“US journalist Greg Weiner,” who is a regular guest on political talk shows on Russian federal Channel One and Channel Five, is in reality businessman Grigory Vinnikov, who fled America with clients’ money. About this April 25 reported on Facebook, American journalist and TV presenter Gennady Katsov.
The journalist said that on a Russian talk show "First Studio" with host Artem Sheinin, the guest, who was introduced as the American journalist Greg Weiner, turned out to be a man he had known for 20 years under a different name.
Katsov noted that Weiner is known to him as Grigory Vinnikov. He emigrated to the United States from the USSR in the 1980s and in the early 1990s opened a travel agency in America, Eastern Tours, which sold air tickets to and from Russia and assisted in obtaining visas. Until 2012, the business was going well, but then Vinnikov accumulated debt for renting office space in Brooklyn and Manhattan. After this, the businessman disappeared and his offices were closed.
"His penthouse in New Jersey was put up for sale for $999 thousand, but instead of declaring himself bankrupt, Grigory collects a considerable amount from clients and, as they said in those days, escapes to St. Petersburg with a million dollars. Since then, the American prosecutor’s office has had complaints against him, but this has nothing to do with journalism,” he emphasized.
According to Katsov, Vinnikov called him and several other Russian journalists in New York over the phone and said that he had fled to his homeland due to the financial collapse. He promised to pay off his debts when he received money for a penthouse for sale in New Jersey.
American journalist Seva Kaplan told Meduza that he was going to become the organizer of a collective civil lawsuit by victims, but when it turned out that Vinnikov was in Russia, the lawsuit was never filed because American and Russian jurisdictions “intersect very difficult.” According to Kaplan, Vinnikov owes him $10 thousand, which he paid to the entrepreneur for organizing visas for musicians - two weeks before Vinnikov’s disappearance.
Meduza contacted Vinnikov, who said that he had returned documents to all clients, but could not pay off his debts because he still had not found a buyer for his penthouse.
“If it ever sells, I will be happy to compensate debts to clients - if there is at least something left after paying off debts and loans,” he assured.
According to Vinnikov, he quit his business in the United States and left for Russia not only for financial reasons, but also because of illness. He added that he considered it normal for television programs to call him a journalist, since that was his specialty at the university.
“I didn’t run away or hide anywhere. I don’t look like an idiot who thinks that he won’t be noticed on federal channels,” he emphasized.
Vinnikov added that one day the producers of one of the Russian channels asked him to “Americanize” his first and last name, after which he became Greg Weiner. When asked whether he makes money from his participation in political talk shows, Vinnikov-Vainer refused to answer.
Russian-American businessman, owner of the travel agency "Eastern Tours Consolidated".
Grigory Vinnikov got into the tourism business in the late 80s of the 20th century. It is known that even before the start of selling air tickets, Vinnikov sold eyeglass frames by mail and was quite active in journalism - both on radio and television. There is reason to believe that Vinnikov managed to make his mark in political circles - at a certain stage he called himself an economic adviser to the governor of the Leningrad region.
Over time, the range of services provided by Vinnikov’s company grew - if at first he provided only air tickets and visas, then later more complex combinations were added to them; Thus, Grigory helped arrange Russian pensions and provided various types of property and legal services. Unfortunately, now some of Vinnikov’s clients have begun to regret contacting him at all. TV presenter Valentina Pechorina, who gave Vinnikov her Russian passport (and $600 in addition) to renew, former owner of the New Russian Word Valery Weinberg, for whom an urgent visa to Russia cost $650 - they all had to face the same problem. A week ago, all of the Eastern Tours Consolidated offices—both in Brooklyn and Manhattan—closed simultaneously and completely suddenly; Vinnikov himself disappeared in an unknown direction.
For some time, Vinnikov's disappearance was discussed by most of the immigrant community; Various versions have been put forward, but generally mostly unflattering. It is interesting that despite all this, no formal charges have yet been brought against Grigory, and the American police did not have any complaints against him. Two days ago, however, Vinnikov himself made himself known - by contacting Gennady Katsov, editor-in-chief of the RUNYweb.com project, he explained his disappearance and told his future plans. As it turns out, Gregory’s business is not going through the best of times; According to Vinnikov himself, extremely serious financial difficulties forced him to flee the States. Grigory made it clear that he is now solving the problems facing him in the most active way - for example, he is going to pay off numerous creditors (including involuntary ones) by selling his apartment. It is difficult to say at this time how true these statements are.
