Feds Bust Russian Strip Ring
-Preyed on imported girls

By Mike Claffey

August 28, 2002 New York Daily News

A Brooklyn couple was charged yesterday with luring naive young Russian women into the country - and forcing them to perform as strippers in New Jersey nudie bars.

The husband and wife - along with a third suspect - allegedly promised the women high-paying jobs as dancers and fancy apartments in America.

But, once the women were here, they were forced to hand over their earnings - sometimes as much as $1,200 a week - for taking off their clothes at seedy clubs, according to federal prosecutors in New Jersey.

Authorities said the suspects boasted of ties to the Russian Mafia and threatened that the women's families in Russia would be harmed if they didn't give up the money.

"This is nothing more than a modern form of slavery," said New Jersey U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie.

"These women were brought to this country under false pretenses and forced to dance in nude bars under threat of violence to themselves and their families in Russia."

The accused ringleader, Lev Trakhtenberg, 38, of 20th Ave. in Brooklyn, made numerous trips to Russia and lured at least 30 dancers here with promises of the American dream, authorities said.

The feds said the sex ring lied repeatedly on visa applications, claiming the women were members of "internationally recognized or culturally unique...Russian show groups."

Once the women arrived, their passports and return tickets were confiscated. Then they were put to work and forced to pay the couple $1,200 a week.

One victim who griped about the payments told the feds that (suspect Sergey) Malchikov told her "that since she had no passport and knew no one in the United States, he could kill her and no one would ever know," the authorities said.

The three suspects are charged with conspiracy, forced labor, trafficking in forced labor and extortion. They face up to 20 years in prison on the top count.