Alexander Angert (Angel). About the heroes of bygone times…

Alexander Angert (Angel). About the heroes of bygone times…

Alexander Angert, or as he's known in the criminal underworld, "Angel." The beginning of the Euroterminal saga...

The oversaturation of the domestic information space with "breaking" news and the results of high-profile journalistic investigations has significantly diminished their relevance to the average citizen. Even the extraordinary case of mercury poisoning of the eminence grise of the BPP faction in parliament I. Kononenko It didn't cause the expected "mass excitement." Well, they poisoned him, and it's not the first time—just remember V. Tsushko, the saga of finding the villains who attempted to harm Viktor Yushchenko's health in the midst of the election campaign, and so on.

But the news (confirmed by several sources) that 61-year-old businessman and Venezuelan-Israeli citizen Alexander Angert had been admitted to one of Vienna's top clinics for cancer treatment and undergone surgery sparked a significant reaction in interested circles. The deteriorating health of the former Odessa resident, now a successful London dandy, became a hot topic of discussion among those with significant business interests in the Odessa region, as well as the numerous tattoos on various parts of his body that indicate his high status in the criminal underworld, wrote ORD (will not come anymore ;) ).

This circumstance has prompted the ORD editorial board's interest in this individual, who combines outstanding business abilities with antisocial methods of capital accumulation, making corruption the hallmark of his vast business empire.

Alexander Angert (Angel)

As usual, the former governor of the Odessa region, Mikheil Saakashvili, spoke succinctly about the level of influence of Alexander Angert on the processes in the Southern Palmyra: “…The composition of the mayor’s office (Odessa) is not even controlled by Trukhanov, and a certain Angert is a mafioso from the 1990s, and they, together with Zhukov, a relative of Abramovich, own most of Odessa.”

Sources cite the list of businesses controlled by the tandem through intermediaries as including Odessa's largest market, Privoz, several construction companies, a stake in the Odessa Thermal Power Plant, numerous assets in the oil and banking sectors, and countless others. Also on the list of the most profitable "assets" are extensive connections and authority in Odessa's criminal underworld. Despite reforms carried out by the National Police and regular rotations of security forces in the southern region, Angert still wields complete power within the thieves' community of the "pearl by the sea."

But how did Angel, a former Odessa resident and crime boss, achieve and consolidate such positions both in legitimate business and "beyond the law"? Who can answer this question now? But the fact that Angel played a significant role in all the political, economic, and criminal showdowns in Odessa during the second half of the 90s is beyond doubt.

So, let's trace our hero's thorny path to Odessa's criminal and business Olympus. The future "Don Corleone" was born in Odessa on December 24, 1955. The provincial criminal underworld of the time determined Angel's fate, who, in addition to his resonant nickname and by the age of 25, had managed to add involvement in several serious crimes.

However, the process of confiscating unearned income from shadowy "guild leaders" did not always proceed smoothly, and Angel's list of "cases" incriminated included murder for the purpose of robbery (Articles 92 and 142 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR). In 1980, he was sentenced to death by firing squad, which was commuted to 15 years' imprisonment on appeal.

We will never know who so fervently "prayed" for the salvation of the future crime boss's soul. Apparently, that someone was also an "angel," holding the rank of colonel or higher, since after serving two-thirds of his sentence in 1990, Angel was released from prison due to illness, holding a release certificate and a diagnosis of stomach cancer. This predetermined Angel's subsequent long-term collaboration with the "office," some of whose leaders, in the context of the commercialization of law enforcement, had a vested interest in the partnership.

By the time Angel was released from prison, Odessa's "gopota" were targeting businessmen and "workshop workers" and were unwilling to organize into traditional organized crime groups. The city was divided among small criminal groups, which provided protection for businessmen and entrepreneurs in the areas where most of their members lived. The gangsters from Yagodka and Zhora Stoyanov's gangs received a small cut of the trade at Privoz and the Odessa Central Market. Stas's gang controlled the port and the surrounding area, while Tomal's gang controlled the Cheryomushki area. Bacilla was the dominant figure in the Tairov area, and Galushka and his men ruled the village of Kotovsky.

