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What happened
Alex Mishulovich Male Age – 50 Charged with visa fraud, peonage - keeping someone in servitude- and conspiracy to commit peonage Served 9 years and was released on 11/30/2006 Vadim Gorr Drove the women to their jobs and held them against their wills. Charged with Visa Fraud and has since been released on Parole Rudite Pede Female Age- 34 Mishulovich's wife and helped recruit some of the women in Latvia, assuring them the way only a woman could that they'd be safe and the work was respectable. Released from prison 6/11/1999 The girls were given movies to watch -- "Showgirls'' and "Striptease'' -- to learn how to dance exotically. Associates exerted control over the women by demeaning them, telling them they'd committed a crime coming into the country, that his U.S. citizenship gave him more credibility with police. He exerted control over the women by beating them and bragging about supposed connections to the Chechen mafia. Mishulovich promised each of the women more than $60,000 a year. All they had to do was dance in "upscale" nightclubs completely clothed, lie at the embassy about their purpose for traveling to the United States, and hand over half of their earnings until they paid off their transportation debts. When they arrived in Chicago in November 1997, they were told they would be dancing topless. Their identification papers were taken and they were required to give all but $20 of the $200 to $600 they made nightly to Mishulovich. "He inflated the costs and kept building their debt," explains FBI Special Agent Michael E. Brown. "He told them he needed the money to pay living expenses and bribes to police and politicians." Chicago, IL – Chicago Nightclubs - Admiral, Heavenly Bodies, Thee Dollhouse, Skybox and Crazy Horse 2 Alexander Mishulovich and his associates approached five young women on the streets of Riga, Latvia with flattery and an offer of employment in the United States The women were not allowed to leave the one-bedroom apartment Mishulovich had rented in suburban Mt. Prospect, Illinois, except to work at various strip clubs in Chicago and Harvey, Illinois.
Response and intervention
American embassy official became suspicious when many of the women listed the same address where they would be staying in the United States Federal Agents were investigating the case and criminals found out so they dumped the women Before agents got Mishulovich and the others, they had released the women, in part because they knew federal agents were onto them, and because they were arguing with each other. FBI Special Agent Michael Brown headed the investigation. June 1998, when FBI agents arrested four of Mishulovich's associates after following leads from U.S. Embassy officials in Latvia. Mishulovich and the others were indicted for a variety of offenses, including conspiracy to commit peonage, fraud and obstruction of justice. Three men and one women were convicted. Victim Z was simply rounded up one day in July 1997 by her captors and dropped off at O'Hare with her passport and a ticket to Riga. She thinks she had about $40 in her pocket. And she thinks she took a taxi home from the airport in Riga. Despite her relief at being free, she didn't hesitate to return to the United States within the year. She wanted to start a new life. Later, she connected with the feds and cooperated with them against Mishulovich's crew. Five women lured here, abused and forced into the sex trade. "When I look back at this now, the thing that sticks with me the most is the long-lasting effects on the victims,'' Government Agent Brown said recently, over lunch near the Dirksen Federal Building, where the case was prosecuted. "These ladies, they were just young. Students. They were scared to death.'' Victim Z's own emotional recovery continues. Walking into large rooms causes her to panic sometimes because she feels everyone is looking at her, judging her. Trusting men has been a challenge, although she is in a relationship now. She has a recurring vision of walking onto a plane and bumping into one of her captors. And she has grown incensed by messages in the mass media -- beer commercials for example -- that suggest women are objects. Some days she thinks she will volunteer for a women's rights organization. Brown occasionally hears from the women. They've scattered. Some went back to Latvia, some are still here. One had a child. One shocked Brown when he asked her what she was doing with her life. Stripping, she said. "I've come to the conclusion,'' she told him, "that this is what I am." Today she is just as close to a beach that is more tropical. She's happy here now, rebuilding her life, with a new condo, a good job prospect and family and friennds. "I knew without those people I could make something good,'' she said. "I just saw things. I saw the life. I know it is possible if you are not trapped like that.'' All of the women were deported to Latvia. No aftercare provided, One was granted a T-Visa when she returned to the United States. http://www.ipsn.org/organized_crime/prostitution/surviving_chicago.htm http://www.inthesetimes.com/issue/25/03/crouse2503.html http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=NameSearch&needingMoreList=false&FirstName=alex+&Middle=&LastName=Mishulovich&Race=U&Sex=U&Age=&x=60&y=16 http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1998-09-11/news/9809110402_1_charges-threatened-russian