Clean-cut, with a penchant for oversized glasses and black clothing, Shulaya, who was from the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, looked more tech bro than mafioso.Īt work, he collected gambling and extortion proceeds, arranged bribes, and tested a slot machine for its hackablility. Most days, he drove his black Mercedes out to Brighton Beach, a Russian enclave at the end of the subway line, a couple blocks from Coney Island. He’d set up his domestic life in Edgewater, a tranquil middle class town on the Hudson River. Like many successful New York executives, he lived in the suburbs and commuted to his office in the city. Shulaya’s was a complex-and at times, violent-enterprise to run, with operations in at least six states to oversee. Plans were in place for what authorities came to call the “romance scam”: use an attractive woman to lure a target down to Atlantic City, knock him out with chloroform, and steal his money. According to prosecutors who have been building a case against him, Shulaya’s associates provided gun-running, kidnap-for-hire, and the fencing of stolen jewelry. By age 40, from his base in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, he had a cigarette smuggling operation, a drug ring, a counterfeit credit card scheme, an extortion racket, an illegal gambling establishment, and teams devoted to hacking slot machines. Razhden Shulaya maintained a diverse business empire, like a Warren Buffet of crime. Graff | Longreads | June 2018 | 20 minutes (5,086 words)
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