How To Succeed in Business
Despite Being Hounded By The FBI, The KGB, The INS, The Department Of Homeland Security, The Department Of Justice, Interpol, And Mafia Hit Men
by Alex Konanykhin
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Russian relates tale of intrigue, arrest and flight -- and it's true
By Dave Rosso, City Editor
Times-Standard
Alex Konanykhin avoided Russian communism indoctrination as a college student, embraced evolving Russian capitalism, became a self-made millionaire by his early 20s and helped Boris Yeltsin get elected, only to be hounded by an alphabet soup of the strangest bedfellows -- from the USA and USSR, the FBI, CIA, KGB, DHS, DOJ, INS -- a result of the Clinton administration cooperating with the Russian Mafia.
His arrests and escapes from both the feared Russian KGB and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service would rival Houdini. He fled to the United States and started over, rebuilding his business to the point he could live in the Watergate complex, only to have it all come crashing down on top of him again.
Born in the former Soviet Union in 1966, by 1992, in his own words, he “controlled a banking and brokerage empire from my 16-story headquarters in the heart of Moscow. I lived in a luxurious compound that was the former state residence of President Gorbachev. I was 25 years old and married to the most beautiful girl in the world.”
He was written about in The Washington Post, Legal Times and Financial News and his story was reported on CNN and he was interviewed on CBS' “60 Minutes.”
Now, he has told his own story in his own words in his book to be published Sept. 4, “Defiance. How to Succeed in Business While Being Targeted by the FBI, the KGB, the Department of Homeland Security, the INS and the Mafia Hit Men.” (Renaissance Publishing, 2006, hardcover 258 pages, ISBN: 0-9727377-0-7).
In his book, Konanykhin gave a brief summary of what his life had been like on the run:
”At 25, I could have died when the KGB kidnapped me in Budapest. I wriggled out of that one by the skin of me teeth.
”At 27, the KGB took out a contract on me, but the FBI tipped me off, saving my life.
”At 29, the U.S. tried to hand me over to the KGB in a dirty political deal. But the American courts intervened.”
He also describes how he almost saved all those agencies a lot of trouble when he tried to propose to his girlfriend -- and future wife, Elena.
His book is a fast read, full of intrigue and insight into corruption within both Russia and the United States, how people on both continents lied to get their way, how the media and courts first wrote and ruled against him, only to reverse their sentiments when he was able to present his case.
According to Financial News: “Konanykhin had to re-build his business from scratch. It wasn't long before he proved himself as successful in New York as he had been in Moscow. Konanykhin's Internet business (see www.KMGI.com) is considered an industry leader and his accomplishments in the United States have even earned him the title of 2004 New York Businessman of the Year. More details of his personal story can be found at www.Konanykhin.com.”
Konanykhin started writing his book on Dec. 31, 2003, while he was incarcerated in the United States.
From his book: “For a person who never committed a crime, I thought as they booked me at the Patterson County Jail, I've seen a helluva lot of jails. And how truly bizarre that the KGB has repeatedly managed to jail me here, in the land of the free.”
Konanykhin, now the CEO of the high-tech KMGI located in New York, says the U.S. government is still trying to deport him -- 14 years after he arrived in this country. In his epilogue, he states that he and Elena “have once again successfully rebuilt our businesses and our lives for what we sincerely hope will be the final time.”
Dave Rosso is the city editor of the Times-Standard. E-mail him at drosso@times-standard.com
Book of the month: Defiance, by Alex Konanykhin
By Jennifer Gibbs
The Washington Informer
And you think you’ve got it rough?
Young, wealthy, powerful and prominent one day and a robbed fugitive with a KGB contract out on his head the next, so has gone the life of Alex Konanykhin. Like they said it on 60 Minutes, “Alex Konanykhin didn’t only have KGB after him…He had the FBI, the Justice Department, even the CIA all on his case, as a favor to the Russians, part of a deal to allow the FBI to keep a bureau in Moscow.”
