- 5 weeks ago
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00:00Up next, he goes to a business meeting and doesn't come back.
00:14The meeting was normal. What happened after was not normal.
00:17His kidnappers seemed capable of anything.
00:20The man on the other end said,
00:22if you don't start sending the money,
00:25we are going to start selling body parts like his liver.
00:29It was like, oh, my God, I couldn't believe what they were accused of doing.
00:33The case leaves a money trail all over the globe.
00:36Follow the money. Follow the money. Follow the money.
00:39Ultimately, the money leads detectives to a huge lake,
00:43a hard place to find evidence.
00:45We're talking about trying to find a needle in a haystack at this point.
00:48It's really opened our eyes to how evil people can be
00:52and use water as a method of getting rid of the bodies.
00:59When he was seven years old,
01:19Alex Umansky and his family immigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine.
01:23The family settled in Los Angeles.
01:26Like many first-generation immigrants,
01:28Alex embraced America as a land of limitless opportunity.
01:33His parents moved here for a better life, like all of us.
01:37You know, the situation in our country wasn't that easy.
01:41I think all the immigrants are like that.
01:43Alex Umansky was a young, good-looking, vibrant guy
01:49who was trying to make his way in this world.
01:51He'd started his own business called Hardwired Auto Accessories.
01:55They would put in fancy equipment in your car,
01:59such as televisions and cameras.
02:02Alex's business took off,
02:04and he soon found love with another Ukrainian immigrant.
02:07I fell in love with his personality.
02:11We got engaged,
02:12and we were looking to get married.
02:14I just recently saw a video from our engagement party,
02:18and it was a full house,
02:20dancing and singing the whole time.
02:24On the night of December 12, 2001,
02:27Alex got the kind of call a hard-charging entrepreneur loves.
02:32He had a new client with deep pockets.
02:34He got a phone call in the evening.
02:38Usually he speaks English.
02:40He spoke Russian too,
02:41but his Russian was, like, not as good as English.
02:44So he suddenly started speaking Russian,
02:47and it was a good conversation.
02:49He hung up, and he was very excited.
02:52This new client wanted to spend a lot of money
02:55on a state-of-the-art stereo system for his wife's car.
02:59He said, the person said money is not an object,
03:02so that's always a good thing for a business.
03:04It was his thing.
03:06It was his baby.
03:06This business was his baby.
03:09Alex and the caller made plans to meet the next day.
03:12After that meeting,
03:14Alex didn't come home and dropped out of contact.
03:17It's just radio silence.
03:20People are paging him, trying to reach him.
03:23It was very strange for him
03:24to just completely go off the radar.
03:27His two managers started calling me.
03:30They said, we can't reach him.
03:31We can't reach him.
03:33We don't know what happened.
03:34I started calling.
03:36We couldn't reach him.
03:37Early the next day,
03:39Alex's worried father went to his office
03:41to see if he was there.
03:43He wasn't, but something unexpected was.
03:46His father found a fax,
03:48an invoice from a company they had never heard from,
03:51in the amount of $234,628,
03:55and demanding the payment of that money.
03:58And at that same time,
03:59his brother, Michael, up in San Francisco,
04:02received a similar fax,
04:04demanding a similar amount of money.
04:05A terrified Alex soon called
04:09and said he'd been kidnapped.
04:11The people holding him got on the phone
04:13and left no doubt his life was in danger.
04:16They made a threat to do things
04:18like cut off Alex's fingers
04:20if the money wasn't paid,
04:21to sell his body parts,
04:24his kidney, his liver,
04:26if the money wasn't paid.
04:29Alex's kidnappers ordered his family
04:31to immediately send the ransom money to Dubai,
04:34the largest city in the United Arab Emirates.
04:37I left Ukraine to get away
04:39from all the crime that was happening in the 90s.
04:42So we were all in shock
04:44that something like this is happening in LA.
04:47Investigators believed
04:48Alex was being held somewhere in Los Angeles.
04:52The original ransom notes came from Russia.
04:55The kidnappers ordered that the payments be wired
04:57to a British bank in Dubai.
05:00The case had gone global
05:01and time was running short.
05:03It changes it dramatically.
05:05This is not just some local gang of thugs
05:08who grabbed somebody from the street,
05:09but a group that has tentacles
05:12around the world potentially.
