FBI Adds Semion Mogilevich to Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List

Semion Mogilevich is one of the most talked about names in the news today, so just who is he? Who is Semion Mogilevich? If you ask the Federal Bureau of Investigation, they will tell you Semion Mogilevich is a Ukraine-born Russian mobster, a man possibly even "more powerful than a John Gotti", according to what FBI Special Agent Mike Dixon told CNN.

Semion Mogilevich has been placed on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive list for crimes that range from embezzlement and corruption to even more sinister activities, such as murder conspiracies. Mogilevich, born in the Ukraine in 1946 and currently living in Russia, has also been in trouble at home; Mogilevich is currently out on bail in Russia, where he is charged with tax fraud.

Unfortunately, the US and Russia do not extradite prisoners back and forth, so the FBI cannot benefit from the Russian tax fraud charges against Mogilevich. Even if Mogilevich shows up to court to answer his charges, and even if he were sentenced to prison in Russia for crimes committed there, the United States could not touch him on Russian soil for crimes committed in America.

According to CNN and the FBI, Semion Mogilevich allegedly ran a bogus, non-existent magnet production entity in Hungary, where no actual magnets were being produced, and North American investors were bilked out of millions of dollars. The FBI says Mogilevich is well-educated, sophisticated criminal; a man who could potentially influence global economics based on his whim and a few phone calls.

The FBI considers him a dangerous threat to national and international security, and so has placed Mogilevich on their Most Wanted list. This latest move is likely an effort to finally bring down the man who has evaded them by living in a country without extradition. With Mogilevich's face plastered on the FBI's Top Ten list, now if he should slip up and travel into a territory that does extradite with the United States, his picture and profile are likely to be well-known enough to result in an arrest or at least cooperation in helping the United States to apprehend the Russian crime boss.

According to Wikipedia's Semion Mogilevich page, Mogilevich is an ill-gotten billionaire, and is often called "The Brainy Don", for his education background, intelligence and an illicit business savvy. Mogilevich has an economics degree from Lviv University in his native Ukraine.