And above all this chaos and confusion, when everything was jumbled and there were no clear lines of influence between the gangs, towered the powerful figure of Viktor Pavlovich Kulivar, nicknamed "Karabas." At a thieves' gathering held in the Southern Palmyra in 1990, he was appointed "overseer" of the city, although he was not a thief in law.

Victor Kulevar (Karabas)

Karabas assumed the role of arbiter in Odessa's criminal underworld and effectively created one of the country's first organized crime groups (OCGs). With a small personal crew, Kulivar controlled all of Odessa, commanding all groups totaling at least a thousand members. Having appreciated the benefits of collaborating with Karabas, Angert joined him, heading the so-called "economic bloc" within his crew.

Using the authority of the leader and the potential of Oleksandr Radvansky (Sasha Bolshoi), a member of the Solntsevo organized crime group who joined the Karabas brigade, Angel actively develops and implements shady schemes, corrupting city administration officials and Odesa police leaders. Due attention is also paid to the capital, where enormous amounts of shady funds are invested and, with the help of corrupt officials, laundered through real estate, leisure, and hotel projects.

Not without Angel's influence, classic organized crime groups are forming in the southern region of the country, whose focus is not on petty extortion of "tribute" from entrepreneurs and receiving a percentage of the drug trafficking controlled by the gypsies, but on serious operations involving land, real estate, oil transshipment, and, most importantly, establishing control over smuggling channels.

As a result of the implementation of the "new economic policy," Viktor Kulivar established control over the entire oil port business, entrusting profit-making to Angel. Under the pretext of protecting the interests of Karabas, who was increasingly withdrawing from brigade affairs and entering legitimate businesses, Angel formed his own combat brigade and took control of most of the group's financial flows.

On April 21, 1997, Viktor Pavlovich Kulivar was murdered at the entrance to a bathhouse on Astashkina Street. The killer fired a Skorpion submachine gun, but only the sixth shot proved fatal—the bullet hit him glancingly in the temple. Karabas died in the hospital from blood loss due to gunshot wounds. The crime boss's murder remains unsolved, but many in Odessa believe the killer's services were paid for by Angel's close aide, Alexander Angert.

Whether this is true or not, who knows, but the fact is that after the murder of Viktor Kulivar, it was Alexander Angert who became the heir to his empire and became the most significant figure in Odessa's criminal underworld.

The period following Kulivar's murder and leading up to his emigration, Angel's criminal biography can be described as a "permanent war for spheres of influence and business interests." A notorious gangster vendetta began in Odessa, accompanied by daily showdowns, shootings, and explosions. Local businessmen invited gangsters to settle their business conflicts and themselves became victims of retaliatory military actions.

The most powerful opponent of the Angel Brigade after the death of Karabas became the organized crime group of Georgiy Stoyanov, which until 1997 was considered the largest (up to 100 people) and most influential in Odessa.

As a result of the bloody "military operations," almost all of the Stoyan organized crime group's militants were eliminated, and the crime boss himself fled to the United States.

Angel's militants also effectively destroyed the organized crime group of Sergei Ershov (Katsap), whose group was one of the most influential in the city in the 90s. After surviving several assassination attempts (one of which killed a security guard and severed the leg of Ershov's wife), Katsap gave up the fight and left Odessa.

Since the second half of the 90s, the economically attractive Odessa region has become one of the most crime-ridden in Ukraine. A string of murders have occurred, targeting businessmen, journalists, crime bosses, judges, and ordinary gangsters. A whole "gangster alley" has appeared at Tairovskoye Cemetery.

The liquidators' victims include prominent figures in the city: Arkadiy Tabachnik, president of the Bipa-Moda joint venture; Boris Derevyanko, editor of the Vechernyaya Odesa newspaper and city council member; and businessmen Arbiyev, Karpov, Serov, Zginek, and others.

Without a doubt, the "gangster chaos" and ongoing criminal wars were a major thorn in Angel's side. His most promising business venture—international arms trade—promised both enormous profits and required stability.

Weapons shipments from the war-torn Transnistria region are sent from the Odessa port to interested countries and private individuals with the full connivance of Ukrainian security forces.

But in 1994, an unfortunate incident occurred that brought Alexander Angert to the attention of Western intelligence agencies. Italian law enforcement seized the ship Jadran Express, which was en route from Ukraine to Croatia at the height of the war in the former Yugoslavia. The vessel was carrying 30 Kalashnikov assault rifles, 400 guided missiles, 10 anti-tank grenades, and 32 million rounds of ammunition, in flagrant violation of UN sanctions.