In mid-September, I was supposed to fly to Moscow for a week to visit my mother, but I canceled the trip due to kidney stones and did not have time to pick up my American passport, as well as the money paid for the returned ticket. They were in the travel agency of 55-year-old Grigory Vinnikov.
While saving this article in the computer’s memory, I mechanically typed in the title Vinnikov f lees and suddenly thought that a week ago such a title could not have occurred to me even in a nightmare. Former (and now current) St. Petersburg resident Vinnikov was my friend for three decades and sent me to Russia dozens of times.
Sergey Zholobetsky
I'll start from afar. Vinnikov once introduced me to his Ukrainian friend Sergei Zholobetsky. He emigrated to the United States in 1977 and 19 years later fled to Ukraine from New York, where he was accused of embezzling $11 million from Medicare, the federal health care program for the elderly.
His former employee and then colleague Roman Aginsky pleaded guilty in 1997, received three years and was released a long time ago, while Zholobetsky chose to go on the run and, it seemed, became inaccessible to American justice. At first he lived in his native Kyiv, where he got married and had a child, and then became a monk and since 2001 lived in the St. Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos, although as a bird.
We met in the late 1980s. Sergei already had money, but I had no idea about its true origin. The topic of crime did not interest me then; I knew about the tricks of our emigrants only by hearsay, so when he told me that he was selling medical equipment, I ignored it. Now I would immediately think “aha!”, but then I associated medicine with white coats, and not with orphaned prison undershirts.
Sergei drove me in his new car Saabe, bought sheets for $3,000 and had a luxury apartment on Manhattan's East Side. He hung it with a huge number of paintings by Ukrainian artists, whom he promoted in the USA. One night I went to see him with a young lady, and for several hours he showed us paintings, which he talked about with great enthusiasm.
Zholobetsky was not only a philanthropist, but also a rock musician. As the publication reported at the end of 1985 Ukrainian Weekly, in a crowded club The Bitter End On December 11, a Ukrainian ensemble created a year earlier performed on Bleecker Street Surgery, consisting of Zholobetsky, Roman Ivasivka, Andriy Sonevitsky and Petro Strutinsky.
Then Sergei disappeared from my horizon, buying a house in upstate New York in the Woodstock area, and soon after that he hastily returned to his homeland because the FBI was after him. I took a copy of his criminal case in court and put it in storage because I didn’t think I would need it any time soon. I was right: eight years passed before he appeared in our area again.
In 2005, the Greeks arrested Sergei on Mount Athos on an American warrant and a year later deported him to the United States. Here he quickly pleaded guilty, repented, agreed to give the state his collection of contemporary Ukrainian art, which was valued at that time at $805,650, and got off extremely lightly: he was sentenced to serve time in the penitentiary (just over a year and a half) and pay compensation of 4 million dollars, which the monk did not have. And he was banned from leaving the United States for 3 months after the verdict. Since then he has disappeared from my horizon again.
Vinnikov - what is known so far
Now it begins to seem that Vinnikov has decided to follow in his footsteps. On September 25, a mutual friend called me and told me about rumors circulating in Brighton that Grisha had fled to St. Petersburg with a million of someone else’s dollars. At first I didn’t believe either one or the other.
Vinnikov called me the day before, did not tell me anything about his plans and sounded as usual. His business had been as white as soot for many years, and I could not imagine where he could steal the said million. Who, excuse me, would have given him so much?
On the other hand, I have already seen so many unexpected actions in life that, just in case, I contacted his wife and found out that he really flew to St. Petersburg with a small suitcase, telling his daughter that he would return “by the end of the week.”
What was alarming was that his Manhattan office on 39th Street and 5th Avenue stopped answering calls, and the next day the defendant there was already packed to capacity. This is always a very bad sign. On Wednesday, September 26, Vinnikov called me at two o’clock in the morning from St. Petersburg and asked me to write that he plans to earn money in Russia and swears to repay everyone’s debts.
