Friedman, Robert I., 1950-2002

Robert I. Friedman (November 29, 1950 – July 2, 2002) was an American investigative journalist. In 1993, Friedman castigated the FBI for ignoring information it had developed on the Muslim extremists behind the first bombing of the World Trade Center. The report earned him a Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Award for Best Investigative Reporting in a Weekly. Friedman wrote about Meir Kahane and the Jewish Defense League (JDL), and the book Red Mafiya about the Russian mob and its entry into the U.S. Friedman described the rise of Russian crime boss Vyachelsav Kirillovich Ivankov. His reporting resulted in Friedman receiving death threats throughout his career. The FBI at one point informed him that Russian organized crime boss Semion Mogilevich had put a contract out on his life. Robert I. Friedman died on July 2, 2002, at the age of 51 as the result of a rare disease he contracted while in India working on a story about human trafficking and sexual slavery.