An Immigrant Becomes a Millionaire But Goes out of Bounds
(“Going for Broke,” Forensic Files)
For a while, Michael Prozumenshikov seemed to be doing everything right. In hopes of a more prosperous life, he came to the U.S. from Soviet-era Russia, where he’d grown up in an apartment crammed with 30 other people.
Fast track. He got a job as a janitor for $63 a week after arriving in Minneapolis, studied finance, and earned a stockbroker’s license.
Amid the 1980s Wall Street bubble, Prozumenshikov grew into a tiger of a salesman. He nabbed a $240,000 signing bonus when Prudential-Bache Securities recruited him as an investment adviser.
Within seven years of coming to America, he was driving a Mercedes, living in a newly constructed 20-room house, and making $1 million a year.
Rich man targeted. But as so with many other Forensic Files subjects (Ari Squire, John Hawkins), his American dream turned into a cautionary tale.
Prozumenshikov’s story, however, differs a bit from the usual because he ended up as the homicide victim rather than the perpetrator.
For this week, I did some research into Prozumenshikov’s background and how he botched the financial fiefdom he created.
Missing husband. So let’s get going on the recap of “Going for Broke,” along with extra information culled from online research and the book The Pru-Bache Murder: The Fast Life and Grisly Death of a Millionaire Stockbroker by Jeffrey Taylor.
At 10:30 p.m. on January 28, 1991, Michael Prozumenshikov called his wife, Ellen, to let her know he was on his way home.
He never arrived.
In pieces. Police found his Mercedes, with his checkbook, credit cards, and some cash inside, in a parking lot in Wayzata.
Soon after, a headless torso and two legs from a caucasian male turned up under some abandoned Christmas trees. The severed tip of a left pinky finger found at the scene and scars on other body parts helped police identify the victim as Michael Prozumenshikov, age 37.
So who would want to kill this respectable family man?
Well, lots of people, it turned out.
Hammer time. Although he labored long hours and aimed high, Prozumenshikov also liked to take short cuts. It was a pattern that started when he still lived in the USSR.
After excelling in hammer-throwing as a boy in Leningrad, Prozumenshikov used his athletic connections to get into dental school there, according to Taylor’s book.
He was a poor-performing student but still managed to network his way into a job as a dentist in a clinic in Russia, according to Taylor.
Career switch. But the U.S. had more-strenuous requirements, and Prozumenshikov failed his dental exams here.
Fortunately, he landed in a more lucrative field thanks to a friend who encouraged him to try a career in finance. He learned quickly and pursued clients — many of them fellow Russian Jewish immigrants — aggressively.
But Prozumenshikov was in too much of a hurry. Greed overtook him, and he made impossible claims to prospective clients, engaged in unauthorized trading, and falsified information.
Few fans. Like most good con men, he had a knack for putting on an optimistic front even as things headed south. He persuaded clients to stay with him despite their losses, according to Taylor.
Although the police had no specific murder suspects at first, they found that a lot of people didn’t feel all that bad to hear about Prozumenshikov’s demise, according to Rocky Fontana, a Hennepin County Sheriff’s detective who appeared on Forensic Files.
First off, Prozumenshikov had begun to separate himself, literally and figuratively, from the Russian Jewish émigré community that had helped make him successful.
Ostentatious style. He, Ellen, and, and their sons, ages 11 and 13, had moved to Wayzata, a lakeside town with a yacht club and median house price of $600,000.
And he liked to flaunt his Rolex watches and Montblanc pens. On his desk, he kept framed photos of cars and houses he aspired to purchase, according to Taylor’s book.
While the Prozumenshikov sons were attending private schools, their father was busy erasing the personal fortunes of the people who trusted him to help them attain better lives for their own kids.
This doesn’t fly. Zina Shirl, who appeared on Forensic Files, said that Prozumenshikov went renegade with $20,000 of her money.
He had also used clients’ money to make disastrous investments in Texas Air, which promptly dived 75 percent in value (and no longer exists), according to Forensic Files.
Even as his clients’ accounts were shrinking, Prozumenshikov would make as many as 100 trades on a single account in a year so he could pocket the commissions
No Shangri-La. He wiped out the $70,000 life savings of a World War II vet named Clem Seifert, who would later enthusiastically volunteer to testify in the killer’s defense.
Prozumenshikov had also persuaded clients to invest in developing a Reno, Nevada, resort that was an utter scam. The project never happened.
Clearly, Prozumenshikov’s death was somehow related to his job. His wife told police that on the night he disappeared, he had called her to ask for his supervisor’s number.
Follow the Mazda. Next, he called his boss from a pay phone to ask for $200,000 in cash for a client. He refused.