I said that as a journalist, this topic is tempting to me, since it causes a stir among emigrants, but as a friend, I advise him to sleep off, calm down and quickly return to New York, but I do not want to write about this story and do not recommend it to him. This did not stop Grisha from calling others, and after they wrote about him, I considered it necessary to contribute to the coverage of this nasty story.
As I understand it, Vinnikov went broke (he owed money, for example, for renting premises on 39th Street), but instead of simply declaring bankruptcy, as thousands of businessmen do every day, he decided to move to St. Petersburg. Either he was temporarily out of his mind, or he was in complete despair, but he made, in my opinion, an extremely stupid decision and hid his head in the sand, as if they would no longer see him.
As one friend who works in court told me, last week she came across “the case of a woman who bought airline tickets for her daughter, son-in-law and grandson living in Moscow. But, alas, when they got to Sheremetyevo, they were told that the tickets were cancelled. Your friend didn't pay for them (...). And this woman sued Eastern Travel. That, it seems, was the name of his businesswoman.”
This is the first swallow. Or not the first? I don’t have the time, or even the interest, to look for lawsuits against Vinnikov in the numerous New York courts. Yes, sooner or later they will find me themselves.
Personally, I immediately realized that I would never see my thousand dollars again, and I was only worried about my American documents, which I gave to him for a Russian visa. To his credit, Vinnikov came to the office last Monday, announced that no more orders would be accepted, and gave the employees instructions on how to return their documents to clients. On Friday, his assistant made a special trip to Manhattan and gave me mine.
If someone has not received their documents yet, let them contact me, and this assistant will call them. That's what she promised me, anyway. I can’t help anyone get their money back, because I don’t expect to see my own. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Vinnikov returns them one day. How exactly, I have no idea yet, because I don’t believe in his ability to either get promoted in Russia, where he has long been cut off, or sell an apartment in New Jersey and repay his debts with the proceeds.
Among other things, according to his wife, the apartment belongs not only to Vinnikov, but also to her. My wife lives in it and, as I understand it, has no plans to sell it yet.
Valery Weinberg and “New Russian Word”
But at least he informed the employees about the closure of the office and honestly paid them until the end, although the fate of his last check is still unknown to me. In contrast, the owner of the late New Russian Word, Valery Weinberg, who is immeasurably richer than Vinnikov, did not pay his employees for several months before closing. As far as I know, I still haven’t given it away.And he didn’t announce anything to them, but swinishly presented them with a fact: in mid-November 2010, they came to work on Friday and suddenly discovered that there were no more computers and phones on their desks.
I didn't pester Weinberg for money for several months, but last year I ran into him at a charity fundraiser. United Jewish Appeal, where his wife is in charge of the Russian department, and politely asked what about my fees. To which Weinberg said: “Contact my lawyer!”, and I realized that he was not going to give anything away, and did not feel the slightest remorse about this.
Since then, I have no longer been invited to the events of this organization, as if I had offended it by asking the husband of its high-ranking employee to repay the debt to me.
Returning to Vinnikov, I still don’t understand why he didn’t declare bankruptcy, but decided to flee to his abandoned fatherland. As far as I know, he does not have Russian citizenship, which means that if a case is opened against him in the United States, the Russian Federation can easily extradite him, just as Greece extradited Zholobetsky. But at least he stole millions, and Vinnikov, in my opinion, drove off to St. Petersburg without pants. And literally: how many trousers of his size could fit into a small suitcase?
I was extremely saddened by this story. There are fewer and fewer old friends, and at my age it’s hard to make new ones.
A Russian talk show on Channel One features a man who is introduced as “US journalist Greg Weiner.” But he turned out to be not a journalist, but a Russian-speaking businessman whose name is Grigory Vinnikov. Moreover, a businessman with a bad reputation: he disappeared from New York 5 years ago along with the money of many clients who consider him a fraudster.
“Medusa” tried to understand this story.
On April 18, the host of the “Contact” program on the American Russian-language television channel RTN, Alexander Grant, turned on the TV in the Moscow hotel where he found himself during a business trip - he became interested in what his Russian colleagues were talking about. Channel One aired “First Studio,” Artem Sheinin’s daily political talk show. As always, it was loud in the studio - they discussed the worsening situation around North Korea and its confrontation with the United States. A minute after the broadcast began, Grant heard a familiar voice. “I’ll tell you, as if it were a family member, don’t tell anyone. Quiet! - the guest, who was introduced as journalist Greg Weiner, captured the attention of the presenter. “A trade quarantine will be introduced against North Korea!”