05:14This was going to take some time
05:15to figure out who these abductors were
05:17and unfortunately for Alexander Umansky,
05:19time was working against it.
05:20In phone calls to the Umansky family recorded by the FBI,
05:36Alex Umansky's kidnappers,
05:38all apparently native Russian speakers,
05:41insisted his ransom be paid immediately.
05:43We were trying to be able to locate
05:45the kidnappers, of course, in the phone.
05:48There were no GPSs back then
05:49in 2001 in these cell phones.
05:51People see TV shows and they're like,
06:06well, you can trace the phone calls
06:07and things like that.
06:08Not so simple when you have calls
06:10of very short duration
06:11happening on phones
06:12that are prepaid cell phones
06:15that somebody is getting a fictitious name
06:17with a fictitious address.
06:19The Umansky family didn't have
06:21the kind of money Alex's kidnappers demanded,
06:24but they quickly rounded up
06:25part of the ransom payment.
06:27They wired $90,000 to Dubai
06:30with a promise that more was coming.
06:32We also were constantly asking
06:34for proof of life.
06:36So he was getting on the phone on and off
06:38and he was alive.
06:40That wasn't the only good news.
06:43Someone, apparently one of the kidnappers,
06:45had used Alex's debit card
06:47less than 24 hours after he went missing.
06:51A surveillance camera captured
06:53this image of the man.
06:54He put his hand on his nose
06:58or covering his face a little bit
06:59because he knew he was being photographed
07:01while he withdrew the money.
07:04In the background,
07:05you can see a light-colored SUV.
07:08The make of this white SUV was identified,
07:11but the surveillance camera
07:12did not capture the license plate.
07:14The problem was that
07:15there were thousands of vehicles
07:17just like this one
07:18in the greater Los Angeles area.
07:22Investigators were racing against the clock
07:24to find Alex before he was killed.
07:26And now, they got another surprise break.
07:30Alex Umansky's father saw something
07:32on a West Hollywood telephone pole,
07:34something he normally might not have noticed.
07:37It was a poster
07:38about a woman who'd recently disappeared.
07:40Reuven, Alex's dad,
07:42sees her missing posters
07:44around West Hollywood
07:45and thinks,
07:46strange that two Russian,
07:48you know, Russians are missing.
07:50And he forwards that information
07:52to the FBI.
07:5339-year-old Rita Peckler
07:55went missing one week
07:57before Alex Umansky disappeared.
07:59Rita was a Russian national,
08:01another immigrant to America
08:03with deep ties
08:04to the post-Soviet
08:05émigré communities
08:06in Southern California.
08:08How strange it is
08:10that two Ukrainian Russians
08:11are missing
08:13in this small area
08:14of Los Angeles.
08:16For Rita Peckler,
08:17it was a mystery
08:17since no money had been demanded.
08:19Why was she kidnapped?
08:21And what is the connection
08:22between Peckler and Umansky,
08:24two people
08:24who had seemingly
08:25never met each other
08:26before in their lives?
08:27Investigators soon learned
08:30of more immigrants
08:31who had apparently
08:31been kidnapped.
08:33The FBI learned
08:34that two additional
08:35Russian-speaking individuals
08:37had been kidnapped.
08:39One of them
08:40was George Sofiev.
08:41The other was
08:42Nick Karabatsi.
08:44Nick and George
08:44had started
08:45a movie production company.
08:48This film company
08:49was based
08:49in the Los Angeles area,
08:51the last place
08:52these producing partners
08:53were seen
08:54before they disappeared.
08:56And there was
08:56a direct connection
08:57to Rita Peckler.
08:59She took care
09:00of the business side
09:01of their company.
09:01Rita Peckler
09:02was actually
09:02their accountant.
09:04Now they had
09:05four potential victims,
09:07all from the Russian community
09:09or from the former Soviet Union,
09:11who seemed to have
09:13some dealings
09:14with Russian-speaking individuals
09:16shortly before
09:17their disappearance.
09:19So many questions
09:20and so few answers.
09:22But for now,
09:23priority number one
09:24was to locate the victims.
09:26and hopefully
09:27find them alive.
09:37When four people
09:39from greater Los Angeles
09:40were kidnapped,
09:41investigators from the U.S.
09:43and all over the world
09:44were on the case.
