13 Ways Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 (edited) Matei Popescu pictured inside of the Vinewood Bouncers office. 2021.Early life Matei Popescu was born on October 19, 1968 in Constanta, Socialist Republic of Romania to parents Andrei and Ioana Popescu (nee Mitrita). He has two older sisters: Catalina and Georgeta, born in 1961 and 1963, and several nephews and nieces. He was raised by an ethnic Romanian family of Ukrainian, Greek and Transylvanian Saxon extraction. His parents families were from Baia Mare and Sighișoara, but moved to Dobrogea during the industrialization of Romania in the 1950s. Popescu's family were later involved with commercial fishing, and fish farms, in the Black Sea for decades. Throughout the 1980s, life for the Popescu family deteriorated because of the Communist regime's economic failures. For several years, they contended with energy blackouts and food shortages. Occasionally, heating got cut during the winters and they had to wear winter clothes while indoors, at all times. M. Popescu grew up in a dysfunctional family, led by his father, along with his two older sisters. The Popescu family inhabited state-owned apartments in the KM 4 and Falzea Sud districts, which provided an ideal commute to the Constanta Port. A. Popescu was verbally and physically abusive, and harmed both his wife and children for many years. His violence was fueled by his alcoholism. A. Popescu became an alcoholic in the 1960s to physically cope with lingering workplace injuries from the fisheries. M. Popescu himself started working there during the summers, starting at age 16, where he was his father's trawler assistant. M. Popescu was a compulsory member of the Union of Communist Youth from ages 10 - 17. He graduated from secondary school in 1985. Romanian military service M. Popescu was conscripted into the Romanian Army in 1986, while employed at the Constanta fish farms. He filled his mandatory service from 1986 - 1990, attaining the rank of Caporal in the 911th Mechanized Infantry Battalion at the Medgidia Garrison. M. Popescu was qualified as a TAB-77 driver and gunner, spending most of his unit's field exercises behind the wheel or on the turret. He saw skirmishes against the Securitate during the 1989 Romanian Revolution. In 1990, he was demobilized from the Romanian Army during the post-Communist reconstruction of Romania's military. M. Popescu sought employment on decommissioned collective farms around Constanta County after his military release. He quickly came to dislike the work after experiencing worker exploitation and numerous other abuses. Low wages, long hours and workplace violence is what drove him off of the fields and back to the military. Trench warfare in Bosnia. Early 1990s. Mercenary work abroad From 1992 - 1995, M. Popescu liaised with former Army conscripts. He departed Romania for mercenary activities in both Transnistria and Bosnia. During the Transnistrian War, M. Popescu participated as a pro-Moldovan fighter in the 1992 Battles of Dubasari and Tighina. M. Popescu was wounded in the Battle of Tighina when elements of the Russian 14th Army attacked his entrenched position with direct small arms fire. Also wounded were two Moldovan policemen who were using their vehicles to blockade a nearby section of road. He was medically evacuated and treated at the Chisinau Military Hospital before being repatriated to Romania three months later. Following his recovery, he arranged enlistment in the Bosnian Serb Army while still in Constanta. M. Popescu arrived in Banja Luka, Bosnia on December 4, 1992 and was recruited into the Bosnian Serb Army on December 7. M. Popescu joined the Bosnian Serb Army in 1992 and was mobilized to Northwest Bosnia the following year. He participated in the Siege of Bihac in a dedicated light infantry regiment of foreign Orthodox fighters, many of whom were other Romanians. He went on to complete two six month tours of Bihac, one in 1993 and the other in 1994. His regiment became locally known for causing disproportionate civilian casualties in the Bihac region, particularly at armed vehicle checkpoints. M. Popescu, while ranked a Sergeant, was again wounded on August 23, 1994 when Bosniak insurgents attacked his foot patrol with grenades and RPGs. Also killed were three Bosnian Serb soldiers, two of whom were foreign fighters from Bulgaria. He received medical evacuation to Banja Luka, undergoing emergency surgery to remove shrapnel from his neck. M. Popescu served the remainder of the Bosnian War at the Banja Luka Garrison, tasked with clerical work until his eventual discharge on November 28, 1995. Romanian Mafia involvement M. Popescu returned to Romania