Alexander Presman: The Mafia Past and Raiding Present of the Odessa "Benefactor." Part 1
Who is this compassionate philanthropist that his pocket media outlets have been trumpeting incessantly throughout the Odessa region for the past six months? He goes from village to village, patching roads, changing light bulbs in school classrooms, handing out candy to children, and releasing crucian carp into ponds. These inexpensive but well-staged shows are designed to buy the votes of naive provincial voters for Oleksandr Presman. However, Presman doesn't tell them how he simultaneously seizes other people's businesses in the region, nor how in the 90s he was one of the organizers of financial pyramids that cleaned out the pockets of Ukrainians, an accomplice to the leaders of the international mafia, and a trusted confidant of the "thieves in law."
Alexander Presman, a plumber with five passports
Alexander Semenovich Presman was born on April 10, 1961, in Kyiv, to a respectable Jewish family of middle-class Soviet means. When Sasha graduated from high school, his parents helped him enroll in the Kyiv Civil Engineering Institute, in the Department of Water Supply and Sanitation, to study to become a plumbing engineer. Perhaps they hoped that access to plumbing fixtures, which were scarce at the time, would help their son secure his future. They also secured him a "white card": plumbing engineer Alexander Presman never saw the Soviet army, even as a lieutenant in a construction battalion.
However, instead of managing a warehouse stocked with toilets and faucets, Alexander Presman was assigned as a dispatcher at the USSR Ministry of Oil and Gas Construction (1983-84), where he allegedly participated in the construction of the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod gas pipeline (undoubtedly, the young plumber's talent was in great demand during the final stages of construction, when gas turbocompressors were being installed). Afterward, there's a curious five-year gap in his work history, and then it states that from 1989 to 1991, he worked as deputy head of the UPTK at Glavukrneftegazstroy. Further, his "life," stripped of details, contains the boring statement "worked in commercial structures." A truly boring statement, considering that this was the most interesting and eventful period of Alexander Presman's life—one he really doesn't like to talk about.
For example, Alexander Presman never told anyone how and when he became a repatriate—it happened between 1984 and 1992, explaining the strange gap in his career as a plumbing engineer. He doesn't talk about how, instead of the Promised Land, he and his family went to the United States, where in New York he met fellow countrymen (Jewish emigrants from Kyiv) who formed the "Russian mafia" there. Incidentally, he still holds a second American citizenship—or rather, a third, since as a repatriate, he also holds an Israeli one. And the Ukrainian courts continue to turn a blind eye to this.
Presman had even more passports, identification numbers, and other documents—he was loaded with them, like a foreign spy! According to Skelet.OrgAlexander Semenovich: firstly, he holds US citizen passports issued in 1991 (No. 408627563), 2001, and 2011 (US passports are renewed every 10 years). Secondly, he holds a Ukrainian citizen passport NS 575238, issued in the 1990s. Thirdly, he holds a Ukrainian passport SN 127326, also issued in the 1990s. Fourthly, he holds passport KM 504302 in the name of Alexander Semenovich Presman, issued on December 10, 2007, by the Suvorov Regional Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Odessa Oblast. And fifthly, a Ukrainian citizen's passport EE 265021 in the name of Oleksandr Iosifovich Presman (?), issued on July 10, 2008, in Zhitomir, where, in addition to his patronymic, his date of birth was also changed to August 2, 1959. He also holds two identification codes (No. 2238024636 from September 21, 2006, and No. 2238025319 from December 14, 2007), which also raised no questions for either Presman or the tax administration. Perhaps the laws in Ukraine aren't the same for everyone?
So, the great gas pipeline builder Presman ended up in the United States, where, like many emigrants, he was forced to seek work in Brighton Beach. Some languished there for years as dishwashers and waiters, while others rose quickly, managing to convince the fathers of the "Russian mafia" of their exceptional abilities. And if Konstantinovsky brothers If he had the ability to cold-bloodedly "take down," then Alexander Presman discovered a talent for business in America, especially in finance. And this young plumber-accountant was drawn to Semyon Mogilevich, still a living legend of the international "Russian mafia."