09:45And all of them
09:46came to the same conclusion
09:47on the best way
09:49to find the kidnappers.
09:50One of the most important
09:52parts of the investigative process
09:55in this case
09:55involved
09:56the good old adage
09:59of follow the money.
10:01What was unusual
10:02about this kidnapping
10:03for me
10:04and probably anybody
10:05is that
10:07we had overseas transfers
10:08of money requested.
10:10The agents
10:11have no leads,
10:12but one big one
10:13is follow the money.
10:14Across the globe,
10:16the vast majority
10:16of financial transfers
10:18are handled electronically.
10:20The system is designed,
10:22for obvious reasons,
10:23to leave a record.
10:24But some countries
10:25have notoriously opaque oversight
10:27on these transactions.
10:29The kidnappers
10:30apparently hoped
10:31this would be the case
10:32with the United Arab Emirates,
10:35the UAE.
10:36When this came along,
10:38it was everything
10:39was uncharted territory.
10:40We have no treaty
10:41with the UAE.
10:41But law enforcement
10:43in the UAE
10:44proved eager
10:45to help the investigation.
10:47That turned out later
10:48to be a very critical link
10:51in helping the FBI
10:53to determine
10:55who the kidnappers were.
10:57The FBI
10:57and UAE investigators
10:59were able to target
11:00the Dubai bank
11:01where the ransom payments
11:02were sent.
11:03And they arrested
11:04two Russian nationals
11:06who picked up
11:06those payments.
11:07It turns out
11:08they didn't know
11:09anything about
11:10the ransom process.
11:11they were basically pawns
11:13doing a service
11:14for somebody else.
11:16But that was
11:17their compartmentalized role.
11:20These men
11:21immediately cooperated
11:22with investigators
11:23and turned over
11:24all documentation
11:25related to their instructions
11:27to pick up the money.
11:29Investigators soon discovered
11:30the ultimate destination
11:32for the ransom payments.
11:33That money all came back
11:38to Los Angeles
11:39to a small business
11:42on a little strip
11:42of Ventura Boulevard
11:43in the Valley
11:44an aquarium store
11:46named Designed Waterworld.
11:49Designed Waterworld
11:50turns out to be a business
11:52that was owned
11:53by Yuri Mikhail
11:54and Jaregis Kadavis.
11:56Yuri Mikhail
11:57was from Moscow.
11:59He did have
12:00criminal history there.
12:01Therigis Kadavis
12:03was a former citizen
12:04of Lithuania
12:05who had no criminal history
12:08in the United States
12:09but was another person
12:10who appeared
12:11to live beyond his means.
12:14They owned houses
12:15throughout the area.
12:16Mikhail lived
12:17in Encino
12:18in a really beautiful
12:20house in the hills.
12:21So it really started
12:22to raise questions
12:23about who these two people
12:25really were.
12:26The pair's phones
12:27were tapped
12:28and all their business
12:29interests were surveilled.
12:31This turned up
12:32an interesting potential clue
12:33in the person
12:35of an apparent employee
12:36Einar Altmanis
12:38himself an immigrant
12:39from the former
12:40Soviet Union.
12:41They followed Mr. Altmanis
12:42around for days.
12:43He was driving
12:44a white Lincoln Navigator
12:46which appeared
12:47to be the car
12:48that was captured
12:49in the ATM surveillance video
12:52connected to the
12:53Umansky kidnapping.
12:54Was this man
12:56Einar Altmanis
12:57or one of his employers?
13:00It was impossible to say
13:01but with the kidnapped
13:03victims' lives
13:04possibly in the balance
13:05and plenty of
13:06potential evidence
13:07authorities searched
13:08all of the alleged
13:09kidnappers' businesses
13:10and uncovered
13:11a treasure trove
13:13of evidence.
13:14They executed
13:1419 search warrants
13:16that day
13:17where they collected
13:18all kinds of evidence
13:20guns, silencers
13:22demon drill
13:23that was used
13:23to sedate
13:24the victims
13:25bank records
13:26that tied back
13:27to the many
13:28money transfers
13:29of the ransom proceeds
13:31that were later traced.
13:32Yuri Mikkel
13:33Jorijis Katamovas
13:35Einar Altmanis
13:36and one more member
13:38of the suspected
13:38kidnap gang
13:39were arrested.
