Gangster Tied To Rikers Island Jail Escape Faces Federal Charges

New York City NY

21 July, 2021

11:06 AM

Description

NEW YORK CITY — A Pakistani man that federal prosecutors allege is a high-ranking member of the criminal enterprise KavKaz Nation helped a prisoner escape from a Rikers Island jail barge earlier this month and used violence to extort money from associates, according to paperwork filed Tuesday in Brooklyn Federal Court. Roman Nikoghosyan faces federal charges after was caught on federal wiretaps with fellow KavKaz member David Mordukhaev, 30, after Mordukhaev used a rope to escape from a fifth-floor window of the Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center in the Bronx on July 10, according to the court document filed on Tuesday. The wiretap communication stated that Mordukhaev jumped into the water and swam to escape from the jail barge, which then instigated action from Nikoghosyan to get his colleague to the West Coast. Federal prosecutors said that Nikoghosyan helped his KavKaz colleague devise a plan to escape from New York and meet him in California. Before that could take place, however, Mordukhaev was arrested in New York and taken into federal custody. "Events like these have highlighted the danger presented by Nikoghosyan, in addition to his resourcefulness and willingness to aid flight and disregard law and order," prosecutors wrote in the court filing. According to the document, Nikoghosyan was caught on a wiretap detailing Mordukhaev's escape from the jail barge. In the conversation, Mordukhaev told Nikoghosyan that he "almost died" because he had used the rope to get out of the window of the barge to the water below. After learning that Mordukhaev has escaped from the facility, prosecutors said that Nikoghosyan began to call various individuals to ensure that Mordukhaev completed the escape and avoided law enforcement officials. In the filing, prosecutors characterize KavKaz as a criminal enterprise with ties to Eastern Europe that engages in drug trafficking, extortion and other crimes. Prosecutors said that Nikoghosyan called his mother and said he had a friend that had escaped from jail and urgently needed to stop by to pick up money. In another phone call, Nikoghosyan called an unidentified male and said that Mordukhaev had escaped and that he was trying to figure out how to get Mordukhaev from New York to California. Nikoghosyan then arranged to allow Mordukhaev to use his girlfriend's car to drive to California and arranged for money to be sent that would allow Mordukhaev to make the trip, prosecutors wrote in the filing. However, before Mordukhaev could make it to Nikoghosyan's mother's home where he was to spend the night before money arrived via a cash app the next morning, he was arrested. Nikoghosyan was arrested in California and in their court filing on Tuesday, federal prosecutors asked for Nikoghosyan to be held without bail. Prosecutors said that Nikoghosyan presents a flight risk because he is not a U.S. citizen and has ties to Armenia, Uzbekistan, and Russia. Federal prosecutors also cited Nikoghosyan's criminal history, which includes grand larceny, causing physical injury, reckless endangerment and attempted robbery between 2015 and 2020, the court filing stated. In the filing, Nikoghosyan is also alleged to have threatened physical harm to an associate who attempted to back out of a deal delivering marijuana, the filing said. He also said the associate would need to pay him $10,000 for the inconvenience. The filing also details other encounters involving Nikoghosyan, whom prosecutors said used fear tactics in his extortion and Nikoghosyan's public displays of violence around Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, prosecutors said.