And while you may have heard a bit about the chaos and danger faced by Alex and his wife Elena on 60 Minutes, CNN and FOX News, you now have the chance to experience the thrill of their misadventures first hand in Alex’s page turner, Defiance.
While the plot is as twisted as any international paperback novel, this is the real McCoy – every bit of it a true story. From cover to cover, you’ll find yourself immersed in a world of cruelty, intrigue and espionage, and seeing it through the eyes of an indomitable hero diametrically opposed to the oppression around him. What started out as merely an attempt to quell an unlawful business takeover took him on a whirlwind adventure that left him fleeing from country to country, until finally finding themselves seeking asylum within the safety of the borders of the United States.
But the story doesn’t end there. In fact, it only begins.
You may just be surprised to learn of some of the injustices that various departments of the United States government made this young man and his wife suffer through as the US legal system became the playing field for a battle of immense, far reaching and often quite unexpected proportions.
More than just a great fast paced read highlighting the highs and lows of an incredible decade of change, Defiance is also a great source of motivation and inspiration for rising entrepreneurs and business men and women all across the globe. Konanykhin does not simply survive his ordeals. Starting from scratch, he builds a thriving business with offices in D.C. and New York and even receives “the New York Businessman of the Year” award.
With an intense plot that will speed you from the first page to the last, and a bird’s eye view of a world straight out of a spy novel Defiance is a compelling page turner that solidly deserves two thumbs up!
BOOK OF THE MONTH
By Catherine Van Herrin
The Denver Daily News
Reminiscent of a John Le Carre novel, Alex Konanykhine’s autobiography, Defiance: How to Succeed in Business While Being Targeted by the FBI, the KGB, the Department of Homeland Security, the INS and the Mafia Hit Men, firmly manages to convince us that reality is certainly far stranger – and even more incredible -- than fiction.
The true story of Konanykhine’s steady entrepreneurial rise to power, money, and the apex of success in post-Communist Russia is a page-turning, best-selling thriller. Defiance is a commanding read about how a wunderkind grew into an enterprising young man who, after achieving success, wealth and his rise to power under perestroika, becomes a target for ruthless Russian Mafia, the KGB and the United States government.
The astounding personal and professional prices he and his beloved wife must pay for his ultimate freedom and success are as detailed and profound as the duplicity and betrayal he suffered under the hands of the Russian and U.S. governments.
This is an epic story of dramatic proportion, taking the reader through Konanykhine’s first-person accounts of being forced into exile, tricked, ambushed, kidnapped, defamed and branded Russia’s Most Wanted – and of how he was exonerated and cleared of all charges and become “The New York Businessman of The Year”.
Defiance is the gripping story of a young man who came of age during the most powerful historic evolution of our time – the collapse of the Soviet empire, followed by the advent and then retreat of Russian democracy. After enduring years of sturm und drang amid power-hungry leaders in two continents separated by more than just an ocean, Konanykhine has finally told his story with rich dialogue, descriptive and fast-paced action scenes, and actual court documentation.
A Spellbinding True Tale of Survival and International Intrigue
By Robin LoRe-Prue
The Tribune
From Alex Konanykhin comes a thrilling true story of intrigue, survival and conspiracy so fascinating that it rivals any fictional tale of international espionage. Defiance is Robert Ludlum meets Tom Clancy in a story that chronicles one man’s battle with two super powers who sought to control his destiny. If you have ever wondered about the reckless lawlessness occurring in the post-Soviet business and political world, or corruption in U.S. government, this book will enlighten, shock, and astonish you.
Imagine making millions by the time you reach the age of twenty-two by the merits of your own ingenuity and hard work, only to have it torn away in one fell swoop by a power so mighty that none dare defy it. None but Konanykhin that is; this brilliant wiz kid outsmarted the Russian Mob, the KGB, and corrupt American officials eager to turn him over to Russian criminals.
