Billionaire Marc Lasry who runs a Manhattan hedge fund was slated to become the next French ambassador but apparently he's declined the post over his alleged friendship with Illya Trincher whom federal prosecutors accuse of heading a gambling and money laundering ring with ties to the Russian Mafia as reported by the New York Post: "'it's not that he committed a crime, but it opens a can of worms,' a source said."
Trincher and co-defendant Hillel "Helly" Nahmad, an art dealer and spoiled playboy, allegedly headed a racketeering enterprise which operated poker games in New York for the fabulous set, and they were among dozens arrested by the FBI earlier this month.
At a bail hearing on Wednesday for Anatoly Golubchik federal prosecutors sought to dissuade the judge from any conception that the ring was just harmless fun and games for the rich and famous as reported by the New York Post:
Golubchik, whom the feds claim helped run a multimillion-dollar illegal-gambling operation out of Nahmad's $5 million Trump Tower condo, answered directly to reputed Russian crime boss Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov,
the prosecutor said. "This is the top of the top of the top in
organized crime in Russia," he noted, in arguing against Golubchik's bid
to maintain bail.
Tokhtakhounov is charged in the indictment for allegedly heading a separate racketeering enterprise with Illya Trincher's father Vadim, and Tokhtakhounov remains a fugitive as reported by Richard Behar for Forbes:
The feds call him a "major figure in international Eurasian Organized
Crime" who has been involved in "drug distribution, illegal arms sales
and trafficking in stolen vehicles." In the current gambling case, he's
accused of using his status as a thief-in-law (or vory v zakone)
-- a select group of the highest-level criminals in Russia -- to resolve
disputes with gambling clients with threats of violence.
In the past Tokhtakhunov allegedly has been linked to Semion "The Brainy Don"
Mogilevich, the supposed "boss of bosses" over Russia's organized crime
networks, who is under federal indictment for allegedly "swindling
Canadian and U.S. investors out of $150 million in a complex
international financial scheme" as previously reported by Jeanne Meserve for CNN.
It's unlikely that the feds ever will bring Tokhtakhunov or Mogilevich
to justice given that the United States has no extradition treaty with
Russia where both men are living.