Then, Michael Prozumenshikov disappeared.
Police were able to connect a brown 1986 Mazda 626 seen parked near Prozumenshikov’s black Mercedes on the night of the murder to a handsome 39-year-old dam inspector named Zachary Persitz.
The Prozumenshikov and Persitz families were close friends. Their sons had sleepovers together.
Henpecked husband. Persitz, also a member of the local Russian Jewish community, entrusted Prozumenshikov to invest $150,000 for him. A lot was riding on that investment.
Although the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources surely paid Persitz a decent salary, his wife, Julia, a concert violinist, had been needling him about why he couldn’t be as successful as his buddy Michael Prozumenshikov, Fontana told Forensic Files.
But Persitz wouldn’t be buying Julia a McMansion or an E-Class Cabriolet anytime soon. A combination of Prozumenshikov’s mismanagement and the 1987 stock crash diminished Persitz’s wealth by anywhere from $37,000 to $120,000 (sources vary on the amount of the loss).
Paint clue. Shortly after the homicide, a car wash employee wrote down the license plate number of the Mazda after noticing the driver trying to wash blood from inside its trunk. Persitz told the car wash workers he hit a deer.
Police discovered that paint found on Persitz’s bumper looked similar to that from an orange gate near the crime scene. And bumper fragments found there matched those missing from Persitz’s Mazda, whose interior revealed blood splatter.
Authorities also learned that an ax that Persitz kept in his locker at work had gone missing, according to an AP account from 1991.
Wife worried. And the Persitz family had a Bernese mountain dog whose hair matched a strand found at the murder scene (not that the family pet was in on the homicide — shed fur carries and transfers like crazy). County prosecutor Kevin Johnson remarked it was “the first time a search warrant has been executed on a dog in Hennepin County.”
On Feb. 4, 1991, authorities arrested Persitz and set his bail at $750,000.
There was circumstantial evidence against him in addition to the forensics.
Ransom of $200K. The day before the homicide, family friend Rudolph Lekhter and Persitz had gone out shooting at Bill’s Gun Range in Robbinsville.
Prosecutors believed Persitz set up a meeting with Prozumenshikov, then threatened the 6-foot-tall 200-pound-plus stockbroker with a gun and demanded $200,000 to cover his losses plus interest.
When Prozumenshikov couldn’t produce the cash, Persitz shot him (possibly with one of Lekhter’s guns, although he wasn’t implicated), threw him in the trunk, and then headed to a compost site 60 miles away the next day. He crashed threw a gate there and dismembered the body.
Back in the USSR. Once charged, instead of going the usual Forensic Files killer route by claiming the victim attacked him first, Persitz declared himself not guilty by way of insanity.
Judge Robert Shiefelbein delayed the trial so the defense team, led by Joe Friedberg, could obtain Persitz’s 1970s records from a psychiatric hospital in Russia.
Mental health professionals for both the defense and prosecution ultimately agreed Persitz suffered from OCD and severe depression. In fact, the judge agreed to another delay so Persitz could undergo electroconvulsive therapy.
Death wish. Persitz said that, as a child, he had witnessed violence between his parents and had tried to kill himself at age 11.
His claim of suicidal tendencies was credible. While awaiting trial in 1992, Persitz and fellow inmate Russell Lund made a pact to suffocate themselves with plastic bags. Lund succeeded, but deputies reached Persitz in time to save him.
The defense argued that the crime itself was crazy enough to prove insanity. Persitz admitted to shooting Prozumenshikov once on the frozen Lake Minnetonka and again in the Mazda, then hacking up the corpse the next day.
“Clearly, chopping a body up in the early morning hours when it’s 20-below is nonsensical,” defense attorney Paul Engh offered.
Victim of his own success? Still, prosecutor Kevin Johnson made the state’s case that Persitz had been plotting the murder for months and was sane enough to know that killing Prozumenshikov was wrong.
The jury convicted him of the murder on June 23, 1993. In a separate hearing, the panel rejected the insanity plea. He received a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 27½ years.
Widow Ellen Prozumenshikov blamed the murder on Persitz’s “envy” and “greed,” the Tribune Star reported:
“Michael was living his American dream. His dream was suddenly ended by someone who couldn’t bear to see it realized, who couldn’t accept Michael’s life in comparison to his own.”
With the trial over, Ellen, a dental hygienist, also said she hoped to begin the “healing process for our family.”
Down by the river. Persitz’s parole eligibility would have come around in 2021, but he couldn’t wait.
He hanged himself in Stillwater in 2010.
Persitz had admitted that he threw Michael Prozumenshikov’s head and hands — the instruments of his deceits — into the St. Croix River, but they were never found.
