The O. G.

I guess I've reached the pinnacle of my profession -- I'm going to be teaching English to one of the most famous gangster-businessmen in Vodkaberg. I mean, this is guy is the O. G. -- a real Don Corleone.

According to the stories, he started out as a pickpocket in train stations in the area -- he got in with a gang of pickpockets and they made enough money to start a car dealership in the early nineties. At that time, car dealerships were very shady - the price paid for cars was nowhere near the price the factories sold them at, and a lot of people disappeared after bringing cash payments to dealerships.

They also got into vodka bootlegging -- that is, selling watered-down methylated alcohol as vodka. They assuredly did this through kiosks which they also bought, and that was pure profit, so they bought up real estate and opened a night club, and now they own insurance companies, cinemas, window companies, etc -- it's now something like a 6 billion dollar a year business.

Naturally they're heavily involved with supporting the campaigns of our local mayors -- apparently an entire entertainment complex was built just to launder this money.

This is all well known local information, and I've heard this from businessmen I've taught, random students, girls who have been at their "parties" and from people who work at this company alike.

While their business is legitimate in the sense of running real companies that provide real products and services for real profits, they are still the top of the pyramid in the criminal scene -- plenty of drugs get sold at their nightclub, for example. I had a girlfriend who worked for one of their advertising companies, and she said she frequently overheard conversations about weapons deals. It's also well known that if this company offers to buy your business, for example, they will offer a fair price -- but you had better accept, unless you're ready for a one-way ticket to the resurrection, as Scarface might say.

They're trying to change their image, these days, though, with a glowing P.R. campaign featuring billboards of snappy young executives giving the thumbs-up and sponsoring scholarships and building schools, etc. As I mentioned a few posts ago, they sent three bodyguard types to study English at our school. That was good for a few laughs. ("What's your job?" "Ha ha, we solve problems.")

So, they call on me, The Oligarch of the English Language, to teach The President of the Company, who is by most accounts about The Baddest Motherfucker in Town.

This guy, by the way, is about the same age as me, maybe a year or two older. (We just had different lifestyle priorities, I guess.)

One of my rich students who had met him several times said, "He's very charming, intelligent and charismatic. You have to keep reminding yourself that he's probably killed a hundred people."