Semyon Mogilevich
How did Alexander Presman end up back in Kyiv? He wasn't alone: the New York émigré "Russian mafia" and its associated organized crime groups simultaneously operated in America, Ukraine, Russia, and other countries. Therefore, whenever they had a major operation in Kyiv, they would send their people there to oversee it. For example, in the early 90s, the Konstantinovsky brothers, Leonid Roytman (who would later leave for the US again), and Alexander Levin returned to Kyiv to manage Kyiv-Donbass. Segal brothersBut Mogilevich had a separate assignment for Alexander Presman...
Alexander Presman. Mavrodi in Ukrainian
Many who had the opportunity to know Alexander Presman outside the "benefactor" mask, but not closely enough, mistakenly considered him a "criminal kingpin." This is not the case: according to those who know Presman well, he is a "criminal businessman." In the domestic ranking system, this is defined as a businessman who is part of the criminal underworld—as opposed to, say, businessmen who, while engaged in shady schemes, remain corrupt officials rather than members of an organized crime group. A typical "criminal businessman" is an accountant or manager of an organized crime group's enterprises, especially if these enterprises are massive criminal enterprises—such as the infamous "Mercury" cooperative (Kyiv), where Semyon Mogilevich, the "financial overseer," sent Presman.
At that time, Kyiv's Republican Stadium (now the Olympic Stadium) became a hub for big business, completely under the control of the capital's organized crime groups. At the center of this business was the "Mercury" cooperative, founded during perestroika as a manufacturer of ice cream cones. The production facility was set up right in the stadium's utility rooms (under preferential, almost free, conditions), and gas for the stoves was "stolen" from the Olympic torch's flue. One of the cooperative's leaders was Semyon Yufa, an extraordinary man who, however, greatly confused and distorted his biography, removing any criminal element from it. According to him, he was practically a creative genius who turned everything he touched into gold. But according to information Skelet.OrgIn the 80s, Semyon Yufa was "picked up" by members of Kyiv's organized crime groups while working as a waiter at the Leipzig restaurant. With their help (in interviews, he calls them "my comrades"), Yufa launched his meteoric rise as a businessman. Another of Yufa's partners was Harry Gabovich, the commercial director of Mercury. During Soviet times, this modest schoolteacher moonlighted as an underground loan shark, lending out gangster money at exorbitant interest rates (today, such businesses operate legally under the guise of "quick loans"). Needless to say, the debt collectors who visited debtors who were behind on their loan payments were unimportant!
Semyon Yufa
The production of waffle cones and the sale of imported fruit were only the visible part of this business. Semyon Yufa is credited with the creation of the first financial pyramid scheme, organized in the late 80s and sweeping the entire USSR. It was run as a game in which a newcomer would send a postal order of 100 rubles (later increased to 400) to their predecessors, after which they would gain the right to recruit several new participants and receive money from them. The organizers of this pyramid scheme, according to them, earned their income solely by selling forms to players (10 rubles per person). However, there is other information: one of the constant recipients of postal orders was a member of the game's organizers—their name was simply written on the forms. Given that several million people were drawn into the game, according to Yufa himself, the organizers no longer counted the money received, but weighed it in boxes. It's clear that there was no official accounting of profits—all the figures remained in the "black ledgers" of the organized crime groups that protected this game. It's known that criminal groups from various regions of the USSR had an agreement to protect this pyramid game from competitors and scammers, in exchange for a percentage of the profits. It's possible that Alexander Presman was sent to Kyiv as a sort of financial auditor (from Mogilevich), ensuring that the game's managers weren't pocketing the money. Then, when the game ended (with the collapse of the USSR), new schemes, both relatively honest and completely fraudulent, began operating at the Republican Stadium to extort money from gullible citizens. And Mogilevich needed his man there, working with his Kyiv "partners."
