Alexander Presman: mafia past and raider present of the Odessa “benefactor”. PART 1

Who is this sympathetic philanthropist, about whom his pocket media has been constantly trumpeting throughout the Odessa region for six months now? He walks from village to village and patches roads, changes light bulbs in school classrooms, distributes candy to children and releases crucian carp into ponds. These inexpensive but well-produced shows are designed to buy votes from naive provincial voters for Alexander Presman. However, at the same time, Presman does not tell them about how he is at the same time squeezing out other people’s business in the region, nor about how in the 90s he was one of the organizers of financial pyramids that cleaned the pockets of Ukrainians, an accomplice of the leaders of the international mafia and a trusted man of “thieves.” in law”…

Alexander Presman. Plumber with five passports

Presman Alexander Semenovich was born on April 10, 1961 in Kyiv, into a respectable Jewish family of average Soviet income. When Sasha graduated from high school, his parents helped him enter the Kiev Institute of Civil Engineering, the faculty of water supply and sanitation, to receive the specialty of a plumbing engineer. Perhaps, hoping that access to plumbing, which was in short supply at that time, would help his son arrange his future. At the same time, they gave him a “white ticket”: plumbing engineer Alexander Presman never saw the Soviet army, even as a construction battalion lieutenant.

However, instead of managing a warehouse with toilets and faucets, Alexander Presman was assigned as a dispatcher to the USSR Ministry of Neftegazstroy (1983-84), where he allegedly took part in the construction of the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod gas pipeline (undoubtedly the talent of a young plumbing specialist was in great demand at the final stage of construction, when gas turbochargers were installed). Afterwards, there is a curious five-year gap in his work history, and then it is stated that from 1989 to 1991 he worked as the deputy head of the Department of Production and Production Control at Glavukrneftegazstroy. Further, in his “life”, cleared of details, the boring wording “worked in commercial structures” is written. Really boring, considering that there was the most interesting and eventful period of Alexander Presman’s life – which he really doesn’t like to talk about.

For example, Alexander Presman never told anyone about how and in what year he became a repatriate – this happened between 1984 and 1992, and explains the strange gap in the career of a plumbing engineer. He does not 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 created the “Russian mafia” there. By the way, he still has a second American citizenship – or rather a third, since as a repatriate he also has Israeli citizenship. And the Ukrainian Themis continues 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.InfoAlexander Semenovich: firstly, he has US citizen passports issued in 1991 (No. 408627563), 2001 and 2011 (US passport changes every 10 years). Secondly, the passport of a citizen of Ukraine NS 575238, issued to him in the 90s. Thirdly, Ukrainian passport CH 127326, also issued to him in the 90s. Fourthly, passport KM 504302 in the name of Alexander Semenovich Presman, issued on December 10, 2007 by the Suvorov Regional State Administration of the State Administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Odessa region. And fifthly, a passport of a citizen of Ukraine EE 265021 in the name of Presman Alexander Iosifovich (?), issued on July 10, 2008 in Zhitomir, where, in addition to his patronymic, his date of birth was changed to 08/02/1959. He is also the owner of two identification codes (No. 2238024636 dated September 21, 2006, and No. 2238025319 dated December 14, 2007), which also did not raise any questions either to Presman or to the tax administration. Probably, in Ukraine the laws are not the same for everyone?

So, the great gas pipeline builder Presman ended up in the USA where he, like many emigrants, was forced to look for work on Brighton Beach. Some people hung out there for many years as dishwashers and sex workers, while others rose quickly, managing to convince the fathers of the “Russian mafia” of their exceptional abilities. And if you brothers Konstantinovsky had the ability to cold-bloodedly “wet”, then Alexander Presman in America discovered his talent as a businessman, especially in the financial sector. And this young plumber-accountant was brought closer to him by Semyon Mogilevich – still a living legend of the international “Russian mafia”.

Semyon Mogilevich

How did Alexander Presman end up in Kyiv again? He was not the only one: both the emigrant “Russian mafia” of New York and the organized criminal groups associated with it simultaneously worked in America, and in Ukraine, and in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), and other countries of the world. Therefore, when they had a big business in Kyiv, they sent their people there to look after it. So, for example, in the early 90s, the Konstantinovsky brothers, Leonid Roitman (he would later leave for the USA again), Alexander Levin, Segal brothers. But Mogilevich had a separate assignment for Alexander Presman…

Alexander Presman. Mavrodi in Ukrainian

Many of those who had the opportunity to recognize Alexander Presman without the mask of a “benefactor,” but still not close enough, mistakenly took him for a “criminal authority.” This is not so: according to people who know Presman well, he is a “profitable businessman.” In the domestic table of ranks, this is a businessman who is part of the criminal world – in contrast, say, to businessmen who, although involved in shady schemes, still remain corrupt officials and not members of an organized crime group. A typical “profit-making businessman” is an accountant or manager of an organized criminal group enterprise, especially if these enterprises are a huge criminal scam – such as the notorious Mercury cooperative (Kyiv), where Presman was sent by the “financial overseer” Semyon Mogilevich.

