Convicted Criminal, Russian Wrestling Champion. He received notoriety early in his life as an amateur champion wrestler, until he was convicted of rape in 1966. He had served his first prison time for his participation in a bar fight. In 1974 he was convicted of burglarizing houses and forgery of government documents. By the 1980s, he was the president of a sports foundation, which controlled Russia's wrestling federation. After helping aging homeless athletes, he received public recognition for his involvement with sports. During this time period, he was selling goods on the black-market by bribing government officials. He sold imported vodka and cigarettes, using the sports foundation as a legal tax-exempted business for his criminal activities or racketeering. In 1982, he was arrested with charges of illegal firearms, forgery and drug-trafficking and sentenced to fourteen years in prison, yet was released in 1991. With the fall of the U.S.S.R. at the end of 1991, he became a mediator between organized crime throughout Eastern Europe and politicians. In March of 1992, he came to the United States for business, even though he had a criminal record. He became wealthy with these activities, yet made many enemies with his dealings during Mafia wars, especially with the Russian ones in Moscow. One source stated that he hired an army of 150 bodyguards. In late 1993, Kvantrishvili publicly announced his intention to enter politics through a new party, the Party of Sportsmen. While leaving a public bath house with bodyguards, he was killed with a gunshot wound in his head by a sniper's bullet. Two more bullets hit him in the chest. Unbeknown to the bodyguards, a sniper had taken a position on the top floor of the building across the street. His funeral was attended by a host of government officials, entertainers, and sports icons. The funeral was broadcast on television with the musical score from the 1972 Hollywood film "The Godfather" playing in the background. On September 28, 2008, four members of the organized crime syndicate in Moscow were found guilty of his murder. Aleksei Sherstobitov, a contract sniper, was sentenced to life in prison. He was given a car as payment for Kvantrishvili's murder. For their involvement, the other three were sentence between 11 to 23 years.