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Boris Yeltsin once called Russia “the biggest mafia state in the world, the superpower of crime,” and in the 16 years since Yeltsin's observation, things have only gotten worse, not better. So what was one of America's biggest energy companies, Hess Corp., doing smack in the middle of a region controlled by a notorious mob organization known as the Indeitsy? That's what Forbes investigative reporter Richard Behar, an experienced writer on Russian crime, wanted to know. “Hess Oil's Russian Mob Problem” is the result of extensive and long-cultivated sourcing by Behar in the region, and methodically details an unmistakable pattern of threats, intimidation, violence, legal collusion and kickbacks by the Indeitsy—empowered by its Hess connections—at the expense of anyone perceived even remotely to be standing in its way. As a result of Behar's reporting, Hess took immediate action, severing itself from its most direct connection the Russian mafia, and eventually divesting itself of the enterprise entirely.