Russian woman who tried to kill friend in US with poisoned cheesecake handed 21-year prison sentence

A Russian woman who tried to kill her friend with a cheesecake laced with poison in a bid to steal her identity has been sentenced to 21 years in prison.

Viktoria Nasyrova, who was living in New York, brought her friend, beautician Olga Tsvyk, a gift of a cake from a well-known local bakery, which she poisoned with a powerful Russian tranquiliser Phenazepam.

Ms Nasyrova, who has a young son whom her lawyers have said has a “debilitating” bone marrow disease, has also been accused of crimes in her native Russia, which has a red Interpol notice for her arrest.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder called Nasyrova, 47, “an extremely dangerous woman” and said her scheme was “diabolical”.

Nasyrova poisoned her friend with cheesecake laced with tranquiliser.Nasyrova poisoned her friend with cheesecake laced with tranquiliser.
Nasyrova poisoned her friend with cheesecake laced with tranquiliser.

Prosecutors said Nasyrova ate two pieces of the dessert and gave one to her friend before leaving Ms Tsvyk, who eventually passed out from the drug, and taking her passport, money, US work permit and other belongings.

At the time, Ms Tsvyk and Nasyrova looked quite similar, with dark hair and the same skin complexion, and they were both Russian speakers.

“A ruthless and calculating con artist is going to prison for a long time for trying to murder her way to personal profit and gain,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement. “Thankfully, the victim survived the attack on her life and we were able to deliver justice to her.”

In her impact statement delivered on Wednesday, Ms Tsvyk, 35, told the judge the ordeal left her unable to sleep for months after, terrified to go to work, distrustful of people, and constantly in fear that Nasyrova “would come back and finish what she started”.

“God gave me life when Viktoria Nasyrova tried to end my life,” she said. “For her, it was an easy thing to try and take the life of another person.

“It was easy thing to gain the trust of another person and then take everything from that person. It was easy for her to steal. It was easy for her to kill.”

She added: “I would spend hours crying myself to sleep, thinking about what happened to me.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Nasyrova left her DNA on the cheesecake box, prosecutors said, and then spoke about the incident during multiple interviews in prison.

She also left the pills around Ms Tsvyk’s body to make it look like suicide, prosecutors said. Ms Tsvyk recovered, but doctors said she was dangerously close to a heart attack.

During the trial, Ruben Borukhov, 54, said Nasyrova had drugged him during a date – and that when he came to, he discovered his watch was missing and his American Express card had $2,600 (£2,000) in unknown charges.

Queens Assistant District Attorney Konstantinos Litourgis claimed she had planned to murder Ms Tsvyk ahead of time and never showed regret after the attempt.

“The circumstances that were shown at trial demonstrate that the defendant had an unthinkable type of premeditation with this,” Mr Litourgis said. “She never cared for her victim and she also never have any remorse for what she did.”