Exclusive interview with Vadim Vassilenko of Western Express

Right in the heart of China Town in the lower portion of Manhattan the House of Detention is successfully blending in with the other high-rise buildings. This gloomy gray tall structure - a combination of glass and concrete with dark narrow windows – was nicknamed the “Tombs” due to its resemblance to an ancient Egyptian mausoleum. On January 25, 2008 after a three hour wait, very thorough and exhausting security procedures (that deserve to be in a separate story) I entered a huge hall with about a hundred plastic kiddy tables of various bright colors arranged in several rows, each with two plastic chairs facing each other.

I sat down and began to wait. Vadim Vassilenko, a founder and owner of Western Express International, a lean medium built man in the inmate outfit came through the door and started browsing visitors’ faces looking for European features which were in a short supply. I called his name and he sat in front of me with a low red plastic round table separating us from each other. He looked relaxed, somehow exited; his eyes were shining with intelligence and zeal.

Profile

This information is publicly displayed on the Department of Correction’s Website, but behind these lines with words and numbers lies a long sad and unbelievable story that Vadim shared with me during one hour visit supervised by correction officers.

Charges in brief

On February 22, 2006 the Manhattan District Attorney, Robert Morgenthau announced the indictment of three people – Vadim Vassilenko, his wife, Yelena Barysheva, and their son, Alexey Barishev, on charges of operating an illegal check cashing and money transmittal business. Western Express International has also been indicted. It was alleged that the company and its employees violated the New York State banking laws and falsified business records. Besides cashing checks and transferring money, it was claimed that Western Express supplied its clients with false, English-sounding identities, fake taxpayer identification numbers and U.S. addresses to use as mail drops. It was also stated that most of the company’s clients were involved in a variety of cyber crimes, including phishing, spoofing and re-shipping. Vadim Vassilenko and Yelena Barysheva pleaded guilty and began serving their sentences - 2 to 6 years for Vadim and 1 to 3 years for Yelena. If Vassilenko did not plea guilty and let the jury decide his faith, he could face 8 to 24 years in prison. The couple chose to admit to crime and serve less time than to fight the American court system and risk to face 8 to 24 years in prison.

In the summer of 2007 Vadim and Yelena voluntary gave up their right to the US permanent residency. Yelena’s initial request for deportation was denied. Later with the help of Ukrainian Consul in the USA the judge agreed to deport Vadim and Yelena. But it wasn’t meant to happen. On October 10, 2007 on the basis of good behavior Vassilenko was released and transported to Batavia Immigration Detention Center for scheduled deportation to Ukraine. Around 2 weeks later Vadim and Yelena were arrested again and charged with enterprise corruption. 15 more people were charged with trafficking in stolen credit cards, cybercrime, and identity theft. For more information on Western Express International and the charges see “FBI investigation returns more charges against Western Express-full story” from 01/24/08.

Vadim Vassilenko’s story:

Everything that follows in this article is primarily based on the information provided by Vadim Vassilenko and other official sources.

Western Express International, Inc was registered on December 09, 1997 as a domestic business corporation. The office originally was located in the very prestigious and world famous Empire State Building, later it was moved to another location in Manhattan. The company employed 7 people including Vadim Vassilenko and his wife. Most of company’s activities were shipping business, check cashing, sale of digital currencies and gift cards. Western Express also had a contract with American Express for corporate payment services which allowed for money transfers in any currency. Check cashing business deserves more explanation as it was the basis for the first charges brought in 2006. When the opportunity for cashing checks became clear, Vassilenko went to the Department of Licensing and Permits and inquired about if the proper support documentation was needed to conduct this business. After it was mentioned that the clientele would arise from overseas, he was told that he did not need any license for this activity. So he believed. Also, he was informed that according to the banking and money transfer regulations, it is allowed to conduct transfers of checks in the amounts of up to $25,000 monthly and no more than $250,000 annually without a license. But just in case, Vassilenko still registered Western Express as a money service company with the US Treasury Department in January of 2002. As the business developed, Western Express started helping people abroad to receive on-line jobs from American companies and be able to get paid. According to Vassilenko many American employers that provide online job opportunities display discriminatory messages on the websites as to their hiring practices, like ‘no citizens of Pakistan, Russia, India’ and so on. Western Express helped those people by providing them with local mailing addresses and sometimes with American sounding identities in order to be hired and get paid. The company also helped to cash payroll checks and transfer the money into digital currency for on-line workers to get paid in their own currency in their own country. According to Vassilenko at no point during the operation of his business he knew that currency exchanges and purchases made through his company were done with the use of stolen credit cards.

On a nice February day Vassilenko was playing with his toddler son outside his log cabin in the trailer park upstate New York. A car stopped in front of his house; a man and a woman stepped out and headed towards his front door. Vadim asked them if he could be of any service. The strangers stated that they were investigating some burglaries that happened in that neighborhood two weeks ago and they had some questions to ask. Vassilenko stated that he was not at home two weeks ago and couldn’t be of any help. The man and the woman insisted to come inside because they still had more questions. So he opened the door for them. That instant around a dozen of armed men forced themselves into the house appearing virtually from nowhere. A respectable looking man dressed in a suit introduced himself as a local district attorney and announced that they had a search warrant for that property. The Vassilenko family was in chock. Vadim headed to his phone to call an attorney but was stopped and notified that he was not under arrest. Some $100,000 cash was found along with a case full of credit card looking plastic cards. Vassilenko tried to explain that those were just gift cards and that they were purchased for resale and not stolen. But no one seemed to care, it was apparent that there was an agenda that Vassilenko did not know about. The family was offered to proceed with the police for more questioning by the District Attorney Office in New York City. The couple agreed and was placed in different cars. Vadim was wondering what was going on; while driving to the city he was very friendly and talkative with the agents telling them about his business. Upon arrival Vadim and his wife were separated and did not see each other since. Their son was picked up by the babysitter to avoid going to a foster care home and eventually sent to Ukraine to stay with some family members. During the interrogation Vassilenko tried to explain how he cashed check and transferred the amounts into digital currencies which nowadays are more of a fact of life – an efficient and legitimate way of managing finances - but by no means a money laundering activity in his case. More Vassilenko talked about on-line transactions, more he realized that police had no idea about this new booming digital currency business. When he started explaining that it was easier to transfer checks into digital gold and then to the local currencies for people to receive money, the officer said that he clearly understood this criminal money laundering triangle.

When I asked Vassilenko if he knew he was under a close police eye, he said that at times he felt someone was watching him, but it never crossed his mind that he could be facing criminal charges.

Appael to judge - original.

After being transported to Manhattan for questioning, Vadim and his wife were never released. No one, like in all American police movies, read his Miranda rights to Vassilenko at any point. So request for questioning smoothly turned into imprisonment. Vadim’s first lawyers were Robert Babayev (the lead lawyer), Mike Rosen and Anthony Lombardino of Queens, NY. They were excited about defending Vassilenko and seemed very active in the beginning. Babayev even posted Vadim’s statements on-line and looked like the greatest supporter at first. Lombardino was so touched by Vassilenko’s story that in one of their conversations he told Vadim that his case was already deep in his heart! After Vassilenko paid $55,000 dollars (including a $10, 000 e-gold check) to Babayev for his defense, the lawyers started avoiding his calls. Babayev, not knowing anything about digital currencies, was questioned about e-gold check he received from Vassilenko. The judge did not like the fact that the digital transactions continued to take place on Vassilenko’s account, so Babayev got scared to get in trouble with the court and surrendered his $10,000 e-gold check. Against the client-lawyer confidentiality agreement, Babayev disclosed some personal information about Vassilenko to the judge. Since the lawyers started working on the Western Express case, no one visited Yelena Barysheva at all. When eventually Vassilenko managed to speak to Babayev, the lawyer got rather nasty with the defendant (words not to be mentioned publicly), and later Vassilenko found out that he, Vassilenko, fired his lawyers. Vadim was furious! First, he did not fire anyone, he was not in the position to be picky in any way; second, he paid a lot of money for his defense and received zero services in return.

Hence the quest for a qualified and honest lawyer continued. Vassilenko interviewed a good bunch of lawyers but no one seemed to know anything about e-commerce and finance to fight the charges. Vassilenko even prepared a checklist with various questions about banks, transfers, digital currencies, money laundering and so on. All the lawyers interviewed kept blushing unable to answer these questions. It looked like the dead-end. Eventually the court appointed a public defender who failed to even open the case for three weeks. Now Vassilenko seemed to find a good lawyer, John Demaio (646-250-1108), who has a background in finance and who is currently studying his case before making the next defense move.

In American court system showing intent to commit crime is vital to the prosecution’s success strategy. Many blog entries and comments that Vassilenko posted on his websites dengiforum.com & paycard2000.com were used against him in the court of law. That happened to significantly complicate the defense.

According to Vadim, the conditions in the “Tombs” prison are not bad. He has his own room with a bed, table and a chair, a sink and a toilet plus a small window. The showers are outside the cells. Food is of a very poor quality so is the stuff on sale at the prison store. Inmate fights happen twice a month or so. “Most of prisoners are just wasting their time away by playing chess, checkers and watching TV. Mostly empty chatter of “I am not guilty” type. I spend my days studying English, reading books on economy and finance, taking notes. One hour a day one inmate teaches me English for a pack of coffee”, said Vadim.

