New York’s Top Judicial Cop or Putin’s ‘Ethical’ Front Man?
By M. Thomas Nast with Richard Luthmann
Corrupt Robert H. Tembeckjian: The Watchdog Who Moonlights for Moscow
Robert H. Tembeckjian is supposed to be New York’s top judicial ethics cop. He’s the long-serving Administrator and Counsel to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct. But while he’s tasked with policing judges, he moonlights as an advisor to Balchug Capital—a shadowy investment firm with deep ties to Vladimir Putin’s oligarch network.
Balchug Capital operates out of Sadovnicheskaya Street in Moscow, just steps from the Kremlin. The firm openly boasts of investing in Russian and post-Soviet markets—Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Armenia.
It’s chaired by David Amaryan, a Russian national once named in a massive SEC insider trading case. Amaryan worked with Ukrainian hackers to front-run trades. He avoided prison. Others didn’t.
Now, critics claim Tembeckjian helped him escape prosecution. “This isn’t just unethical,” said one former SEC official. “It may be criminal.” The reward? A seat on Balchug’s Global Advisory Board, used to launder the firm’s image abroad.
In July 2022, Vladimir Putin approved Balchug’s acquisition of Goldman Sachs’ Russian business portfolio. Tembeckjian’s name is now linked to a firm managing assets from sanctioned entities like Gazprom, Lukoil, and Rosneft.
So why is New York’s ethics czar serving as a Russian oligarch’s ‘legal fixer’? And why hasn’t he disclosed it?
Corrupt Robert H. Tembeckjian: Fixed Cases and Shielding Criminal Judges
Tembeckjian isn’t just compromised abroad. He’s covering up corruption at home.
In 2018, Staten Island Supreme Court Justice Ronald Castorina was caught lying under oath. He denied his role in creating fake Facebook pages to smear political rivals.
But messages provided by journalist Richard Luthmann showed a misogynistic Castorina gleefully plotting the online attacks.
“Lmfao. Fucking hysterical,” the judge said after seeing doctored photos mocking a female political opponent.
But under oath, he pretended he didn’t know who made them.
Tembeckjian received the complaint, reviewed the messages, and reviewed the grand jury transcript. Then, he shut the case down and told Castorina the matter was “going away.”
“Tembeckjian’s Commission never said Castorina didn’t perjure himself,” Luthmann said. “He just buried it. That’s a cover-up.”
Luthmann says that Staten Island has “an extortionist masquerading as a Supreme Court Justice.”
“Everyone knows it. Castorina goes ‘off the record’ and extorts litigants to make cases disappear, and I have tapes to prove it,” Luthmann said. “That’s what happens when you have a criminal policing those in a position of public trust. It’s the New York State Courts in a nutshell, but I have a feeling it won’t last much longer once the Trump DOJ rolls through.”
Luthmann promises “a exhaustive series of exposés on ‘Crooked Ron Castornia.’”
The story repeats across New York State.
In Westchester, disabled veteran advocate Marc Fishman was denied ADA accommodations and jailed without due process.
His crime? Fighting to maintain a relationship with his children.
His appeals to Tembeckjian went nowhere. Family Court judicial abuse continues.
“If Tembeckjian won’t protect disabled vets, who will he protect?” Fishman asked. “Only the corrupt and the connected.”
In 2023, over 3,200 complaints reached the Commission, but Tembeckjian investigated fewer than 5%. Whistleblowers say part-time judges are punished, while full-time judges with political ties are untouched.
Tembeckjian’s selective enforcement suggests a Putinesque pattern: discipline the powerless, protect the powerful.
Corrupt Robert H. Tembeckjian: Does He Belong Anywhere Near Ethics Work?
Tembeckjian lectures on judicial integrity at Harvard, advises commissions in California and Massachusetts. But does he belong in any ethics role?
His Balchug work appears nowhere in New York’s official financial disclosures. He never recused himself from cases involving Russia, cybercrime, or international corruption. Yet Balchug uses his name to promote its Kremlin-connected operations.
According to records, Balchug has ties to Russian companies like AO RMK, AO Kurganmashzavod, and AO Rustractor, which support Russia’s military-industrial base.
Is Tembeckjian helping fund the war in Ukraine? Is he laundering legitimacy for oligarch wealth?
Tembeckjian holds degrees from Syracuse University, Fordham Law School, and Harvard’s Kennedy School. He’s taught in Armenia, worked with the United Nations, and spoken for the World Bank.
But credentials don’t erase misconduct.
He once wrote that “there is no time constraint in New York on examining unethical behavior.” Yet he buried evidence of perjury, ignored disability violations, and aligned with a firm that thrives under Putin’s war economy.
His critics include lawyers, veterans, journalists, and former prosecutors. One Albany official said, “This is state-sponsored corruption, financed by foreign money.”
Robert H. Tembeckjian must resign or be removed. His financial ties to Balchug must be investigated.
Tembeckjian’s personal communications should be subpoenaed. His ethics training seminars should be canceled.
If federal law was violated, he should be indicted.
New York deserves better than a watchdog who works for the wolves.
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