life as a crime boss

Things were doing well for Mikhailov and his gang, until 1989 came around and he was arrested for extortion. Spending around 18 months in prison, Mikhailov was released the day of the trial when the main witness refused to testify. With the Cold War coming to an end and capitalism on the rise, Mikhailov got busy acquiring legitimate business to be used as fronts.

By 1994, the Solntsevskaya organization was spreading it's influence worldwide, and Mikhailov decided to move to Israel using a fake Jewish passport, and the next year decided to move to Switzerland. There he started building up a web of bank accounts and companies with respectable directors, allegedly with the intent of money laundering purposes. Mikhailov was certainly doing very well financially by this point, buying a castle near Geneva and sending his children to a private school.

However in October 1996 the Swiss authorities decided to crack down on his operation, raiding his mansion and placing him under arrest. In his mansion authorities found bugging and surveillance equipment, as well as documents detailing his money laundering operations and business interests abroad. Mikhailov was put into prison awaiting trial. It was the first time a Russian organized crime figure would be tried in Western Europe.

Over the course of a few years following Mikhailov's (October 1996) arrest, witnesses and the media all around Europe turned up dead or were intimidated. In Holland a father and son were found murdered, the father having been stabbed in the eye and bled to death. By the time the trial started on November 30, 1998, eighty witnesses were brought in wearing bulletproof vests. If convicted, Mikhailov could face up to seven years in prison.

The trial was a success for Mikhailov. The Russian government would not provide key evidence relevant to the case and the prosecutors could not get a conviction, except for a minor charge for which Mikhailov was not sentenced, having already spent two years in prison awaiting the trial. After going back to Russia in December of the same year, Sergei sued the Swiss government for his lost income during the years he was locked up, and in July 1999 despite appeals was awarded the full amount.

In 1997 and 1998, the presence of Mikhailov, Semion Mogilevich and others associated with the Russian Mafia behind a public company, YBM Magnex International Inc., trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange, was exposed by Canadian journalists. On May 13, 1998 dozens of agents for the FBI and several other U.S. government agencies raided YBM's headquarters in Newtown, Pennsylvania. Shares in the public company, which had been valued at $1 billion on the TSE, became worthless overnight. [cite web| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/events/panorama/transcripts/transcript_06_12_99.txt | title = BBC Panorama's "The Billion Dollar Don"| accessdate = 2007-09-15| language = English] Years later, (in 2003), Mogilevich and YBM associates, but not Mikhailov, would be placed on the FBI's "Most Wanted" List in connection with the scheme.

References

* [http://www.compromat.ru/main/mafiamsk/solntsevskie.htm Solntsevskaya bratva] ru icon
* [http://gangstersinc.tripod.com/Mikhas.html GANGSTERS INCORPORATED - Sergei Mikhailov]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/224430.stm BBC News- Swiss try alleged Russian mafia boss]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/233604.stm BBC News- Alleged Russian mafia boss cleared]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/events/panorama/transcripts/transcript_06_12_99.txt "The Billion Dollar Don"] (Transcript of BBC Panorama documentary which cites Mikhailov in association with Semion Mogilevich)