A ‘flame’ of poker
B’klyn mob nailed in fire vs. card-game rival
Four members of an Eastern European organized crime family were charged Wednesday in the torching of a Brooklyn building that housed a rival poker game whose organizers had poached their clients, authorities said.
Viktor Zelinger, Vyacheslav Malkeyev, Leonid Gershman and Aleksey Tsvetkov were allegedly operating a high-stakes game in Sheepshead Bay when they decided to burn down their rival’s operation in May 2016, according to a newly un- sealed indictment.
But the arson was set while people were still inside — trapping a 12-year-old boy and another resident on the upper floors.
Dramatic video shows a firefighter climbing a ladder to rescue the boy and another person, clad only in their underwear.
Five firefighters and both residents had to be treated for smoke inhalation, and one of the Bravest sustained first-degree burns to his face.
The crime family members refer to themselves as “thieves,” or “thieves in law,” authorities said, to denote membership in the Eastern European organized crime faction.
Malkeyev, who has previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute marijuana, was held without bail following his arraignment on the new charges. Gershman and Tsvetkov have been arrested and Zelinger remained at large Wednesday, authorities said.
Gershman, Tsvetkov and Malkeyev are additionally charged in the 33-count indictment with pistol whipping an unnamed person they suspected of stealing drugs from the syndicate’s “stash” house.
The newly unsealed documents also describe an incident in which authorities raided the men’s poker haunt to find them lounging with three “massage girls.”
Zelinger, Gershman and Malkeyev are naturalized US citizens who immigrated to the United States from various Eastern European countries. Tsvetkov is a citizen of Ukraine.
The Brooklyn syndicate is believed to have ties to a larger crime organization run out of former states of the Soviet Union and Israel, authorities said.