Grant could do no wrong. He had known Greg Weiner for 20 years. And not only him: the “journalist” was generally well known to the New York Russian-speaking community - only under a different name.
As another American TV presenter Gennady Katsov said, he knew Weiner as Grigory Vinnikov, who emigrated to the USA from the USSR back in the 1980s. In the early 1990s, Vinnikov opened a travel company in America Eastern Tours Consolidated, which was engaged in the sale of air tickets to Russia and back and assistance in obtaining visas. The business was going well until 2012, when Vinnikov accumulated debt for renting office space in Brooklyn and Manhattan. After this, the businessman disappeared and the offices were closed, Katsov claims.
The situation was complicated by the fact that shortly before bankruptcy, Vinnikov’s company also began providing a variety of legal services - for example, registration of Russian pensions. He took documents from some clients: so, according to the publication RuNYWeb, journalist Valentina Pechorina paid about $600 to renew her Russian passport, and the former owner of the publication “New Russian Word” Valery Weinberg paid $650 for an urgent visa to Russia.
According to Katsov, in the fall of 2012, Vinnikov called him and several other Russian journalists in New York and said that he had fled to his homeland due to financial collapse - at some point he allegedly “even wanted to throw himself from the balcony.” He promised to pay people when he received money for a penthouse put up for sale in New Jersey.
Another American journalist, Seva Kaplan, told Meduza that he was going to become the organizer of a collective civil lawsuit by victims, but when it turned out that Vinnikov was in Russia, no one went to court, because American and Russian jurisdictions “intersect very difficult.” Katsov told Meduza that Vinnikov still owes him $10 thousand, which Katsov paid to the entrepreneur for arranging visas for musicians - 2 weeks before Vinnikov disappeared.
Meduza contacted Grigory Vinnikov himself. He claims that he has returned documents to all clients, but cannot pay off his debts because a buyer for the penthouse has not yet been found. “If it ever sells, I will be happy to compensate debts to clients - if there is at least something left after paying off debts and loans,” Vinnikov said, separately stipulating that not a single lawsuit has been filed against him.
Vinnikov claims that he quit his business and left for Russia not only for financial reasons.
“I was sick for 2 years, I came here, and here I was already diagnosed with rectal cancer,” says a former businessman who, after a course of treatment, remained to live in St. Petersburg.
Vinnikov considers it normal that in television programs he is called a journalist: this was his specialty at the university, in addition, “from time to time” he appeared on radio and television.
Gennady Katsov confirms: back in the 1980s, before going into business, Vinnikov organized round tables in America at which Russian-speaking politicians and media representatives discussed current issues; sometimes he was called on air in the 2000s - including Katsov himself in his “Press Club” program, where he presented Vinnikov as a political commentator.
“He is quite articulate and sufficiently informed, in this regard I have no complaints against him,” said Katsov. - He is not a writing journalist, he has never written any articles. But his analytical apparatus is quite developed.”
According to the TV presenter, it was Vinnikov who came up with the “Contact” program in 2003 and offered it to the American channel RTN - but a month later he refused to host it, unable to maintain the daily schedule. He was replaced, in particular, by the same Alexander Grant, who many years later noticed the entrepreneur on the air of Channel One.
“I didn’t run away or hide anywhere,” Vinnikov told Meduza. “I don’t look like an idiot who thinks that he won’t be noticed on federal channels.” Vinnikov does not tell how he got on Russian television. At the same time, according to him, one day the producers of one of the channels asked him to “Americanize” his first and last name - so he became Greg Weiner. When asked whether he makes money from his appearances on political talk shows, Vinnikov-Weiner refused to answer.
The host of the Open Studio program, Inna Karpushina, on Channel Five, where expert Greg Weiner appeared, told Meduza that she does not participate in the selection of the program’s experts, who are invited by the producers. She declined to comment further. Channel One also declined to comment.
