Evsei Agron

Who was Evsei Agron?

Evsei Agron was a thief in law and boss of New York City's Russian Mafia during the 1970s and '80s.

Born in Leningrad, Agron immigrated to the United States under the Jackson-Vanik Amendment in 1975. He swiftly gained control of criminal operations among the Soviet Jews living in Brighton Beach. Agron organized a motor fuel racket which would earn millions, if not billions, through fuel tax fraud. This type of fraud, which involved selling tax-free home heating oil as diesel fuel, eventually cost the state of New Jersey alone an estimated $1 billion annually in lost tax revenues.

However, as other mobsters closed in on the operation, a rival organization began expanding its own criminal operations under Boris Goldberg.