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Former WBO champ with ties to ‘Russian crime syndicate’ in New York denied bail

Avtandil Khurtsidze, a Georgian boxer arrested for alleged ties to a Russian crime syndicate in New York, has been denied bail after being charged with charged with racketeering conspiracy.

The boxer was one of 33 criminals arrested in a crackdown effort that saw the U.S. Justice Department target the crime syndicate known as the Shulaya Enterprise, an “organized criminal group operating under the direction and protection of Razhden Shulaya.” According to a press release published by the U.S. Justice Department, unsealed documents showed that Khurtsidze was charged with racketeering conspiracy and wire fraud “in connection with their plot to defraud casinos through the use of electronic devices and software designed to predict the behavior of particular models of electronic ‘slot’ machines, thereby removing the element of chance from play of those machines.