Russian Jewish Underworld in Australia

These are not nice Jewish boys.

Herald Sun:

Russian gang in tatters

Paul Anderson

April 16, 2007 12:00am
Article from: Herald-Sun

A GANG of European-born criminals running with one-time underworld enforcer Nik "The Russian" Radev had planned to rob a circus operating on the Mornington Peninsula.
The big-top circus was seen as a soft but lucrative target by Radev, an extravagant Bulgarian-born immigrant who had a penchant for cigars and cognac.
However one member of the Russian crime gang, a man who cannot be named, was arrested in connection with a spate of 130 burglaries -- including at least one aggravated burglary -- before the circus robbery took place.
He decided to talk to police about the estimated $1.7 million burglary spree, implicating three co-offenders in the process.
It is believed he decided to talk because Radev and another gang member were prepared to open fire on police if need be during the circus robbery.
The police informer, referred to in court documents as K, was a former Russian soldier who became a criminal after migrating to Melbourne.
Gang member Michael Goldman, a Ukrainian-born criminal, tried to murder K by shooting him in the stomach and head at his Hampton flat.
K was wearing a wire at the time and recorded the unsuccessful assassination attempt on him.
He is now in the police witness protection program living under a new identity.
He has since survived a second attempt on his life interstate.
Apart from Goldman, the other men K implicated in the burglaries and at least one vicious assault were gang members Dima Mendelis and Sviatoslav Moroz.
Goldman was considered the godfather of the Russian organised crime group, according to police documents.
The son of a Jewish Soviet military captain, Goldman was born in Kiev in 1948 and grew up in the anti-Semitic Soviet Union.
He migrated to Australia, settling in Melbourne in 1980.
After injuring himself at work, Goldman received sickness benefits while running the crime gang.
"That organised group committed burglaries and, on some occasions, other offences of dishonesty which were generally carefully planned and always carried out in a skilled and efficient manner," Judge Carolyn Douglas said later.
During his time in Melbourne, Goldman has been convicted of intentionally causing serious injury after stabbing a man, making a threat to kill during an extortion attempt, attempted theft and dishonesty offences.
It was nearing the height of Melbourne's gangland war when Goldman enticed K to his flat to shoot him dead, believing he had turned police informer.
Justice Robert Redlich told Goldman in 2004: "Immediately upon K entering your apartment you shot him in the upper abdomen with a .32 Browning pistol which had been wrapped and concealed in a tea towel.
"You unsuccessfully attempted to discharge the pistol on a number of occasions, but the pistol jammed, probably because the tea towel became caught in the breech of the pistol."
The conversation between Goldman and K went in part:
Goldman: "On the ground! On the ground!"
K: "Misha, I didn't do it."
Goldman: "Tell me, bastard. Who did it!"
K: "Don't shoot! I didn't do it!"
Goldman: "Tell me! Who then? I am going to shoot."
A wounded K escaped but Goldman shot him in the head on the nature strip in front of at least three witnesses.
K managed to turn his head as the shot was fired, the bullet piercing his forehead and exiting under his right eye.
"You viewed K as disloyal -- as one who had broken the code of silence," Justice Redlich said.
Goldman claimed Radev had forced him to shoot K, and unsuccessfully appealed against his attempted murder conviction.
He is serving 14 years' jail with an 11-year-minimum for attempted murder, burglary and theft.
Radev was gunned down during Melbourne's gangland war before Goldman's trial.
According to police intelligence, it was underworld hitman Andrew Veniamin who shot dead Radev.
Dima Mendelis was born in August 1980 in the Ukraine and came to Australia with his father and stepmother in 1996.
Speaking little English, Mendelis went to Prahran Secondary College and lived with his paternal grandparents in St Kilda.
He worked as a chicken boner, car detailer and painter and spent regular periods in prison.
His convictions include intentionally causing serious injury, making a threat to kill, breaching a corrections order, multiple counts of burglary, aggravated burglary and single charges of possessing a weapon and using heroin.
"You commenced smoking opium as a young teenager in the Ukraine," Judge Douglas said.
"You took up using heroin
in Australia when you were at Port Phillip Prison."
In July 2005, Judge Douglas sentenced him to six years' jail with a minimum of four for burglary, aggravated burglary and possessing a prohibited weapon, ammunition and police identification.
Mendelis had his sentence reduced by one year on appeal.
He is due for release and has to convince Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews why he should be allowed to stay in Australia.
The other implicated gang member, Sviatoslav Moroz, is serving a seven-year maximum sentence on appeal for several burglaries.
Moroz was born in Moscow in 1974 and raised by his mother. His stepbrother is a professional violinist.
He came to Australia in 1991 to avoid being conscripted into the army.
Moroz lived in Canberra before moving to Melbourne, where he has worked as an apprentice chef, car detailer and a full-time restaurant chef.
After injuring his back in a car accident he took to using amphetamines in order to battle depression.
In this time he racked up convictions for dishonesty.
"You committed crimes of dishonesty to obtain money to buy drugs," Judge Douglas said.
It was Moroz who introduced K to Goldman.
According to court documents: "Not long afterwards, they all met at a cafe and commenced to discuss the prospect of engaging in joint criminal activities."
When sentencing Moroz in July 2005, Judge Douglas said: "You committed a large number of offences as part of an organised group of criminals where the stakes were relatively high." [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph