Trump Tower House Arrest For Racketeer

MARCH 22--A longtime resident of Trump Tower whose contacts include Russian oligarchs and underworld figures has returned to the upper reaches of the Fifth Avenue tower, where his ostentatious aerie boasts finishes like 24k gold faucets, alabaster stone walls crafted by Portugese artisans, and a $350,000 bathroom floor made of amethyst imported from Tanzania.

No, Donald Trump is not back in Manhattan.

After nearly three years in federal custody, a racketeer who was convicted of running an international gambling and money laundering ring in partnership with a notorious Moscow crimelord is now living under house arrest on the 63rd floor of Trump Tower, three floors down from Trump’s penthouse, which is still home to First Lady Melania Trump and the couple’s 11-year-old son.

Vadim Trincher, 56, pleaded guilty in 2013 to running what a federal prosecutor called “one of the biggest bookmaking operations in the world,” an international racketeering enterpise that, beginning in 2006, laundered a total of approximately $100 million in gambling proceeds. Of that amount, $50 million was transferred into  the U.S., often through a series of shell corporations in Cyprus that would issue phony loan agreements.

[Trincher and his wife Elena are pictured above in their Trump Tower home.]

One of Trincher’s partners in the gambling operation--and a codefendant in the criminal case brought by former United States Attorney Preet Bharara--was Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, a Russian crime boss already under indictment for allegedly attempting to fix a figure skating competition at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. Tokhtakhounov, investigators allege, used his political, business, and criminal connections in Russia to recruit clients for the gambling operation. The fugitive gangster, nicknamed “Taiwanchik,” also made sure that gambling debts were paid.

According to federal agents, the “Taiwanchik-Trincher Organization” catered primarily to “millionaires and billionaires across the globe” who placed large bets--often in the hundreds of thousands of dollars--on soccer matches (and sometimes NBA and Major League Baseball games). The gambling ring’s wealthy clientele primarily resided in Russia and Ukraine, according to court records.

Trincher, who emigrated to the U.S. from Kiev in 1989, directed bookies in Moscow and Ukraine and dealt directly with the gambling ring’s biggest clients, several of whom were Russian oligarchs. Trincher operated from his Trump Tower home, a 3073-square-foot corner apartment with sweeping views south towards St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Rockefeller Center.

During the course of the investigation that resulted in charges against Trincher, two of his sons, Tokhtakhounov (seen at left), and 30 other defendants, FBI agents received court authorization to monitor Trincher’s cell phone for several months. Despite a recent ABC report, agents did not seek permission to bug Trincher’s Trump Tower residence or wiretap any landline inside that apartment.

While eavesdropping on Trincher, agents discovered the massive amounts being bet by the gambling ring’s clients. During an April 2012 conversation, Trincher and an associate discussed how one man owed $2.3 million, while a Monaco resident was four...