Each time regulation enforcement closed in, Mani Chulpayev made them a suggestion they couldn’t refuse.
The longtime mobster of Russian descent found early on that by providing to develop into an informant, he might normally purchase his manner out of essentially the most severe repercussions from the assorted legal enterprises he had been concerned with in the USA over the previous 25 years.
For a lot of that point, federal prosecutors say Chulpayev ran an elaborate luxury-car-theft ring in Atlanta that concerned stealing hundreds of thousands of {dollars}’ value of Aston Martins, Maseratis, Lamborghinis and Porsches and renting them to drug sellers and rappers, that means that his data was thought of extremely beneficial.
However his casual relationships with investigators would ultimately show problematic, federal prosecutors say. A decade in the past, costs introduced in opposition to Chulpayev by the Fulton County district lawyer within the homicide of an up-and-coming rapper named Lil Phat have been dropped due to his relationship with an FBI agent that compromised the case, based on court docket filings.
Now, after years of staying one step forward of prosecutors, even fleeing to Ukraine underneath a false identification, Chulpayev, 46, was lastly sentenced final week to 10 years in jail for the theft of 115 superluxury vehicles value $9 million.
“Chulpayev is a consummate schemer at coronary heart. He left behind a promising begin in life with limitless potential and, regardless of a number of second possibilities, has repeatedly chosen to channel his mind and monetary acumen right into a profession of crime and manipulation,” federal prosecutors in Atlanta wrote in court docket filings.
Messages left with Chulpayev’s lawyer weren’t instantly returned.
Studying the sport
Chulpayev was born within the Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, he and his household moved to Queens, N.Y., when he was 12 years previous.
Prosecutors say his father ran a profitable enterprise working street-vendor carts and despatched his son to personal college. However Chulpayev quickly fell in with a tough crowd of Russian gangsters.
Generally going by the names Mani Chilpayen or Immanuel Cohen, Chulpayev turned the concepts man behind a ruthless Russian gang generally known as “the Brigade,” based on court docket paperwork. The group specialised in extorting Russian small companies and in Medicaid and green-card fraud and different white-collar crimes. Chulpayev additionally turned concerned in human trafficking, smuggling ladies from the previous Soviet Union to the USA to work as prostitutes, prosecutors mentioned.
Enterprise homeowners who didn’t pay noticed their shops burned down or their family members kidnapped, court docket paperwork confirmed.
Ultimately, authorities caught on to what the Brigade was as much as and started constructing a case in opposition to its members. Once they got here to Chulpayev with proof of human trafficking, he flipped, based on court docket papers. It turned out he had stored copious notes that investigators mentioned have been “just like the Rosetta stone of the gang’s exercise” and proved instrumental in taking the gang down.
In return for his in depth cooperation, Chulpayev was sentenced to time served and positioned in witness safety. That consequence would develop into a sample for Chulpayev.
“When caught, his typical transfer is to supply to cooperate and, like most issues, he’s exceptionally good at it. He’s properly linked, retains intricate information and is aware of precisely what sort of data could be laborious for an agent to move up,” prosecutors wrote in court docket filings.
His cooperation was thought of so uncommon in a mob case that he turned the main focus of a 2002 profile within the New York Occasions.
At that time, he relocated to Atlanta, the place prosecutors say that inside two years he turned concerned in an ring of vehicle chop retailers. When that was busted by regulation enforcement, Chulpayev dimed out his co-conspirators once more in return for a relatively gentle 30-month sentence, court docket papers mentioned.
Working Driving Soiled
Chulpayev started transferring into the large leagues with the car-theft rip-off beginning in 2009, prosecutors mentioned. The scheme was elaborate and enabled him to play each side of the regulation as wanted, they mentioned.
He would start by convincing buyers with clear credit score to function straw patrons of luxurious vehicles. Prosecutors say Chulpayev bought the scheme by telling buyers all they needed to do was signal a mortgage — typically for as a lot as $75,000. He would then discover somebody to lease the automotive to cowl the notice, and Chulpayev would pay the investor a share each month.
However prosecutors say Chulpayev would normally cease paying the mortgage after just a few months, sticking the investor with the cost. In some circumstances, buyers agreed to take out loans on a number of vehicles directly, rapidly pushing them into chapter 11 and demolishing their credit score.
On the identical time, prosecutors say Chulpayev would hire most of the vehicles to big-time drug traffickers who appreciated having high-end vehicles that have been registered in another person’s title so they might keep underneath the radar. In addition they appreciated having the ability to pay money as a way to launder their drug proceeds, prosecutors mentioned.
Chulpayev’s shoppers additionally included rappers and athletes, based on court docket paperwork.
