from www.philly.com – A U.S. District Court judge sentenced wealthy Bucks County businessman and charity founder Andrew Mogilyansky to eight years in prison today for traveling to Russia and having sex with three teenage girls.
Two victims were 13 years old; Mogilyansky forced sex with the third girl on her 14th birthday. All three were taken to Mogilyansky’s apartment in St. Petersburg from the orphanage where they lived.
The judge also ordered Mogilyansky to spend 15 years on supervised release after serving his prison term, and to pay $5,000 in restitution to each of his victims, and a $12,500 fine.
“This is a grave criminal act,” said Judge Mary A. McLaughlin. “Their [the victims] lives will be different because they were harmed by Mr. Mogilyansky.”
Mogilyansky, a dual Russian-U.S. citizen, was indicted in December on one count of traveling to engage in illicit sex and three counts of engaging in illicit sex in foreign places in late 2003 and early 2004. He pleaded guilty to those charges last April.
One victim, now about 18, said in a statement read by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Morgan-Kelly, that, “After the rape I was aching all over. . . . I still feel his repugnant breath. I hate him.”
Another wrote she had become jittery and unsociable since encountering Mogilyansky and still is wary of men.
Before giving the prison term, which is at the top of the sentencing-guidelines range for the crimes, McLaughlin said she never had sentenced a defendant with two such opposing sides to his personality.
The judge was referring to the charity Mogilyansky runs, the International Foundation for Terror Act Victims. Through it, he raised more than $1.2 million to help child survivors of the 2004 Beslan school attack in Russia.
Mogilyansky’s good works and character were praised by friends and Mogilyansky’s wife, who were called to testify by defense attorney Jack McMahon.
The friends described the Columbia University graduate as intelligent, generous and worthy of admiration. Oksana Mogilyansky said her husband was a good father to their three children, who would miss him.
Mogilyansky apologized in court for the “disastrous decision” he made in St. Petersburg, and for the pain he caused his victims, family and friends.
The courtroom was filled with supporters of Mogilyansky. His worth has been reported at about $5 million from his businesses, including a car export firm and publishing the Russian Yellow Pages.
While McMahon portrayed his client’s actions as an aberration and a defense-hired psychologist found no evidence that Mogilyansky was a sexual predator, assistant U.S. Attorney Morgan-Kelly emphasized Mogilyansky chose three different times with three different young girls to make them have sex.
“The government’s very happy with the sentence,” she said after the hearing.
Going abroad to have sex with underage children is known as sex tourism. It falls under a federal law that allows U.S. authorities to prosecute Americans who have sex with children on foreign soil.
“This case shows international borders are no longer an obstacle to ICE’s [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] ability to track, arrest, and prosecute child predators who prey on unsuspecting children in impoverished communities,” said Andrew M. McLees, acting special agent in charge of the agency’s investigations office in Philadelphia.
That office began looking at Mogilyansky in 2004 after Russian authorities identified him as a suspect in their investigation of an Internet-based prostitution business.
The U.S. indictment also accused Mogilyansky of conspiring with a Russian citizen to develop the Internet-based brothel, but federal authorities did not charge him with that and Mogilyansky denies any involvement.