That’s all for this week. Until next time, cheers. — RR
Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube
Listen to this post as a podcast
He didn’t deserve to die but messing with people’s life savings like that, he put himself in that situation…
I agree — he played with fire.
I was just going to say that! This guy totally brought it on himself. I was pretty surprised at the end when he was calling his boss for money. I would expect him to just take it like a man.
What an arrogant man that guy was! And his riff is equally arrogant!
right
I believed Persitz killed out of rage over losing a large sum of money, and not out of envy. Because that money, could’ve been used to fund his children’s future, it could’ve gotten him and his wife a better house and car; etc.
I agree–his emotions simmered and then boiled over.
Thanks, Rebecca – one I recall. US citizens may be grateful that this man didn’t get his hands – or drill – on their teeth…
It was surely right to find the killer sane as you present it: depression/suicidal ideation – mood disorders – don’t detract from the person’s knowing right from wrong. Those conditions MAY cause impulsiveness and poor decision (so could in some cases be mitigational), and can certainly constitute mental illness, but they don’t engage the issue in law (at least generally); and combined with evidence of planning (you don’t go into what that was), the case for legal sanity was made. The holding of a responsible job doesn’t help him, either.
“Widow Ellen Prozumenshikov blamed the murder on Persitz’s envy and greed…” We can allow this somewhat partisan assessment in the circumstances. While I know nothing of the stock market, and therefore whether an investor accepts they could lose money (for legitimate reason), Prozumenshikov SEEMS essentially to have stolen – or certainly misappropriated – a great deal of Persitz’s money. Envy and greed may have applied but are irrelevant to the extent that Prozumenshikov deprived him of his money. Extreme anger may well have been justifiable. Equally, as you imply, and ironically, it was surely envy and greed that drove Prozumenshikov’s embezzlement of clients’ money – so it’s myopic of Mrs P to see this only as the killer’s flaw.
None of this is to suggest any justification for murder – just that depending on what $150k constituted to Persitz as part of his total assets (and how much risk he should properly have expected to take by investing it in stock) it both explains and justifies great anger.
I wonder if instead of killing, Persitz had gone to the financial authorities (and police – had a criminal act been committed?), could Prozumenshikov have been stripped of his assets (and imprisoned?), compensating victims’ losses (to some degree)?
You do wonder what, if anything, the wives knew. Did Ellen simply assume their relative wealth was all legit or did he tell her of his (seemingly illegal) behaviour and she was content to go along with it while the $$$ rolled-in. Greed MAY not have been just her husband’s problem…
PS Inscription on the tasteless memorial stone:”YOU CAN ACHIEVE ANYTHING YOU WANT IN LIFE, THE SKY IS THE LIMIT”
The deceased was only notable for embezzlement; in the words of the Chicago Tribune: “…utter disdain for rules and ethics… 250 interviews plus court records, concern his flagrant mistreatment of his clients.”
What did he achieve but death, a bereaved family, and the baubles of acquisitiveness.
Then again, if what you want to achieve in life is to cheat people successfully (for a time), the aphorism would appear apt…
Not the kind of achievements to be proud of, for sure.
And OMG, I’m also glad he never got to practice dentistry in this country. He would have owned one of those clinics with quotas that force dentists to do unneeded work.
I just finished the book on this case. Regarding legal recourse, Persitz had seen Prozumenshikov sued by several clients he cheated and it was dismissed because none of his grand promises were in writing. In fact, Persitz had hounded him for months to put his agreement in writing. Obviously murder is never a solution but Prozumenshikov was a scumbag crook who was doing lots of illegal things (with most of his employers turning a blind eye).
Interesting, thanks. You’d think people who can afford to invest large sums in the stock market – professional people – WOULD get things in writing before parting with money, though surely the point of the SM is that returns can’t be guaranteed (I don’t really know…). What would be ‘promised’ – ‘give me $100k to invest and it’ll be $120k in a year’?
To be sure – murder is appalling, and it goes without saying it’s never deserved, but Pros’v was a thief, playing with fire if he assumed the only comeback would be lawsuits. While he wouldn’t expect to be murdered he might expect an angry losing client to hire a couple of heavies..
I don’t understand, with suits/complaints, how he was able to continue as a trader. Here in UK I think a license is required due to the potential for unethical/illegal behaviour like his.
This is a tough one for me. I can see how the defendant got upset, as Michael wasn’t exactly a good guy. However murder is and never should be the answer. One thing for the defendant, I doubt he had any legal recourse, if he willingly allowed Michael to invest his money then the only wrong was that Michael was a jerk and self-absorbed and the defendant is out of luck. Unfortunate, but not a reason for murder.
