It is no secret that Russian organized crime (ROC) kingpins and their cohorts in the United States do not like the Institute with particular distaste for our Director and General Legal Counsel, Emanuel Zeltser. And who can blame them?

Renowned US-Russian legal scholar, Mr. Zeltser is well known for his firm and vocal stance against ROC and corruption that in the words of the former Russian president Boris Yeltsyn has "devoured the country from top to bottom." Mr. Zeltser has significantly contributed toward exposing massive money laundering by ROC through the Bank of New York and helped shut down the Russian mob-controlled bank, Inkombank, BoNY’s principal Russian “correspondent.” In 1999, at the request of the Chairman of the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services, Hon. James Leach, Mr. Zeltser assisted the Committee in connection with its investigation into the Bank of New York’s money laundering charges and provided a statement at the September 29, 1999 Hearing on the Bank of New York, Russian organized crime and money laundering. (See Letter from the Chairman of the House Committe on Banking and Financial Services, James A. Leach to Emanuel E. Zeltser, Esq.)

Mr. Zeltser has sued Inkombank and the Bank of New York on behalf of hundreds of thousands of depositors whose life savings were looted by corrupt Russian and American bankers.  In November of 1999, at the request of the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services, he and his colleagues at the Institute assisted in evaluating and editing a draft of the "Foreign Money Laundering Deterrence and Anticorruption Act." (H.R. 2896)" (passed in the House in 2001.) In 2001, he assisted in in drafting portions of a similar  Anti-Money Laundering Bill (passed in the Russian Parliament (Duma) in July of 2001.

Appearing as legal expert on Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and many other world broadcast and print media, Mr. Zeltser fearlessly continued exposing ROC and its accomplices in the US.

Recognizing dangers to them, posed by his efforts, Russian racketeers and their US mouthpieces  engaged in all-out campaign aimed at smearing and silencing Mr. Zeltser and others at the Institute and those allied with them in halting the Russian mob’s proliferation into the United States. Backed by billions of dollars stolen from the IMF, the World Bank and other publicly funded institutions, Russian mobsters have paid prodigious fees to “political” Western law firms to falsely accuse Mr. Zeltser of “theft” from Inkombank, “conspiracy” against the Bank of New York and even “insufficiency” of his legal credentials. 

Simultaneously with the series of attempts to manipulate US legal proceedings, Russian mobsters engaged in their more "traditional techniques"  In 1998, Mr. Zeltser, a former race driver, narrowly escaped grievous injury in a car crash when his Jeep breaks were tampered with by unknown perpetrators.

Testifying before the House Banking Committee former CIA Director R. James Woolsey warned the members of Congress: "Russian organized crime can use its resources to corrupt institutions here in the United States. The recent case involving the Bank of New York may prove to be one such example." "Regrettably I must agree with Mr. Woolsey", said Mr. Zeltser, "it is unfortunate that one of the oldest financial institutions in this country and even its attorneys have carried this vendetta against the Institute at the behest of the ROC - - becoming de facto spokesmen for the Russian mob."

Russian mobsters and their US confederates continue this smear campaign to this day in a hopeless quest to intimidate and silence Mr. Zeltser and the Institute. 

 "Zealously courted by  prodigiously compensated endorsers Russian mob-bankers have been successful in subverting and delaying for years investigations and judicial proceedings relating to their machinations in the US, persuading regulators to disregard reports of whistle blowers, casting aspersions on “unfriendly” witnesses by the strategic phone calls, and removing those who could not be thoroughly defamed by intimidation, harassment and strong arm tactics ." Emanuel Zeltser (Congressional Hearings, Sep. 21, 1999)