Italian prosecutors have identified the owners of the vessel Euroterminal LLC, which was listed as owned by several Cypriot offshore companies. After examining the entire offshore chain, the Italians identified the ultimate owners as two Cypriot lawyers, Markos Georgiadis and Fivos Pelidis, who specialize in creating offshore companies for clients from the CIS.

Interrogated by Interpol officers, the Cypriots refused to deny their allegations and handed over the ultimate beneficiaries. The information obtained allowed the Italian side to charge several well-known individuals in Odessa—A. Angert and his associates Leonid Minin and Alexander Zhukov—with arms trafficking. Meanwhile, in connection with a high-profile arms scandal, Angel's persona attracted the attention of the UK National Criminal Intelligence Service, the gendarmerie and police services of several European countries, and the US FBI. Only his own "office" protected Angel's reputation, blatantly turning a blind eye to his "antics with heavy weapons."

The situation that developed by the late 90s forced Angert to leave the seaside city and emigrate. A combination of factors undoubtedly prompted him to make this momentous decision.

Firstly, the ongoing criminal wars that determined the semi-legal lifestyle of a very wealthy businessman and his family members.

Since 1997, militants from the Tomalya organized crime group have been engaged in yet another turf war with the Angelovtsy; "black brigades" formed from Caucasus natives who entered the city have seized control of the oil transshipment facility, provoking a new war with unpredictable consequences.

Secondly, the interest in our hero's highly specific business was on the part of powerful Western and US intelligence agencies. Angel had good reason to fear that when it came to extradition, his partners in uniform would turn him in without hesitation, "privatizing" his assets for their own benefit.

In the Italian police memo "Ukrainian Mafia", Angert is listed among the most influential Odessa mafiosi.

Having built a vast shadow empire and legalized much of it, Alexander Angert emigrated to Israel in 1999, from where he conducted business in Ukraine through trusted confidants. Subsequently, extensive business interests in Europe prompted him to leave the Promised Land and move to London in 2001.

Revolutionary changes in the country prompted Angert and his longtime business partner, London-based businessman of Russian descent Alexander Zhukov, to change the structure of the Ukrainian enterprises they controlled. In the mid-2000s, the partners transferred some assets to offshore accounts. Alexander Angert chose to conceal the remaining assets by transferring management to Odesa-based businessmen he controlled.

Their pool includes Angert’s junior business partner, Igor Uchitel.

Igor Uchitel

Angert's authorized representative oversees the Odessa thermal power plant and related schemes, several construction companies, the restaurant business in Arcadia, and so on.

But all of this is just the tip of the iceberg; the former Odessa authority derives its main profit from embezzling the city's considerable budget, a process in which Odessa mayor Gennady Trukhanov and the majority of the parliamentary corps fully support him.

Under the management of trusted persons - Konstantin Tkach and Vladimir Galanternyk Angel's shadow empire is functioning smoothly, absorbing ever new areas of Odessa's life - Mom.

The ORD editorial team covered the main stages of the life of our former compatriot and current London resident, Alexander Angert. Of course, no less interesting topics attributed to the hero of our publication were overlooked, namely, his role in the formation and financing of the "Red Brigade" of "Marianchuk-Popescu" (more than 90 percent of its fighters were police officers, both former and current).

Georgiy Stoyanov, arrested in the US, accuses his long-time enemy of the fact that most of the contract killings committed in the second half of the 90s in Odessa by the Maryanchuk gang were ordered and paid for by Angel.

However, the investigation into the "Maryanchuk-Popescu" gang, which accused members of the organized crime group of committing more than two dozen contract killings, did not reveal any outside influence.

Our hero is also no stranger to participation in several political projects and charity events, but that's a completely different story.

Meanwhile, Alexander Angert undergoes rehabilitation in the best clinics in Europe and Israel, the powerful and the criminal worlds are holding consultations and gatherings, deciding the fate of Angert's business assets (if necessary) and discussing a potential successor. But let's wait for news on the health of this clearly extraordinary citizen of Earth, Alexander Angert (Angel).

FILE: Igor Kononenko, the President's Army Buddy

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