Alex Konanykhin’s captivating, roller coaster life has been part resourcefulness and part brains, with a large dose of good and bad luck thrown in for good measure. While most people only dream of reaching millionaire status in their lifetimes, Alex Konanykhin has done it multiple times and in the face of such adversity that it boggles the mind. His early beginnings took him to a prestigious Russian University where he hoped to pursue a degree in rocket science. He was soon banished from college however, after dabbling in a part-time entrepreneurial venture—capitalism was a political crime in the Soviet Union. Konanykhin persisted and cleverly worked the changing political climate to build a multi-million dollar empire.
Conducting business in the “Wild East” of post soviet Russia was no minor accomplishment. He soon found himself dodging the evils of a rapidly growing criminal element which he has aptly named the “Mafiocracy.” The Russian crime syndicate, made up of gangsters and former KGB officials, became the new super power to take over Russia in the country’s most vulnerable years following the demise of communism. Life as a young, rich and powerful entrepreneur became a living hell for Konanykhin and his wife, Elena, as they fought to hold onto their lives and empire while living in a glided cage of isolation.
The pair ultimately fled to America, losing everything they owned and just barely escaping with their lives. But their hopes of asylum in the land of free were horrifyingly thwarted. The couple became pawns in a dirty political deal that had absolutely nothing to do with justice. The ensuing courtroom battle that if lost, would mean the Konanykhins’ lives, was dubbed “. . .A spellbinding seminar on international intrigue,” by the Washington Post, and was extensively covered by The New York Times, USA Today, 60 Minutes, CNN, the Legal Times and many others. The media was captivated by the “Russian Rebel” who made and lost several fortunes, was responsible for Boris Yeltsin’s rise to power, and escaped kidnapping and murder all before his twenty-ninth birthday. Alex Konanykhin’s memoir reads like a thriller and is an amazing study in bold defiance that will leave readers breathless, inspired and enlightened.
An absolute must-read for anyone – particularly those who still believe “these kinds of things” only happen in spy novels.
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE – BUSINESS STYLE
An Example Of How Russia’s Early-‘90’s Flirtation With Greater Openness Was Swiftly Followed By A Lurch Toward Centralized Power, Rampant Corruption And Organized Crime
By Stephanie Hoo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
His banking empire was seized by the KGB. Russian hit men were hot on his trail. With nowhere to turn, former millionaire Alex Konanykhin fled to the United States seeking safety and asylum. Instead, he alleges, he was unfairly targeted by immigration officials as the U.S. sought to curry Russia's favor in order to keep an FBI bureau in Moscow.
Konanykhin's gripping tale has been featured on "60 Minutes," an example of how Russia's early-'90s flirtation with greater openness was swiftly followed by a lurch toward centralized power, rampant corruption and organized crime.
Now he is telling his story in a new book, "Defiance: Or How to Succeed in Business Despite Being Hounded by the FBI, the KGB, the INS, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, Interpol, and Mafia Hit Men."
Konanykhin, who now heads Internet advertising firm KMGI, spoke by phone with asap from his home in Virginia.
_____
asap: You were on "60 Minutes" and have had a small burst of media fame. Why did you decide after all that to write a book and tell more of your story?
Konanykhin: The most important thing is, I wrote it because many people are debating now the direct balance between government powers and security -- civil liberties and security. And this story shows that if you give the government unlimited powers, it's not guaranteed that they are going to use it to provide security. In fact, this case screams of the government abusing those unlimited powers. ...
We all would like to think that the government is benign or wise and would serve the people. But, reality shows it needs balance and checks, which keep some politicians and some government officials honest.
asap: Coming from Russia, were you surprised by reports of government heavy-handedness in the United States as well?
Konanykhin: I was. I had a totally different image.
asap: With the end of communism there were such high hopes that Russia would become a democratic society, but instead it has descended into corruption and distrust. What lessons are there for other countries that might in the future move toward democracy and freer markets, whether it's Cuba or even China?