13:41Investigators
13:42were all but convinced
13:43the kidnapped victims
13:44had been killed
13:45but if the bodies
13:46couldn't be found
13:47proving murder
13:48would not be easy.
13:50They had very, very
13:51compelling evidence
13:52but they did not
13:53have the bodies.
13:54It wouldn't be optimal
13:55to try a case
13:57involving a murder
13:57if you don't have
13:59the body.
14:08In February of 2002
14:10four men in Los Angeles
14:12were arrested
14:13for the kidnapping
14:14of a group of immigrants
14:16from Eastern Europe.
14:17One of these men
14:1842-year-old
14:20Einar Altmanis
14:21wanted to make a deal
14:22with prosecutors.
14:24So Altmanis came in
14:25to be interviewed
14:25and the very first question
14:27that he was asked
14:28by the agents
14:29was
14:30where are the victims?
14:32What happened
14:33to the victims?
14:34And he slammed
14:36his hands down
14:36at the table
14:37and he said
14:38he knew everything
14:40and he said
14:41they're gone.
14:42They're all gone.
14:43Altmanis said
14:44the victims' bodies
14:45had been dumped
14:46in the New Malonis Reservoir
14:47about 350 miles north
14:50of Los Angeles.
14:51You're looking at
14:53one of the larger
14:54reservoirs in California
14:56and it's 300 feet deep.
14:58It still strikes you
15:00as trying to find
15:01a needle in a haystack
15:02to find
15:02four human beings
15:04at the bottom
15:05of a reservoir
15:05that big
15:06and that deep.
15:07He led them
15:09to the locations
15:10where the bodies
15:12were dumped.
15:12The bodies were driven
15:13up to Northern California
15:15and they were dumped
15:16off of one of two
15:17different bridges
15:17with weights tied
15:19around their bodies.
15:21There are all sorts
15:22of forensic disciplines
15:23but very few people
15:25are expert
15:26at finding corpses
15:27in large bodies
15:28of water.
15:29The Ralstons,
15:30Gene and his wife Sandy
15:31had been at it
15:33for decades.
15:34Since we started
15:34using this equipment
15:35in August of 2000
15:37we have found
15:38127 victims
15:41underwater.
15:42All of the people
15:43found by the Ralstons
15:44were drowning victims
15:45but whether the victims
15:47died through accident
15:48or murder
15:49the technology
15:50is the same.
15:52It allows investigators
15:53to use sound
15:54to see
15:55in deep water
15:56in places
15:57sunlight can't penetrate.
15:59The equipment
16:00is called
16:01side scan sonar.
16:02It uses sound
16:03to generate images
16:05images of things
16:06much like
16:06medical ultrasound
16:08in that it
16:09casts a beam
16:10of sound out
16:11and then it listens
16:12for the return
16:13reflection.
16:14Anything that's
16:15on the bottom
16:15will have a shadow
16:16behind it
16:17because the transducer
16:19housing the system
16:20is towed
16:22about 15,
16:2310 to 15 feet
16:24off of the bottom.
16:24A device called
16:26a towfish
16:27is dragged
16:28below the waterline.
16:29It sends out
16:30a sound signal
16:31that bounces back
16:32to a monitor
16:33creating accurate images
16:35of the bottom
16:36of a body of water.
16:38If a human body
16:39is on the bottom
16:39it reads differently
16:41than things
16:42that would normally
16:43be down there.
16:44Side scan sonar
16:45enables us
16:46to see things
16:47with sound
16:48that you could not
16:49see by light.
16:51Generally the object
16:52you're searching for
16:53has a higher density
16:54therefore a greater
16:55intensity of return signal.
16:59The more dense
16:59the object is
17:00the greater
17:01the reflectivity.
17:03The recovery team
17:04went to the spots
17:05Einar Altmanis
17:06said the bodies
17:06were dumped.
17:07Two bridges
17:08that span the reservoir.
17:10The Rolstens
17:11with a lot of experience
17:13reading these images
17:14immediately recognized
17:15four anomalous shapes
17:16on the bottom
17:17of the reservoir.
17:18They told police
17:19these were human bodies.
17:21The bodies
17:22were ultimately recovered
17:23through a submersible device
17:25with a hook.
17:26This image
17:26was later identified
17:28as the body
17:29of George Safiev.
