[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 24 (Tuesday, February 7, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2259-S2260]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THREAT OF ORGANIZED CRIME IN EASTERN EUROPE
Mr. NUNN. Madam President, in May of last year the Senate Permanent
Subcommittee on Investigations held a hearing on the growing threat of
organized crime in Eastern Europe and the countries of the former
Soviet Union. This hearing featured an historic joint appearance by
Louis Freeh, the Director of the FBI, Hans-Ludwig Zachert, the
President of Germany's Bundeskriminalamt, and General Mikhail Yegorov,
the head of Russia's Organized Crime Control Department.
In his prepared statement submitted to the subcommittee, General
Yegorov made reference to an Austrian company by the name of Nordex,
implying that its president was an individual known as Umar Vokov, who
is suspected by Russian authorities of underground criminal activity.
Recently, the subcommittee has received a letter from the real
president of Nordex, a Mr. G. Loutchansky, disputing General Yegorov's
statement and denying any relationship between Nordex and Umar Vokov.
Mr. Loutchansky also provided the subcommittee with a letter from the
Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs to Nordex's attorney in which the
Ministry accepted Nordex's assurances concerning Vokov and expressed
regret to Nordex for any inaccuracies in General Yegorov's statement.
Mr. Loutchansky had sought to have these letters added to the
subcommittee's hearing record in order to correct any misimpressions
which could result from the printing of General Yegorov's original
statement. Unfortunately, by the time the subcommittee received Mr.
Loutchansky's request the hearing record had already gone to print.
While I have directed that Mr. Loutchansky's material be included in
the official exhibits to the hearing, I believe it is important that
they also be placed on the public record. For this reason, I would ask
that the correspondence between Mr. Loutchansky and the subcommittee
and the letter from the Russian Ministry of the Internal Affairs to
Nordox's attorney be reprinted in the Congressional Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Governmental Affairs,
Washington, DC, February 7, 1995.
Mr. G. Loutchansky,
President, Nordex G.m.b.H.,
Vienna, Austria
Dear Mr. Loutchansky: The Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations has received your letter of December 2, 1994,
in which you dispute a statement in the prepared testimony of
First Deputy Minister Mikhail Yegorov submitted to the
Subcommittee in connection with its May 25, 1994 hearing on
``International Organized Crime and Its Impact on the United
States.'' This statement concerned an alleged relationship
between your company and an individual named Umar Vokov, who
is suspected by Russian authorities of criminal activity.
Attached to your letter was a letter from the Russian
Ministry of Internal Affairs which
[[Page S2260]] accepted your assurances of a lack of any
relationship between your company and this individual and
expressed regret for any inaccuracies regarding this matter
in the statement of First Deputy Minister Yegorov.
You have requested that these letters be made a part of the
printed record of the Subcommittee's proceedings. Under
normal circumstances, the Subcommittee would be happy to
accommodate such a request; however, by the time the
Subcommittee received your letter, the hearing record was
already in the process of being printed. Although the
Subcommittee is thus unable to include this information in
the printed record, I have directed that it be included in
the official exhibits to the hearing. As such the information
will become part of the permanent records of the Subcommittee
with respect to these proceedings. I will also request that
your material be reprinted in the Congressional Record.
I thank you for bringing this matter to the attention of
the Subcommittee.
Sincerely,
Sam Nunn.
____
Nordex,
Vienna, Austria; Dec. 2, 1994.
Subject: hearing of the Committee on May 25, 1994, Testimony
of Mr. Mikhail Yegorov, First Deputy Minister and Head of
the Organized Crime Control Department, Russian Ministry
of Internal Affairs.
Hon. Senator Sam Nunn,
Chairman, Committee on Governmental Affairs, Permanent
Subcommittee on Investigations, Capitol Hill, Washington,
DC.
Dear Senator Nunn, In subject Testimony the Russian Deputy
Minister stated:
``Vokov's brother Umar is the President of the Austrian
company Nordex, located in Vienna, and also suspected of
underground business.''
This statement of Minister Yegorov went on the
Congressional files, and had probably also been picked up by
various agencies of the Government of the United States of
America.
We were very concerned about this statement and its
implications, since neither Vokov nor his brother Umar are or
were shareholders, directors, or employees of our company or
any of their associated companies. We have, therefore, taken
up this matter with the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs
and enclosed herewith is a copy of their letter, dated
November 9, 1994, together with a translation thereof, which
I believe clarifies the position.
Nordex G.m.b.H. is a very big Trading house based in Vienna
and has no connections whatsoever to organized crime or any
other illegal activities.
It is, therefore, essential that the correction and
expression of regret contained in the a/m letter of the
Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, dated November 9, 1994,
be entered into the public record of your Committee and also
passed on to the various governmental organizations, so that
the reputation of Nordex G.m.b.H. and its associates, is
cleared.
May we ask you to kindly confirm the receipt of this letter
and for your consent to take the requested steps. If you
require any further information, please feel free to contact
us.
We remain, Sir,
Sincerely yours,
G. Loutchansky,
President.
____
Ministry of Internal Affairs
of the Russian Federation,
City Moscow, November 9, 1994.
To Dr. Gabriel Lansky,
Lawyer,
Vienna, Austria.
Dear Mr. Lansky, The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the
Russian Federation has examined your letter of August 29,
1994, and subsequent letters, concerning the speech of the
First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, M. Egorov, on May
25, 1994, in the course of open hearings of the Permanent
Subcommittee on Investigations of the USA Senate on the
question of organized crime in the republics of the former
USSR.
The quotation in your letter has been taken from M.
Egorov's written thesis, which was handed to the organisers
of the hearings, and not from the transcript of proceedings
of his speech in the Subcommittee.
Having received your assurances that Umar Bokov is neither
an employee, nor a manager, nor a shareholder of either the
``Nordex GmbH'' company or of any of its branches,
representative offices or joint ventures, one could state
with regret, that an inaccuracy occurred in the quotation,
which was caused by two circumstances.
Firstly, in the course of the investigation of the criminal
case in connection with the murder of a militiamen, Umar
Bokov, while given evidence, stated his place of work as the
firm ``Nordex'', situated in Vienna, and also presented
himself as its president. The preliminary examination proved
the existence of a firm with the given name in Vienna and the
fact that U. Bokov used to leave for Austria on commercial
business trips. There was no need to prove U. Bokov's place
of work because he was merely a witness in that case.
Secondly, at the stage of translation or typing of M.
Egorov's thesis, the important word in this context,
``likely'' (also given in English in the text), which applied
to the phrase that U. Bokov is the president of the Austrian
company ``Nordex'', was omitted.
Expressing regret concerning the inaccuracy, we declare
that the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia had no basis
for, or intention of, connecting the ``Nordex GmbH'' company
and its actual President, G. Loutchansky, with the
underground business in general or, in particular, with
international drug trafficking.
The quotation stated in your letter applies exclusively to
Umar Bokov.
Yours faithfully,
V.P. Gortchakov.
____________________