Too bad Yelp and social media didn’t exist back then. Persitz could have at least warned others about Prozumenshikov.
I did a bit of internet reading after R’s post: apparently some of the victim’s activities were illegal as well as against the rules, so there may have been legal recourse to recovery of investor assets. Apparently he was knowingly trying to get people to invest in a non-existent company whose address was an abandoned hotel in the middle of nowhere. Pretty shitty stuff.
It goes without saying that his murder was absolutely wrong – but I wonder if it occurred to him that his victims might seek revenge? As FF stated, a lot of those who lost money weren’t upset to learn of his murder – which isn’t far from saying they agreed with it…
Which is why the killer is in prison where he belongs. It sounds like this is someone who should have been kept behind a wall and not allowed to immigrate here. Unfortunately only brown immigrants get labeled as criminals. I think this case makes it clear that people from any country and ethnicity can be disgusting criminals. Persitz is where he belongs but Prozumenshikov never should have been allowed to come here.
He committed suicide in prison.
This Persitz guy was jealous. His wife was jealous. And Prozumenshkov was an arrogant show-off who was cheating his clients.
Persitz’ anger is understandable but he could have gotten Prozumenshikov in court. It is indeed sad that the children lost their fathers. That’s what jealousy and pride do.
I had to chuckle at the detail about the Bernese mountain dog hair. One of the many reasons I will never commit murder is there would be black, yellow and chocolate Lab hair all over the scene.
“After inquiring around town, investigators learned there was only one household that included three Labrador retrievers each in a different color…”
Look at all the corruption with the Russian Jewish Mafia in Brighton Beach. This arrogance and bragging is SO typical. They are always showing off and bragging – even to their so-called “friends.” The only thing they care about is money – people are not important to them. Their arrogance in this country has caused people to dislike them – and it has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. They are just not nice people.
I think the suicide was in 2010 not 2015. FF was wrong.
Mike, I think you’re right — let me investigate. Many thanks for writing in with the correction!
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/157657909/zachary-persitz
Assuming this IS his gravestone – 2010.
this was a fun episode, i don’t usually cheer the murderer so much. didn’t end well for him, unfortunately. i can’t help thinking the judged didn’t care for russians or immigrants considering the insanely harsh sentence in this case. and to my critics, shut up. he was not a threat to society he killed a guy for doing something that would push a lot of normal people to murder. think of how many hateful death threats bernie madoff received. so many he and his son hanged themselves.
Threats are a world away from their realization: your point’s invalid. Pre-med murder’s just that; Persitz’ punishment was entirely apt. He was, too, after making a fast buck, like the his victim: both, to different extents, appear driven by acquisitiveness and envy, and it’s not as if there are guaranteed returns from the stock market in any case. If he lost his money though honest, but incompetent, investing, would he have murdered out of anger…?
What punishment should someone who plans and executes murder, then abuses the corpse, receive, then? He was given the possibility of parole – that was the favour, since plenty of perps who do what he did get LWOP.
The victim was a shit, to be sure, and he deserved his own medicine: confiscated/loss of money and probably some prison time for fraud etc – not to be murdered, creating further victims too of his wife and children.
m: “…he killed a guy for doing something that would push a lot of normal people to murder.” No, it wouldn’t. If it did they wouldn’t be ‘normal’ now, would they? And threats to murder are very different from the real thing.
The perp was greedy, as was the victim. The former lost money on a gamble that wasn’t guaranteed to make a profit and could’ve made a loss anyway – albeit it’s not unreasonable of him to be angry about the vic’s incompetence/dishonesty. This loss, however, did not appear to put him on the breadline (he had a well-paying job). No normal, decent person would even consider murder, however much anger got the better of them such as to threaten it.
Indeed, far from feeling justified, remorse could’ve been the ground for the perp’s suicide. Equally, his enduring mental fragility might’ve induced murderous range in the first place, rather than the ‘understandable’ behaviour you argue for.
It’s only money. Life is far more precious. While the perp isn’t the most egregious we see in FF he deserved his sentence for a terrible crime – one that could have seen him released around now on parole.
Prozumenshikov played fast and loose, ruined a lot of lives, betrayed the trust of many and a Russian everyman’s justice can be direct and permanent.
GREED
Don’t give any rags-to-riches praise nor admiration to this man. As an investment advisor, he betrayed his fiduciary oath and destroyed the life savings of his clients for a god-damned commission. Pure ugly greed! Michael Prozumenshikov is a criminal and I have no sympathy for him!
It’s a shame he didn’t pour all that drive into more-honest work.