Russian Mafia Ring Broken in Hollywood & Beverley Hills - 7Dec02
Stefan Lemieszewski
LA prostitution ring involving
smuggled Russian women broken up
By PAUL CHAVEZ
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Friday, December 06, 2002 -
LOS ANGELES — Authorities trying to cope with the new face of
prostitution announced Friday they have busted one of the largest
sex-for-money rings in Los Angeles history.
The ring, which earned an estimated $5 million to $8 million over
22 months, employed more than 50 women smuggled from
Russia to perform sex acts for paying customers in the greater Los
Angeles area, said Det. Keith Haight, lead investigator of the
two-year probe called "Operation White Lace.'
"Russian prostitution is changing the face of prostitution in Los
Angeles right now,' said Haight, an investigator with the Los
Angeles Police Department's organized crime and vice division.
"These women are coming from the Eastern European bloc
countries and it's been increasing incredibly in the last five years.'
The case remains under investigation, Haight said, adding
authorities believe the ring may have also operated in San
Francisco, San Jose and New York City.
Agencies taking part in the investigation include the U.S. Customs
Service, the Internal Revenue Service and the Immigration and
Naturalization Service.
The investigation began in November 2000 after Haight noticed a
two-page color advertisement for an escort service in a yellow
pages phone directory serving the area near Los Angeles
International Airport.
"It cost over $7,000 a month to run those ads,' he said. "The larger
the ad the bigger the organization has to be to pay the overhead.'
Undercover vice squad investigators served search warrants in
October 2001 on phones, bank accounts and at 18 locations in the
cities of Los Angeles, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills.
District Attorney Steve Cooley's newly formed organized crime
division presented the case to the Los Angeles County Grand Jury,
which returned indictments against six people on Oct. 24, 2002.
The charges made public Friday were against Rimma Fetissova,
42, and her daughter, Elena Fetissova, 22, who both arrived in Los
Angeles from Ukraine in the late 1990s. The indictments also
included charges against Lev Levas, 55, and his son, Mark Levas,
38, both naturalized U.S. citizens from Latvia; Iryna Vladimirovna
Kovalenko, 37, from Ukraine and Elena Piyanzina, 24, from
Magnitagorsk, Russia.
Rimma Fetissova was arrested Nov. 21 in San Francisco. Vice
squad detectives arrested Kovalenko in San Marcos, Piyanzina in
the San Fernando Valley and Mark Levas in downtown Los
Angeles the following day. Lev Levas surrendered Nov. 27 to the
court.
Elena Fetissova remains at large.
The other five were arraigned Friday and remained jailed with bails
ranging from $100,00 to $500,000.
The six, who authorities say were the ringleaders, were charged
with conspiracy, pimping and pandering. Rimma Fetissova and
Piyanzina also were indicted on money laundering charges.
The defendants could get up to three years in prison for each count
of conspiracy, pimping and pandering. The money laundering
charge carries a maximum sentence of up to four years in state
prison.
The ring incorporated "Russian Fortuna Tours Inc.' as a travel
agency with the state in February 1999, Haight said.
Advertisements were then placed in foreign language and local
newspapers and in the phone directory for businesses such as
"Exclusive Girls Escort,' "European Blonds,' and "European Delight
Escorts.'
Last year the ring allegedly processed more than $300,000 in
credit card purchases from prostitution customers, Haight said. It
is estimated that credit card payments represented only about 5 to
10 percent of the business, he added.
Many of the women smuggled into the United States "knew what
they were coming here for,' Haight said, adding some claimed they
did not know they would become prostitutes.
Once in the United States, Haight said, the women used their
prostitution earnings to pay back their smuggling debts. Some, he
said, hoped to seek permanent residency and even citizenship in
the United States, while others said their goal was simply to make
a lot of money in a hurry and return home.
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