Private school future in flux after official’s indictment
BOISE – A man accused of playing a part in a multimillion-dollar cellphone smuggling ring told the Idaho Press on Wednesday that his biggest concern is the future of the private classical Christian school in Boise he helps run.
Peter Babichenko, chairman of the school, Petra Academy, is one of 10 people who were indicted on a myriad of charges on Aug. 22 following a dramatic day of raids of several homes and businesses by the FBI and Homeland Security. Although police arrested him in August, he has since been released, as the complex case moves through the court system.
Police and prosecutors claim the 10 people – eight of whom are Babichenko family members – carried out a fraud scheme from as early as 2008 involving the purchase of counterfeit electronic devices and reselling them as originals through multiple online platforms including Amazon and eBay, according to U.S. District Court indictment documents. The process involved smuggling of counterfeit items, such as Apple and Samsung cellphones, repacking and redistributing them.
Authorities in August seized nine vehicles, five real estate properties in Ada County, seven real estate properties in Brazil, more than 50 bank accounts and 12 businesses, according to indictment documents.
All of those arrested appeared in federal court the next day, after a night spent in the Ada County Jail. Peter Babichenko and other members of his family have since been released.
It has given him time to return to the school he manages, which he says is his primary concern now.
The school, which relies only on private donations, is only receiving about 40 percent of the revenue needed to run the school following August’s FBI raids and indictments, Babichenko told the Idaho Press during a tour of the school Wednesday morning.
Morning Star Christian Church acquired the building at 3080 Wildwood St., in 2000. Nondenominational services are held on Sundays in Russian, and Peter Babichenko’s brother, Henry Babichenko, is a pastor there. Henry Babichenko is one of two members of the family who remains in custody at prosecutors’ request, Peter Babichenko said.
In 2014, church board members founded Petra Academy, which shares a roof with the sanctuary. Peter Babichenko said church families – many of whom are members of Boise’s roughly 4,000-member eastern European immigrant community – were concerned about the negative influences many of their children were exposed to in secular schools, and wanted them to grow up in a Christian environment. He agreed to manage the school, while the board asked Ivan Rudyi to serve as principal, a role he still acts in today.
Students in grades kindergarten to eighth grade attend classes such as math, English, history, music and art. They are also taught Russian, Latin, Greek and partake in Bible studies. There is a large gym and stage for students to perform plays and a school store where children can buy toys once they’ve earned enough “Petra cash.”
The school is small enough to have a familial feel to it. Classes are tiny, and when Babichenko looked in on the eighth grade class Wednesday morning, the uniformed students stood in unison and said, “Good morning, Mr. Peter.”
Though school is still in session this year, it hasn’t been easy.
Following the news of the indictments on Aug. 22, two teachers quit and families pulled 11 students from the school’s class lists, Rudyi said. Rudyi said the families and the teachers were scared by the indictments, even though Peter Babichenko still vehemently denies the claims police and prosecutors made against himself and his family.
“People are reading these allegations and so they’re shocked by it,” Peter Babichenko said. “There isn’t another opinion.”
The school year started a week later than usual because of the search for two qualified teachers. Babichenko said while they were able to find the teachers, the loss of school revenue, which came heavily from donors such as Henry and Paul Babichenko, Peter Babichenko’s brothers who also are charged with fraud, meant teachers received reduced hours. One staff member, Peter Babichenko said, forfeited her salary voluntarily.
About 40 students attend the school and between 300 and 400 people attend services at the church each week, Babichenko said. Rudyi said all the children who attend the school were born in the United States, but their families hail from Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and Belarus, among other former Soviet Union nations.
One young girl attending her kindergarten class at Petra Academy, saw her father, Peter Babichenko, while he showed the Idaho Press the school’s classrooms.
“Hi, papa,” she excitedly waved at him, leaving her small desk to run and give him a hug.
The raids
Peter Babichenko’s daughter still remembers the early morning hours of Aug. 22, when FBI agents raided his Eagle home. His attorney advised him not to discuss the facts of the case, but he did describe the raid that morning.
Initially, with all the banging and yelling, he thought it was thieves at his door, he said. Instead, it was a group of about 20 law enforcement officers, some who pointed rifles at him. It reminded him of the persecution his family faced years ago when they fled the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. Gun-wielding agents searched his home, he said, and broke a few shelves and his daughter’s piggy bank, while others told him to stay on his knees. He’d been in bed when they’d arrived, and by the time they loaded him into a police vehicle, he still hadn’t had time to put a shirt on.
“People were walking with guns all over the house and the kids were still sleeping,” he said.
His daughter awoke soon, though, and yelled for him, he remembered. She ran after the vehicle that drove him away. Now, he said, if anyone is walking near the house, she screams.
“I’ve never heard my daughter scream at night (before),” he said.
In describing that scene Wednesday morning, he called law enforcement’s response “inappropriate.”
Police also arrived at Morning Star Christian Church and Petra Academy that day, Rudyi remembered. They took two computers from the building, but have since returned them.
As a result of the raids, many of the Babichenko family’s assets were frozen, which damaged the school’s budget, but the government also seized the school and the church building, Peter Babichenko said. In such forfeiture cases, government agents seize property initially if they believe it to have been acquired illegally or with ill-gotten funds. Whether the government maintains control of the property is decided in the court system.
Although initially all 10 charged were booked into the Ada County Jail, only two of the 10 charged, Paul and Henry Babichenko, remain in custody. They’ve been moved to Jerome County and cannot have any contact with each other, even phone calls, Peter Babichenko said. He said the next court hearing in the case is set for Sept. 20.
It’s not the first time the Babichenko family has been embroiled in litigation either. Peter Babichenko and his brothers Paul and Timofey have faced civil lawsuits twice from cell phone companies in the last ten years according to court documents. Virgin Mobile and TracFone Unlimited sued the brothers in 2006 and 2009 respectively, claiming the family bought cell phones in bulk and sold them overseas without permission. The Babichenko brothers settled those matters out of court for undisclosed amounts, court records reveal.
Regardless of the case against them, Peter Babichenko pointed out his brothers still donated a great deal of their money.
“These were people who did a lot of good for the community,” he said. “A lot of their money they gave away.”