Metro

Art gallery was ‘mobbed’

Feds say he used Russian mobsters like Anatoly Golubchik (above) as enforcers in his gambling ring.

Feds say he used Russian mobsters like Anatoly Golubchik (above) as enforcers in his gambling ring.

NO-GOOD ‘KNICK’: Art dealer Helly Nahmad attends a Knick game, where he’s reputed to drop $200,000 on bets. Feds say he used Russian mobsters like Anatoly Golubchik (above, left) as enforcers in his gambling ring. (
)

A billionaire New York art dealer was associating with some seriously dangerous characters, federal authorities said yesterday.

One of Manhattan art-world scion Helly Nahmad’s partners in an alleged illegal-gambling ring is a violent enforcer and shakedown artist, prosecutors said yesterday.

Anatoly Golubchik — one of dozens busted with Nahmad last week in a the massive federal money-laundering, gambling and corruption sting — is part of “an international conspiracy that uses fear” to get what it wants, prosecutors claimed at Golubchik’s Manhattan federal court bail hearing yesterday.

“He’s able to extort money through fear of force and use of force,” prosecutor Josh Naftalis told the court.

Golubchik, whom the feds claim helped run a multimillion-dollar illegal-gambling operation out of Nahmad’s $5 million Trump Tower condo, answered directly to reputed Russian crime boss Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, the prosecutor said.

“This is the top of the top of the top in organized crime in Russia,” he noted, in arguing against Golubchik’s bid to maintain bail.

Golubchik and Tokhtakhounov were overheard on tape discussing their criminal operation, Naftalis noted.

At one point, the two men discussed how they could get a man who owed them money on a gambling debt “to pay more than the debt owed.”

And Golubchik laundered tens of millions of dollars through Cyprus shell accounts, Naftalis said.

Golubchik, who lives in New Jersey, made bail after posting a $10 million bond. He is on home confinement and barred from using the Internet or cellphones.

Bail had initially been set at $3 million, but the judge ordered it increased after it was discovered that the accused Russian mobster hadn’t disclosed ownership of a $5 million Upper East Side apartment.

Golubchik’s lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, dismissed the charges as “a lot of smoke and mirrors.”

Privileged playboy Nahmad — who ran his Madison Avenue gallery at the posh Carlyle hotel — counts Leo DiCaprio as a pal. He has a chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce and regularly bets $200,000 on Knick games, where he has sat courtside with Spike Lee.

He kept himself out of jail last week by turning over the deed to his lavish home.