When regulation enforcement caught on to the rip-off, they launched an investigation dubbed Operation Driving Soiled. However once they zeroed in on Chulpayev, he supplied them his assist.
As a part of doing enterprise, he positioned monitoring units on all his vehicles and supplied that data to investigators so they might simply find drug traffickers they have been in search of. The association led to a number of arrests and profitable prosecutions, based on court docket filings.
“Chulpayev turned out to be the hidden hyperlink in an internet of seemingly unconnected drug traffickers driving round Atlanta in continually altering hard-to-trace vehicles, rappers and athletes, determined buyers who have been talked into shopping for Aston Martins, Lamborghinis and different luxurious vehicles they couldn’t afford, and, lurking within the background, compromised regulation enforcement officers,” prosecutors wrote in court docket paperwork.
Lil Phat
In 2012, a 19-year-old Louisiana rapper named Lil Phat was fatally shot outdoors a Georgia hospital the place he was awaiting the start of his daughter. Born Melvin Vernell III, Lil Phat had made a reputation for himself performing with Baton Rouge rappers Webbie and Lil Bousie.
However prosecutors say he had additionally run afoul of a gaggle of drug sellers that included former college-basketball standout Decensae White and Atlanta rapper Gary “Eldorado Pink” Bradford, who thought Lil Phat had stolen 10 kilos of marijuana from them.
In response to court docket paperwork, White and Bradford employed two gunmen, Deandre Washington and Maurice Connor, to kill Lil Phat. They have been in a position to find him utilizing monitoring information offered by Chulpayev, who had rented the rapper a automotive.
All 5 males have been ultimately charged with conspiracy to commit homicide, together with Chulpayev, court docket paperwork present.
Finally, Washington was convicted of the slaying and sentenced to life in jail. Connor and Bradford have been convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to 30 years and 25 years, respectively. White pleaded responsible to a lesser cost and acquired an eight-year sentence for agreeing to testify in opposition to the others, court docket paperwork present.
Whereas the convictions have been a feather within the cap of native prosecutors, Chulpayev’s function changed into a black eye for regulation enforcement.
Costs in opposition to him have been ultimately dropped due to his relationship with an FBI agent whom Chulpayev had allegedly given a key tip that led to the arrest of the opposite 4 males, based on court docket paperwork.
His attorneys mentioned Chulpayev had been a longtime supply for the agent, and that he had given him the data with the understanding that he was serving as a confidential informant and that the data couldn’t be used in opposition to him.
Chulpayev’s legal professionals additionally claimed their shopper had given the FBI agent items of money and jewellery over time, compromising his integrity. This led the Division of Justice’s Workplace of the Inspector Common to open an investigation and in the end resulted in Chupayev’s statements being thrown out, deep-sixing the case in opposition to him, based on court docket filings.
To Ukraine and again
By 2016, federal prosecutors had grown bored with Chulpayev and have been engaged on constructing a case in opposition to him for the car-theft ring. However Chulpayev had yet another trick up his sleeve.
In response to court docket paperwork, Chulpayev had cultivated a relationship with Robert Bentivegna, a detective with the police division in Dunwoody, Ga., who served on a U.S. Secret Service activity drive and was having monetary difficulties.
Over time, Chulpayev started giving Bentivegna airline tickets and luxurious vehicles for his youngsters to make use of. When one of many officer’s youngsters bought into authorized hassle, Chulpayev paid his authorized charges, prosecutors mentioned.
In alternate, prosecutors mentioned Chulpayev requested Bentivegna to control a law-enforcement database and inform him if any warrants for his arrest had been filed or if there have been another indicators that he was underneath investigation. Bentivegna would later be convicted of federal computer-access crimes and sentenced to 2 months in jail.
In 2016, Chulpayev realized from Bentivegna that the feds have been on the brink of file costs, so he fled to Mexico, the place he paid $25,000 for a phony Israeli passport within the title of Vitaliy Bylyenko, court docket paperwork present.
Utilizing that identification, Chulpayev flew to Russia and later relocated to Ukraine, the place he rapidly went into enterprise as a film producer. In response to court docket paperwork, by the point U.S. authorities caught up with him in 2019, he was incomes $500,000 a yr making movies.
After his arrest by Ukrainian authorities, Chulpayev fought extradition and was held in jail in Kyiv for a yr earlier than dropping his case and being shipped again to the U.S. to face costs.
This time, prosecutors say Chulpayev realized that his sample of making an attempt to cooperate with authorities in return for leniency was not going to work, so he determined to battle the costs in opposition to him. Late final yr, simply earlier than the case was set to go to trial, Chulpayev agreed to plead responsible.