Vassilenko was not able to connect with any Russian speaking inmates as he found no common interests. On the opposite, Vadim says that they think he is either crazy or on drugs to read and study so franticly. Vassilenko just laughs at that and states that this is the most productive time where not a second goes to waste. “Russians are much respected here (by guards). Everyone has heard of brave Russian guys. Prisoners also respect Russians. White collar inmates get much respect here as well because every street drug dealer is dreaming of ripping some money off a credit card or robbing a bank,” Vassilenko stated.

When asked about the worst thing that happened to him in the prison walls, Vassilenko said: “500 pills for Tuberculosis that I didn’t have”. After administering a well known PPD test that came positive, Vassilenko was forced to take a series of tablets to cure tuberculosis. Little did the administration want to hear about childhood immunization practices in the former USSR that would make all people who received a standard immunization shot called BCG appear (+) positive. Since that happened, Vassilenko is experiencing some kidney problems.

When we started talking about his wife, son and property he left behind, Vadim turned incredibly sad. Yelena has been struggling with depression and is heavily medicated, their son is thousands of miles away and suffering from some separation anxieties – he hasn’t seen both of his parents for almost 2 years. In spite of the situation he is in, Vassilenko seems to be very concerned about the fact that his company owes people some money (about $50, 000 - $60,000) and he is waiting until he is released to repay everyone.

For the past 2 years in various correctional facilities Vassilenko read tons of books. He realizes that many inmates talk behind his back and consider him very bizarre. But Vadim doesn’t seem to care. He continues to buy materials and study them thoroughly. “I always try not to waste my time. I read, study, sleep, go to the gym. I joke sometimes that this is the most useful time of my life. People don’t understand such a technical approach to time”, said Vadim. Once when he ordered 60 tapes on economics, the correction officer asked him why he needed so many as he would eventually get deported anyway. The prison guard was so pissed that he allowed only 24 tapes out of the 60 Vassilenko ordered.

“America is afraid of the intellectual supremacy of Russians. The satellite that Russia launched in 1957 is still remembered. It is painful for Americans to realize that it is no longer the world’s leader. I was explaining to them that in Kiev you can find a $5,000 bottle of cognac on a shelf of a regular supermarket, and it is there because people buy it”, said Vassilenko. “Putin is feared, therefore, respected. But most of all, America is afraid of China”. In one of the conversations with a guard Vadim asked: “Do you think you have a Bank of America credit card in your wallet? Naah, it is the Bank of China credit card already, there is nothing American there - only the old name, but you don’t know it yet!”

Apparently Vassilenko is not afraid to give ‘sharp’ statements about the country that hosted him for a long time and is still to decide on his faith. Vadim is saying that “America is a frightened nation. People are depressed and some are on drugs. 99% of arrests lead to imprisonment. After you get released, you need to immediately leave the country because it will be impossible to live here anymore”. This was the reason for Vadim and his wife to refuse from the right of the US permanent residency. “The Law Enforcement system sucks you in; it never downsizes but only grows – people build their carriers here”, said Vassilenko, and then he added: “Only immigrants are able and willing to take risks that are necessary for any business”.

“American immigrants are experiencing a crisis of their life values. People want to remain who they are, they don’t want to become Americans, and they began doubting American values. That’s why the USA slowed its immigration program down in order for American culture to consume other cultures that formed here. This generation of immigrants do not want to fight and die for the country”, suggests Vadim.

These days, when Americans continue to be haunted by the September 11 attack, large amounts of money entering or leaving the USA draw unprecedented attention and outrageous charges. Vassilenko supports that by saying: “Digital currencies are not what America needs now. No one is interested in uncontrolled financial streams. Freedom of enterprise and human right are taking the backstage. I was not able to realize that anything we did was of no interest to the USA. Also, finances will never be trusted to Russians.”

“I am ashamed that I left Ukraine in such difficult times. America did not appreciate my ideas and I am not needed here anymore”, says Vadim with nostalgia. “When I come back to Ukraine, we will call all the businesses in America, Canada, and England and outsource them! We will broadcast English and other languages over the radio 24/7. We will buy all the books from E-bay and colleges which throw them out by containers. We will remotely open bank accounts for all immigrants and will take the outsourcing business away from India, the country that was not able to appropriately prepare workers and is failing to perform”, tells Vadim to guards and inmates. They listen and gossip that he is probably secretly sniffing something. But Vassilenko is sure, they are scared.

“When I go back to Ukraine, I would like to help people to come back to Russia and Ukraine. They can be invaluable for international commerce and adopting foreign languages. I would like to devote myself to the country I was born in, I am awaited there and needed. I want to create employment opportunities, raise Ukraine’s authority in the world and generate income for the country”, says Vadim as he shares his future plans with us.

Marianna, reporter of Trainex Journal, New York

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