Moscow Turns Over American Fugitive -- Cooperative Effort By Soviets May Be The First Of Its Kind

WASHINGTON - A St. Louis man wanted on fraud charges is in custody after the Soviet Union turned him over to U.S. authorities in what is believed to be the first example of such cooperation.

Felix Kolbovsky, 42, was handed over to a Drug Enforcement Administration agent who had been sent from Vienna to Moscow over the weekend to pick him up, the Justice Department said.

Soviet authorities notified the Justice Department late Friday that they were holding Kolbovsky but would expel him in 72 hours, a department official said.

The DEA agent sent to Moscow took Kolbovsky to London, where he was picked up by two deputy U.S. marshals and escorted to Washington yesterday. He was being held pending a bail hearing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., the department said.

The Soviet decision to help the Justice Department find Kolbovsky is apparently the first time Moscow has cooperated with U.S. efforts to obtain custody of a fugitive in the Soviet Union, the official said. The two nations do not have an extradition treaty.

The return of the Russian-born Kolbovsky, who emigrated to this country and became a U.S. citizen, may signal increased cooperation in the future. Last fall, the Soviet Union joined Interpol, the international police organization.

Kolbovsky, had been sought since last summer by federal prosecutors in St. Louis on 22 counts of mail fraud. He is accused of defrauding the Medicare program in a scheme to perform unnecessary medical tests at a diagnostic clinic he operated in St. Louis.

Prosecutors estimate he tried to defraud the government of $10 million in claims for unnecessary tests, the Justice Department said.

After fleeing to his native country during the investigation of the clinic, Kolbovsky tried to start a number of business enterprises in the Soviet Union, the department official said.

Late last fall, U.S. authorities sent a request through Interpol for any information about Kolbovsky's whereabouts, the official said.

On Friday, the Soviets advised the Justice Department they had found and detained Kolbovsky.