Evsei Agron

Evsei Agron was a thief in law and boss of New York City's Russian Mafia during the 1970s and '80s. Born in Leningrad, Agron immigrated to the United States under the Jackson-Vanik Amendment in 1975. He swiftly gained control of criminal operations among the Soviet Jews living in Brighton Beach. Agron organized a motor fuel racket which would earn millions, if not billions, through fuel tax fraud. This type of fraud, which involved selling tax-free home heating oil as diesel fuel, eventually cost the state of New Jersey alone an estimated $1 billion annually in lost tax revenues.[1] Around the early 1980s, Boris Nayfeld would come to work for Agron as his chauffeur and bodyguard. However, as other mobsters closed in on the operation, a rival organization began expanding its own criminal operations under Boris Goldberg (who, in 1989, would be charged under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) for drug trafficking, armed robbery, extortion, arms dealing and attempted murder).[2] Agron was murdered while waiting for the elevator on the sixth floor of his building early in the morning by a gunman who shot him in the back of the head. The gunman approached Agron from behind, coming from a stairwell directly opposite the elevator. Prior to his murder, there were two other attempts on his life, in which he was wounded but survived. The first attempt was on the boardwalk in Brighton beach, the second was in the parking garage of his building on his birthday. In the aftermath of Agron's murder, the neighborhood rackets were taken over by Marat Balagula, a former black marketeer, who soon took the remnants of Agron's crew in gasoline bootlegging. Boris Nayfeld, Agron's old bodyguard, joined Balagula. During Goldberg's trial, he had denied conspiracy charges for Agron's death. Agron's final resting place is in a cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.