Nowadays, you probably won’t surprise anyone with characters with extremely complicated biographies, whose faces often appear on TV. For example, in the biography of US journalist Greg Weiner, you can find many interesting stories. Some of them have recently become public knowledge. Now in Russia, many viewers are interested in the biography and personal life of Greg Weiner. But why has this man become so popular now? And what really stands behind the biography of US journalist Greg Weiner?
Some details
Not long ago, the named person was introduced to a large audience as an American journalist and began to appear on Russian television channels. One of the American’s acquaintances, seeing his face on one of the talk shows, was quite surprised and even discouraged. After all, the man saw in front of him a person who was engaged in a completely different activity and, in addition, had a different name.
Greg's friends and neighbors were confused by the fact that the man simply changed his last name and first name. And so, when the truth began to seep out, many Russian residents became truly interested in the biography of US journalist Greg Weiner. Photos of this person are increasingly appearing on the Internet and on the pages of newspapers, attracting more and more attention.
How did Weiner end up in Russia?
In fact, the famous today Greg Weiner, whose biography and photo are presented in our article, is a Russian businessman. He once managed a branch of his travel agency in the United States and at birth received the first and last name Grigory Vinnikov. Due to huge debts and difficulties in business, Gregory had to close his own business and return to his homeland - Russia.
Life in the USA
In America, Vinnikov developed quite a vigorous activity. In the 90s, he opened his own business - a travel company specializing in the sale of air tickets and assistance in preparing all the necessary documents for the Russian diaspora. Gregory's business developed successfully until 2012 - by this time he had accumulated impressive debts for renting expensive premises in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Shortly before the collapse of the travel agency, Vinnikov founded another company that provided legal assistance to Americans. Grigory still owes the clients of this company considerable amounts of money. In addition, many of his clients complain that the swindler stole from them not only funds under the pretext of obtaining visas and passports, but also very valuable documents.
After the unexpected ruin, Vinnikov had to close his offices, leave the United States and return to Russia. Already at home, he learned that he had a serious illness - cancer. Here the failed businessman underwent therapy and remained to live.
Having contacted his comrades in America, Vinnikov said that he would pay off all debts as soon as his property in New Jersey was sold. A class-action civil lawsuit was organized against Grigory, but after it became clear that the businessman had fled, the case was suspended due to complex Russian-American relations.
By the way, if you search well, you can find an interesting article in a newspaper called “The Seagull.” Here you can also find out about the biography of Greg Weiner. New York journalist Vladimir Kozlovsky describes in some detail the activities of the fraudster in the United States and his actions after the financial collapse.
Greg Wagner's appearance in public
In fact, Greg Weiner's biography dates back to his first appearance in the Russian public. Having appeared on a Russian TV channel, Grigory decided to acquire an American pseudonym. This is how the now famous Greg was born.
The newly minted American journalist was invited to one of the Channel One projects as an expert. During the program, the presenter did not tell the audience Weiner’s occupation and place of work - the specific name of the publication was hidden. In addition, one feature could not escape the attention of the audience: the American spoke Russian surprisingly clearly and absolutely without an accent. An acquaintance of Vinnikov’s on a social network told the truth about the impostor journalist. It was here that the veil of secrecy over the biography of Greg Weiner was lifted: it turned out that the former businessman simply stole his clients’ money and fled to St. Petersburg.
Vinnikov's activities
In recent years, Grigory has managed to appear on several Russian shows: for example, on NTV and “Open Studio” on Channel Five.
But Greg Weiner proved himself as a journalist back in America. While in the USA, he organized round tables at which Russian-speaking politicians and journalists discussed the most important issues. Weiner was regularly invited to various programs as a political commentator. That is, Vinnikov is precisely an analyst with a sufficient level of knowledge. But there are no articles in his luggage. According to Vinnikov himself, the profession of a journalist is not at all fictitious - he actually graduated from the corresponding faculty in the States.
In 2003, Grigory Vinnikov developed and proposed the “Contact” project to RTN. But after just a month, he refused to be the host of this program because he could not keep up with the daily schedule.
The further fate of the impostor
It is unknown how exactly Vinnikov got into Russian TV channels and the press. Gregory himself, in most cases, simply remains silent, once again proving that Greg Weiner’s biography probably has dark spots.
By the way, according to Russian legislation, a notorious swindler faces absolutely nothing, since domestic laws differ significantly from American law.
