LA prostitution ring involving smuggled Russian women broken up

Saturday December 07, 2002

By PAUL CHAVEZ
Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) Authorities announced charges against six alleged leaders of a prostitution ring they said employed more than 50 smuggled Russian women.

The ring allegedly earned as much as $8 million while operating in the Los Angeles area over 22 months, said Det. Keith Haight, who headed the two-year investigation dubbed ``Operation White Lace.'' Officials said the prostitution bust was one of the largest in city history.

``Russian prostitution is changing the face of prostitution in Los Angeles right now,'' said Haight, an investigator with the Los Angeles Police Department's organized crime and vice division. ``These women are coming from the Eastern European bloc countries and it's been increasing incredibly in the last five years.''

The case remains under investigation, Haight said Friday, adding authorities believe the ring may have also operated in San Francisco, San Jose and New York City.

Agencies taking part in the investigation include the U.S. Customs Service, the Internal Revenue Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The investigation began in November 2000 after Haight noticed a two-page color advertisement for an escort service in a yellow pages phone directory serving the area near Los Angeles International Airport.

``It cost over $7,000 a month to run those ads,'' he said. ``The larger the ad the bigger the organization has to be to pay the overhead.''

Undercover vice squad investigators served search warrants in October 2001 on phones, bank accounts and at 18 locations in the cities of Los Angeles, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills.

Prosecutors presented the case to a grand jury, which returned indictments against six people on Oct. 24, 2002.

The charges made public Friday were against Rimma Fetissova, 42, and her daughter, Elena Fetissova, 22, who both arrived in Los Angeles from Ukraine in the late 1990s. The indictments also included charges against Lev Levas, 55, and his son, Mark Levas, 38, both naturalized U.S. citizens from Latvia; Iryna Vladimirovna Kovalenko, 37, from Ukraine and Elena Piyanzina, 24, from Magnitagorsk, Russia.

Rimma Fetissova was arrested Nov. 21 in San Francisco. Vice squad detectives arrested Kovalenko in San Marcos, Piyanzina in the San Fernando Valley and Mark Levas in downtown Los Angeles the following day. Lev Levas surrendered Nov. 27 to the court.

Elena Fetissova remains at large.

The other five were arraigned Friday and pleaded innocent. They remained jailed with bails ranging from $100,000 to $500,000.

The six, who authorities say were the ringleaders, were charged with conspiracy, pimping and pandering. Rimma Fetissova and Piyanzina also were indicted on money laundering charges.

Once in the United States, Haight said, the women used their prostitution earnings to pay back their smuggling debts. Some, he said, hoped to seek permanent residency and even citizenship in the United States, while others said their goal was simply to make a lot of money in a hurry and return home.

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)