17:30Close by
17:31was the body
17:32of Nick Karabatsi.
17:34Rita Pechler's body
17:35was found
17:35under another bridge.
17:39The last body
17:40to be brought up
17:41from the bottom
17:41of the reservoir
17:42was Alex Umansky's.
17:45They absolutely
17:46destroyed
17:47this parent's life.
17:48What they've done
17:49to their son
17:50they completely
17:52destroyed them.
17:54They could never
17:55recover from this.
17:56They're different people
17:58from that time on.
17:59I think he deserves
18:00to be remembered.
18:01That's how good he was.
18:06Authorities
18:07ultimately learned
18:08of a fifth
18:09kidnap victim.
18:1058-year-old
18:11real estate developer
18:12Meyer Muscatel
18:14had been kidnapped
18:15in October.
18:16His body
18:17was found
18:17by a fisherman
18:18at the reservoir
18:20months earlier.
18:22Why had these
18:23five people
18:23been targeted?
18:25Their families
18:25would be the least
18:26likely to report
18:26their kidnapping
18:27to law enforcement.
18:28As one would imagine
18:30there's a deep
18:31level of mistrust
18:32in the Soviet Union
18:33between the citizenry
18:35and the government.
18:36And so if something
18:37happened to you
18:38the government
18:39wouldn't be the first
18:40thought in your mind
18:42to run to
18:42to ask for help.
18:44The kidnappers thought
18:45incorrectly with
18:46some of the victims
18:47that they all had
18:48access to large
18:49amounts of cash.
18:51Rita Peckler
18:51was targeted
18:52simply to lure
18:53her employers
18:54into the plot.
18:55The victims
18:56were all killed
18:57simply for money.
18:59More than
18:59one million dollars
19:00was ultimately
19:01paid out.
19:02Essentially
19:03this blood money
19:04was their income
19:06their livelihood
19:07and that money
19:09was then traced
19:10laboriously
19:11painstakingly
19:12by the FBI
19:13and with the help
19:14of special agents
19:15from the IRS
19:15to the purchase
19:18of high-end luxury items
19:20such as payments
19:21on a Ferrari,
19:23the purchase
19:24of mink coats,
19:25the purchase
19:25of cars,
19:26the purchase
19:26of homes.
19:28Prosecutors believe
19:29Alex Umansky
19:30met the same fate
19:31as the other victims.
19:33He was lured
19:34to his death
19:34on the pretense
19:35of a normal
19:36business meeting.
19:37Soon after he arrived
19:39and was subdued
19:40he was kept alive
19:41just long enough
19:42to let his family members
19:43know he was
19:44in mortal danger.
19:46As soon as some
19:46of the money arrived
19:47he was suffocated
19:48with a plastic bag
19:50and strangled.
19:51All the bodies
19:52were weighted down
19:53and thrown
19:53into the reservoir.
19:55The killers
19:55thinking the ransom money
19:57couldn't be traced
19:57and the bodies
19:58never found.
20:00But money
20:01leaves a trail
20:02and thanks
20:03to new technology
20:04in this case
20:05so did the victims' bodies.
20:08Einar Altmanis
20:09received a sentence
20:10of 23 years.
20:12Co-conspirator
20:13Petro Krylov
20:14got life in prison.
20:16The ringleaders
20:17Yuri Mikhail
20:18and Jorijis Kadimovas
20:19were found guilty
20:21of kidnapping
20:21and killing
20:22all five victims.
20:24Both men
20:25convinced
20:25they'd get rich
20:26committing crimes
20:27that couldn't be traced
20:28were sentenced
20:29to death.
20:31Those particular
20:31death verdicts
20:32were the first
20:33death verdicts
20:34that had been
20:35returned by a jury
20:36in the Central District
20:38of California
20:39at that time
20:40in over 50 years.
20:43It was critically important
20:45to be able
20:46to have that technology
20:47to recover
20:47those bodies
20:48if at the end of the day
20:49we knew there were bodies
20:50down there
20:51but couldn't identify
20:52where they were,
20:53couldn't find them,
20:54couldn't recover them.
20:56That would have
20:56ultimately been
20:57very difficult
20:58for the victim's
20:59family members to handle
21:00as well as difficult
21:01for our case
21:02and the evidence
21:03that we needed
21:03to present at our trial.
21:04We'll see you next time.
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