Honor Among Thieves | True Crime & Crime Stories podcast - Page 5

February 08, 2026 Mike Mazursky | Israel's Infamous Heist Legend Finally Comes Clean

In this episode of Honor Among Thieves, we sit down with Mike Mazursky — a pen name used to protect the identity of a retired professional armed robber whose real-life story reads like a true crime thriller.

Mike was indicted in Israel for five major heists, including bank robberies, jewelry store hits, and cash exchange operations, but his criminal career stretches far beyond what the courts ever proved. Born in the Soviet Union, Mike escaped Russia with his parents and grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where he became obsessed at a young age with one goal: robbing a bank.

By age 18, Mike began meticulously planning a bank robbery in New York — a plan that took three years to execute. When he finally pulled it off and got away clean, he realized the rush wasn’t what he expected. That realization sent him down a darker, more calculated path: researching countries, prison systems, sentencing laws, and citizenship loopholes to determine where he could operate with the lowest long-term risk.

That research led him to Israel.

Using his Jewish ancestry to gain citizenship, Mike entered Israel believing the legal system and sentencing structure made it the most favorable environment for high-risk heists. After a brief stint in military prison and subsequent release, he launched into a years-long heist spree, committing robberies across the country — only five of which ever resulted in indictments.

But the story doesn’t stop with the crimes.

Mike gives a rare, firsthand account of the Israeli prison system, exposing how Russian inmates, Jewish inmates, and Arab inmates operate within a complex and rigid power structure. He breaks down the Russian “Thieves Code”, an infamous underground criminal ideology, and explains how shot callers, hierarchy, and prison politics truly function behind the walls.

This episode dives deep into:

International armed robbery

Bank heists and professional criminal planning

Israeli federal prison culture

Russian organized crime ideology

The global “Thieves Code” subculture

Prison hierarchy and shot callers

Crime, punishment, and redemption

This is not Hollywood. This is real-life international crime, told by the man who lived it.

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Chapters

0:00 – Introduction: Inside the Mind of a Professional International Thief