B-girls scam described in Miami trial

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MIAMI, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- The admitted ringleader of a scam to overcharge the credit cards of drunk tourists in Miami testified how he imported Eastern European women to seduce men.

Forty-six-year-old Russian mobster Alec Simchuk testified in federal court recently that he ran the "bar girls" scam out of several Russian-themed bars in Miami, The Miami Herald reported Saturday.

The scam involved young Eastern European women, called B-girls, picking up male tourists at their hotels and bringing them to clubs from which Simchuk worked. At the clubs, the women persuade the men to order bottles of alcohol without noticing the exorbitant prices.

Simchuk pleaded guilty to fraud and other charges and agreed to testify for the prosecution in the trial of Stanislav Pavlenko, 41; Albert Takhalov, 31; Kristina Takhalov, 31; Siavash Zargari, 48, and Isaac Feldman, 51, defeated in a 2010 city commission election, who invested $25,000 in a club controlled by Simchuk and Albert Takhalov, the Herald said. All of the defendants are standing trial on fraud charges.

In his plea agreement, Simchuk admitted his organization rang up phony bills for alcoholic beverages, costing customers $400,000 to $1 million.

Sentencing in the trial is pending