Konanykhin: Well it seems that democracy cannot be exported, especially brought in by a foreign army. It seems that democracy might only be the result of a natural development, historical development.
If there are any shortcuts, they're still not going to make (the) road from theory to democracy just 10 years short. It's still going to take decades. And hopefully what we are seeing in Russia now is just a short setback and Russia will resume on the road to democracy. And maybe, you know, in 50 years or so it would become a civilized country.
But right now it is becoming an autocracy again. I think it's a good lesson of how premature celebrations might be when you see first encouraging signs in countries like Russia, Iraq, whatever.
Caption: Alex Konanykhin offers a cautionary tale.
Book of the Month
Reviewed by Johnny Blue Star
The Weekly Press (Philadelphia)
Defiance by Alex Konanykhin (pronounced ko-nen-ee-kin) was begun in an American prison cell on the last day of 2003. It is the story of an embattled entrepreneur’s struggles for liberty against almost inconceivably powerful political forces. In fact, the book is appropriately sub-titled, “How to Succeed in Business While Being Targeted by the FBI, the KGB, the Department of Homeland Security, the INS and the Mafia Hit Men.” This phrase bluntly describes accomplishments bordering on the miraculous. Indeed, Konanykhin’s survival raises big question marks on almost every page of this remarkable, action-packed book about empire building against all conceivable odds.
Konanykhin, who comes of age in the Soviet Union in the 1980’s, becomes a construction kingpin in a country hostile to the simplest capitalistic instinct. Defiance chronicles Konanykhin’s almost inadvertent good fortune in backing the black sheep, Boris Yeltsin. This is not the only time that Konanykin’s predisposition for good catapults him to a better position in the chess game of life. Indeed, this strange kismet of Konanykin’s functions mysteriously in his life several times, converting an act of rebellion to one of unprecedented political opportunity.
After his banking empire has been illicitly hijacked by the KGB, he manages to cross the Atlantic to begin again. Once in the U. S., though, he must now face the tentacle-like penetration of the American justice system by the power brokers of the Russian secret police.
Book of the Month
Reviewed by Tom Kerr
Peninsula Beacon
DEFIANCE, or How to Succeed in Business Despite Being Hounded by the FBI, the KGB, the INS, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, Interpol and Mafia Hit Men.
Author Alex Konanykhin has accomplished the best of both worlds - and competing literary genres - with the creation of DEFIANCE, a real-life autobiographical adventure that easily outperforms many best-selling works of fiction as an imaginative thriller.
But living simultaneously within opposite and contradictory parallel universes comes naturally for Konanykhin. Before the age of 21 he was a self-made millionaire capitalist within the rubble of the Communist USSR. At 25 he was one of the wealthiest men in Russia and employed a private army headed by the former Chairman of the KGB. He bankrolled Boris Yeltsin's rise to power but was forced to escape to the USA to avoid an assassination attempt by the KGB, which hijacked all his businesses.
Konanykhin started from scratch in the Land of Opportunity and by the time he was 35 his new business was worth 100 million dollars and the National Republican Congressional Committee named him New York Businessman of the Year. He was invited to receive the award at a ceremony attended by President George W. Bush.
Meanwhile, the Mafia had a contract on his head but he was saved in the nick of time by the FBI, who helped him flee and then tried to sell his freedom - and his life - to the KGB for political favors. He was arrested by the Department of Homeland Security and began to write his book in jail.
The Court ruled that his arrest was unlawful, and now he is a free man, living his recurring American Dream. And with DEFIANCE, he may have written the next Great American Novel.
Except for the fact that everything in his book is fact, not fiction.
Alex Konanykhin offers a rare personal glimpse into both sides of a clandestine world of shadowy espionage and ruthless political warfare. His DEFIANCE is a sizzling work of adrenaline-pumped action, human drama, and irresistible multidimensional insight.
Readers can look forward to the thrills of fiction on every page, but need to be reminded and forewarned that this is a true and unfolding story, taking place right here in our own backyards.