Anatoly Golubchik

The federal indictment in US v. Tokhtakhounov, 1:13-cr-00268 (SDNY), named 34 defendants and targeted two overlapping gambling enterprises operating within Trump Tower. Golubchik was charged as a principal leader of what prosecutors called the Taiwanchik-Trincher Organization, a venture headed by Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov—a vor v zakone (thief-in-law) whose status prosecutors described as attracting gamblers and providing dispute resolution for the enterprise ¹. Vadim Trincher operated the day-to-day gambling ring from Trump Tower unit 63A; Golubchik’s role, as reflected in the court record, encompassed enforcement and money-laundering functions ¹.

Golubchik pled guilty to Count 1 (RICO conspiracy) on November 15, 2013, and was sentenced to 60 months—the same term imposed on Trincher on the same date, April 29, 2014 ¹. The court ordered forfeiture of cash, investment accounts, and real property; both of Golubchik’s known residential properties—the 971 Madison Avenue duplex and a unit at Trump International Beach Resort in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida—were subject to that order ⁷.

The SDNY prosecution established that the Taiwanchik-Trincher Organization laundered approximately USD 100 million through Cyprus-registered shell companies between 2006 and 2012, with approximately USD 50 million subsequently routed back into the United States ². Golubchik personally owned Lytton Ventures Inc., a Cyprus-registered entity recorded in the ICIJ Offshore Leaks database (node 39299); combined with the SDNY case record, analysis indicates this entity was part of the broader offshore infrastructure used for capital movement ²⁸. ACRIS records confirm that Golubchik purchased 971 Madison Avenue units 8A/8B/8C for USD 5.025 million in January 2011 (seller: John Rosanvallon); the duplex—a 3,500 square-foot six-bedroom unit spanning floors 8 and 9—was listed for sale at USD 7.85 million in 2014 following his conviction ⁷⁶. He also held a condominium at Trump International Beach Resort in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, a concentration of Russian-speaking residents sometimes informally described as “Little Russia” in press coverage ⁷.

An ACRIS document dated October 2024 (involving a Dmitry Zolotarev) lists Golubchik’s address as 900 Palisade Avenue, Apt 2205, Fort Lee, NJ, indicating he has remained active in the New York metropolitan real estate market following his release from federal custody ⁶. Public records also reflect an earlier Brooklyn property purchase in March 2001 from Brighton One LLC; ACRIS records suggest a Brighton Beach-area address, and a Florida corporate filing lists a Maxwell G. Golubchik as a member of AMAX MIAMI LLC, though the family relationship is not confirmed ⁹.

Golubchik’s Lytton Ventures Inc. is documented in ICIJ Offshore Leaks records as having Galina Telesh—the former wife of Semion Mogilevich, identified by the FBI as one of its Ten Most Wanted fugitives—listed as its corporate director ². A separate corporate officer, Stanley Williams, held a directorship in Lytton Ventures and simultaneously appeared as director in a company held under Telesh’s name, establishing a shared-infrastructure link between the Taiwanchik-Trincher network and entities in the Mogilevich orbit ³. The nature of the underlying business relationship between Golubchik and Mogilevich’s network—beyond the shared corporate infrastructure—is not established in the available record; the connection is documented at the level of overlapping corporate officers and is treated here as an analytical inference pending further documentation ⁸.

Within the broader indictment, Tokhtakhounov himself was identified by prosecutors as an associate of Mogilevich. The SDNY court record, the ICIJ Offshore Leaks data, and Craig Unger’s reporting on the Cyprus shell infrastructure together suggest that Golubchik operated within the broader offshore network used by Russian organized crime for capital movement, though this remains a medium-confidence synthesis rather than a confirmed finding ⁸.

LittleSis (relationship ID 1291097) documents a friendship between Golubchik and Steve Witkoff, the real estate developer who later became a Trump Special Envoy to the Middle East. In December 2010, Witkoff wrote a condominium board recommendation letter for Golubchik in connection with his application to live at 971 Madison Avenue, describing Golubchik as a “friend” and “a person of strong reputation and integrity.” The Real Deal reported in May 2013 that Witkoff stated he had met Golubchik in 2009 through a mutual acquaintance and that he “regrets providing a reference” ⁵. The recommendation letter predates Golubchik’s January 2011 purchase of the Madison Avenue property by weeks; it was the letter supporting that specific purchase ⁷.

The record does not establish that Witkoff had knowledge of Golubchik’s criminal activities at the time of the letter. The documented facts are: the two men knew each other socially by at least 2009, Witkoff vouched for Golubchik in writing to a condominium board in late 2010, and Golubchik was subsequently indicted on federal RICO charges in April 2013 and convicted in November 2013 ⁵¹.

Golubchik, Vadim Trincher, and Jacob Gitman co-invested in Monarch Air Group, a Florida-based private charter airline. Public records document their partnership in at least four aviation companies, and Gitman’s father was an early Monarch investor according to OCCRP reporting ⁴. Golubchik and Trincher exited Monarch in 2012—the year before they were indicted—and OCCRP documents that Monarch subsequently obtained more than USD 1 million in federal government contracts, including a ten-year GSA contract awarded in 2014 that was used by the US Marshals Service for witness-protection transport ⁴.

The timing of their departure prior to the government contracts, and the nature of those contracts (US Marshals witness transport), is noted in the record. The OCCRP investigation did not establish that Golubchik or Trincher retained any interest in Monarch after 2012 or that federal contract officers were aware of the prior ownership history ⁴.