Slava Yaponchik is out...

[Tugay-bey]

A notorious Russian criminal boss Vyacheslav Ivankov, a.k.a. Yaponchik or “Little Japanese”, was released on Tuesday from a high-security federal prison in the United States and extradited to Russia, where he faces murder charges.
Norbal Vazques, a spokesman for the U.S. Penitentiary at Allenwood, declined to give the Itar-Tass news agency details of his release for security reasons. At the same time, Manny Van Pelt, a spokesman with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, confirmed to the Associated Press that Ivankov was in the agency’s custody pending a deportation to Russia. He also declined to give any details as to when Ivankov could be deported to Russia.

Newsru.com, however, citing informed sources in New York, reported that Ivankov was placed on a special flight to Moscow.

The Russian newspaper Kommersant said he was likely to be held in the Matrosskaya Tishina jail, in the same block as former Yukos boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is currently on trial for tax fraud. The report saw confirmation on Wednesday.

At about 01-00 Moscow Time on Wednesday Ivankov arrived in Russia and was handed over to investigators of the city prosecutor’s office, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported. The agency cited the office’s press service as saying that Ivankov will be placed in custody pending trial and that the investigation is headed by prosecutor Sergei Misyura of the Directorate for Fighting Murders and Banditry of the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office.

Ivankov faces charges of murdering two Turkish citizens in Moscow in 1992.

Ivankov, 64, nicknamed in the United States the “Russian Godfather” and known in Russia as "little Japanese" for his vaguely oriental features, had been in the US since 1993, was convicted in 1996 for the extortion of $3.5m from fellow emigres. He spent almost 10 years in the U.S. maximum-security prison near the city of Allenwood.

Itar-Tass quoted officials at the Moscow City Prosecutor’s Office last week as saying the Russian and U.S. security services had reached an agreement that Yaponchik would be handed over to the Russian authorities immediately after serving his sentence.

Ivankov, who is, spent 10 years in a Soviet prison before allegedly bribing a judge to gain early release in 1991. He re-appeared among the Russian immigrant community in Brighton Beach, New York, two years later. But he was arrested in 1995 after Alexander Volkov and Vladimir Voloshin, the owners of a company advising immigrants on investment, reported him to the FBI for extortion.

They said that when they resisted demands for money Ivankov had kidnapped them and beaten Mr Voloshin's father to death in a Moscow railway station. He was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison.
15 ÈÞËß 10:27