CHICAGO
(STMW) – The alleged Chicago boss of an international credit card fraud racket
has ties to organized crime in Bulgaria, kidnapped a man in Chicago and robbed
him of $800,000, ordered a beating and warned a rival would be “cut into pieces,”
feds say.
And
Gheorgui “Mitsubishi” Martov, 39, of Schiller Park, admitted as much when he
was arrested last month, prosecutors allege in a recent court filing.
Indicted
alongside 16 co-defendants on March 26, Martov is charged with overseeing the
U.S. wing of a massive ATM fraud scheme headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Prosecutors accused him last month of dishing out credit card numbers that were
stolen in Europe to lower level gang members who then made hundreds of
fraudulent ATM withdrawals in the Chicago area using phony duplicate cards.
But
allegations contained in court papers filed by the U.S. Attorney’s office
Wednesday go far beyond mere financial fraud — painting him as a figure every
bit as dangerous as Chicago’s Outfit.
Martov
— a playboy who gambling websites show enjoyed success in high-stakes poker
games — was seen meeting during what he claims was a “family vacation” with
known leaders of the Bulgarian underworld at a Sofia hotel in 2012, the papers
state.
And
in a secretly recorded call in 2011, Martov told a government informant that he
had ordered associates in Bulgaria to attack a man who owed him money, it’s
alleged. Martov even played a recording of a call in which the victim described
the beating he suffered, the feds say.
In
another secretly recorded 2011 call, Martov allegedly said that another victim
would be “cut into pieces” the moment he got back to Bulgaria.
Then,
in 2012, in a third recorded conversation, Martov told an informant that he and
another defendant, Radoslav Pavlov, had kidnapped someone in Chicago and made
him take him to $800,000 that had been stolen from organized crime figures,
it’s alleged.
Following
his arrest last month, “Martov admitted that he and Pavlov had committed the
kidnapping and robbery” and that he’d met with the underworld figures in
Bulgaria in 2012, the feds say.
The
FBI seized 13 guns from his home and estimates that Martov was helping the gang
make $200,000 a week from the credit card scam. Martov has a Vicodin addiction
and was branching out into marijuana dealing at the time of his arrest, it’s
alleged.
The
new allegations were made by prosecutors in a successful bid to prevent Martov
from being freed on bond while he awaits trial.
Martov’s
attorney, Tania Dimitrova, noted on Thursday that Martov has not been charged
with any violent crime, adding that the new claims were “completely inaccurate”
and were not supported by any evidence.
She
pointed out that the government had retracted an earlier allegation that Martov
traveled overseas on another man’s passport and said Martov’s legal team “needs
time” to disprove the latest allegations.