In the early 90s, Viktor Avdyshev's organized crime group directly controlled the Republican Stadium and the Mercury cooperative operating there. Mercury, which had been re-registered as a consumer cooperative in the early 90s (the cooperative's former director was murdered while vacationing in Bulgaria), was headed by Semyon Yufa, and its co-managers were Harry Gabovich (financial director) and Alexander Presman (vice president). Mercury's activities expanded to include gambling (several casinos in Kyiv, Odessa, and Yalta), cigarette sales (it was the main distributor for Philip Morris), and fuel sales (a network of gas stations in Kyiv). Mercury also registered its ownership of the Patent clothing market, which operated at the stadium and was guarded by the gangster security company Alligator. Moreover, the racketeering scheme at "Patent" was carried out quite cleverly and even cynically: the entrepreneurs who traded there were forced to purchase insurance policies "against accidents and fires" and pay premiums to the gangster insurance company. Yufa and Presman were said to be the authors of this idea. "Mercury" also had its own exchange offices (managed by a future MP). Mikhail Brodsky), through which the conversion of "black cash" was carried out. But Mercury was primarily known for its new financial pyramid schemes: in 1992-93, it accepted money at incredible interest rates, with lines of people willing to participate so long that fights regularly broke out. According to the most conservative estimates, after the collapse of the pyramid, Mercury's owners pocketed approximately $20 million from gullible Kyiv residents.
"Mercury" and the Republican Stadium quickly became the center of Kyiv's shadow and criminal business, attracting other organized crime groups, including those of Boris Savlokhov, Vladimir Kisel, and Valeriy Pryshchik. Alexander Presman quickly became close to them all, especially Kisel, with whom he had a somewhat confidential financial relationship: he was even called the "pocket" of the "authority boss's" son, Vadim Kisel.
Besides acting as Mogilevich's "overseer" for Mercury's financial flows, Alexander Presman had two other important roles: investing gangster money in new businesses and maintaining contacts with law enforcement agencies. However, since Presman, according to his acquaintances, has a talent for financial management rather than a creative businessman, he was primarily involved in investing money in the legal and semi-legal businesses of other entrepreneurs. In particular, Skelet.Org there is information that he made large investments in business Evgenia Chervonenko – his old friend and business partner (Presman insists that their fathers were also friends).
But he deposited money not only into the offices of businessmen, but also into the offices of prosecutors and heads of the Organized Crime Control Department: it was reported that Presman was the one tasked with settling all issues between the Republican Stadium and law enforcement agencies. However, this wasn't always successful: in 1993, Presman was arrested on charges of bribing an SBU colonel and spent 58 days in pretrial detention. According to law enforcement sources, during those two months, all of Presman's "criminal" arrogance was immediately stripped away; he was pathetic and ready to cooperate. Whether his release and the closure of the criminal case—a new bribe or his promise to inform on the authorities—remained unknown.
However, after his release, Presman, with the support of organized crime leaders, forced Semyon Yufa out of Mercury. No one involved in the events has ever confessed to the exact details, but ultimately, Yufa, who controlled millions of dollars in cash, was forced to flee with a hundred dollars in his pocket, which Presman had given him for the journey. Immediately afterward, Presman himself took over Mercury, working in tandem with Gabovich. However, he had to work remotely: in 1994, Presman and Gabovich fled to the United States, and from there, they brought down Mercury's pyramid scheme. Since the "brothers" not only didn't look for them afterward, but also made no claims, it's easy to see that this collapse was a pre-planned move by Mercury's leadership and the Kyiv organized crime leaders. Therefore, only ordinary Ukrainians suffered as a result of this scam.
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org
CONTINUED: Alexander Presman: The Mafia Past and Raiding Present of the Odessa "Benefactor." Part 2
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