At that time, the Republican Stadium of Kyiv (now the Olympic Stadium) became a place of big business, completely under the hood of the capital’s organized crime groups. And at the center of this business was the Mercury cooperative, created during “perestroika” as an enterprise for the production of waffle cups for ice cream. A workshop for their production was opened right in the back rooms of the stadium (on preferential, almost free terms), and the gas for the furnaces was “drilled” from the Olympic flame pipe. One of the leaders of this cooperative was Semyon Yufa, an extraordinary person who, however, greatly confused and distorted his biography, removing the criminal component from it. According to him, he was almost a creative genius who turned everything he took on into gold. But according to information Skelet.InfoSemyon Yufa was “picked up” by people from Kyiv organized crime groups in the 80s when he was working as a waiter in the Leipzig restaurant. And with their help (in his interviews he calls them “my comrades”) Yufa began his rapid career as a businessman. Another of Yufa’s partners was the commercial director of Mercury, Harry Gabovich: in Soviet times, this humble schoolteacher “moonlighted” as an underground moneylender, lending gangster money at huge interest rates (today such a business operates legally under the guise of a “quick loan”). Needless to say, what kind of collectors came to debtors who were overdue on loan payments!

Semyon Yufa

The production of waffle cups and trade in imported fruits was only the visible part of this business. Semyon Yufa is credited with the authorship of the first financial pyramid, organized back in the late 80s and covering the entire USSR. It was carried out in the form of a game, under the terms of which the newcomer sent a postal order of 100 rubles (then the amount increased to 400) to his predecessors, after which he received the right to recruit several new participants and already receive money from them. The organizers of this pyramid game, according to them, made money only by selling forms to players (10 rubles per person). However, there is other information: that one of the constant recipients of postal orders was the person who organized the game – his name was simply written down on the forms. Considering that several million people were involved in the game, according to Yufa himself, the organizers no longer counted the money received, but weighed it in boxes. It turns out that there was no official accounting of profits – all the figures remained in the “black accounting departments” of the organized crime groups that protected this game. It is known that there was an agreement between criminal groups in different regions of the USSR to protect this pyramid game from competitors and swindlers – for which they had their share of the profit. Perhaps Alexander Presman was sent to Kyiv precisely as a kind of financial auditor (from Mogilevich), making sure that the game managers did not “rat” money into their pockets. Well, then, when the game ended (with the collapse of the USSR), new, both relatively honest and completely fraudulent schemes for taking money from gullible citizens began to work at the Republican Stadium. And Mogilevich needed his own man there, working with his Kyiv “partners.”

In the early 90s, the organized crime group of Viktor Avdyshev had direct control over the Republican Stadium and the Mercury that worked there. Mercury itself, which in the early 90s was re-registered as a consumer society (at the same time, the old director of the cooperative was killed during a vacation in Bulgaria), was headed by Semyon Yufa, and its co-managers were Garry Gabovich (financial director) and Alexander Presman (vice president ). Mercury’s activities expanded into the gaming business (several casinos in Kyiv, Odessa, Yalta), the cigarette trade (it was the main distributor of Philip Morris), and the fuel business (a network of gas stations in Kyiv). The “Patent” clothing market operating at the stadium was also registered in “Mercury” – the security of which was carried out by the gangster security company “Alligator”. Moreover, the racket on Patent was designed quite wittily and even cynically: entrepreneurs trading on it were forced to purchase insurance policies “against accidents and fires” and pay contributions to the bandit insurance company. The authors of this idea were Yufa and Presman. Mercury also had its own exchange offices (they were headed by the future people’s deputy Mikhail Brodsky), through which the conversion of “black cash” was carried out. But mainly “Mercury” was known for its new financial pyramids: in 1992-93. he accepted money at incredible interest rates, and the queues of applicants were so long that fights broke out every now and then. According to the most conservative estimates, after the collapse of the pyramid, the owners of Mercury pocketed about 20 million dollars from gullible Kiev residents.

“Mercury” and the Republican Stadium quickly became the center of shadow and criminal business in Kyiv, where other organized crime groups also joined: Boris Savlokhov, Vladimir Kisel, Valery Pryshchik. Alexander Presman quickly became close to everyone, especially with Kisel, with whom he had some kind of confidential financial relationship: he was even called the “pocket” of the son of the “authority,” Vadim Kisel.

In addition to the function of Mogilevich “watching the financial flows of Mercury,” Alexander Presman had two more important roles: investing gangster money in a new business, and contacts with law enforcement agencies. But since Presman, according to his friends, has the talent of a financial operator, and not a creative businessman, he was mainly involved in investing money in the legal and semi-legal businesses of other entrepreneurs. In particular, at Skelet.Info there is information that he made large investments in business Evgenia Chervonenko – his old friend and business partner (Presman assures that their fathers were also friends).

But he brought money not only to the offices of businessmen, but also to the offices of prosecutors and heads of the Organized Crime Control Department: it was reported that it was Presman who was appointed to settle all issues between the Republican Stadium and law enforcement agencies. However, he did not always succeed: in 1993, Presman was arrested on charges of bribing a SBU colonel, and spent 58 days in jail. According to information from law enforcement agencies, in those two months all the “thieves’” arrogance immediately disappeared from Presman, he was pitiful and ready to cooperate. What caused his release and the closure of the criminal case – a new bribe or his signature to “knock” the authorities – remains unknown.

However, after his release, Presman, with the support of the leaders of the organized crime group, survived Semyon Yufu from Mercury. None of the participants in the events admitted exactly how this happened, but in the end, Yufa, who managed the million-dollar flows, was forced to flee with a hundred dollars in his pocket, which Presman gave him for the journey. And immediately after that, Presman himself headed Mercury, working together with Gabovich. However, he had to work remotely: in 1994, Presman and Gabovich themselves fled to the United States, and from there they carried out the collapse of the Mercury trust pyramid. Since after this the “brothers” not only did not look for them, but also did not make any claims, it is not difficult to understand that this collapse was a pre-planned move by the leadership of “Mercury” and the leaders of the Kyiv organized crime groups. So, as a result of this scam, only ordinary Ukrainians suffered.

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info

CONTINUED: Alexander Presman: mafia past and raider present of the Odessa “benefactor”. PART 2

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