following the Bosnian War, settling in Bucharest. For years afterwards, he was investigated by the Politia Romana for his activities, but no criminal charges were ever laid. He was known to get a Journeyman certification in concrete finishing from a Bucharest vocational school in 1998. The following year, he returned to Constanta and started working with his cousin, Remus Popescu. R. Popescu was connected to the Romanian Mafia clans of Constanta while working out of the Agigea Port, receiving and distributing narcotics from and across the Black Sea. Meanwhile, M. Popescu was employed as a construction worker in Constanta, normally involved with constructing new apartment buildings. At night, he was helping his cousin with the production and packaging of narcotics. Simultaneously, he attempted to enter professional weightlifter circuits through Constanta's amateur powerlifting scene. His stint as an amateur powerlifter lasted for three years, during which he toured Romania for local and regional tournaments. He left the weightlifting scene when he immigrated to France in 2000. M. Popescu emigrated to France in 2000, where he's recorded as living in Reims. He was employed with numerous construction companies around the city between having to return to Romania to renew his work permits. M. Popescu is known by the Police Nationale to have partaken in scamming routes with his cousin, R. Popescu, who was coincidentally living in France at the time. These scamming routes raked in thousands of Euros over several years, primarily targeting tourists and the high society in particular. Financial scams were carried out both in-person and on the Internet. One such scamming route reached an end in Zurich, Switzerland which then caused the Federal Office of Police to get involved. M. Popescu was never apprehended in either country for his criminal activities, though R. Popescu was detained for interrogation by the Police Nationale in 2006. The Police Nationale closed their investigation on M. Popescu in 2005, as he'd been living in the United States for two years by then. Life in the United States M. Popescu acquired a U.S. Green Card while living in France, using the employment route for lawful immigration. In 2003, he arrived in the United States and called New York City his home. He was employed by a construction company in Midwood, Brooklyn while living in Brighton Beach, a notorious ethnic Russian enclave of the borough. M. Popescu lived in borderline poverty in Brighton Beach, struggled with English and found it hard to acclimatize to society outside of the neighborhood. While not working, he spent a considerable amount of his time at neighborhood bars and strip clubs, drinking heavily with disreputable locals. After two years of this lifestyle in NYC, he became sick of it and was additionally concerned about his physical health. He transitioned out of the construction industry, and in 2005, started trucking around NYC after earning his heavy vehicle license. The following year, he accepted a job from a trucking corporation headquartered in St. Louis, MO. M. Popescu migrated to the Midwest for better work after three years of living right on the east coast. M. Popescu was employed by trucking corporations in St. Louis and Columbus, MO for seven years. His traveling work took him across the entire Midwest and much of Western America. His time as a trucker was not only notable due to switching employers, but also because he accumulated a criminal record while in the industry. In 2007, M. Popescu was detained at the Allen County Jail in Fort Wayne, IN for assaulting another driver during a roadside argument on Interstate 469. Court papers alleged that M. Popescu repeatedly struck another driver in the face, while they were both pulled over, after he accused him of cutting him off on an exit-ramp. Originally charged with misdemeanor Assault, the criminal case was dropped after an out-of-court agreement was reached. M. Popescu was legally forced to compensate the other driver $10,000 USD for the unprovoked attack while being sued. In 2009, M. Popescu was criminally charged and convicted of misdemeanor vandalism in Cedar Rapids, IA. He served 3 months in the Linn County Correctional Center for misdemeanor Vandalism. His conviction came after he repeatedly struck a motorist's windshield with a baseball bat during another roadside argument on Iowa Highway 13. Involvement with Los Santos nightlife & organized crime M. Popescu has been living in Los Santos, SA since 2013. Employed as a delivery truck driver for several more years, he made deliveries around Los Santos and Los Santos County and nowhere else. He was tired of seeing the open road and wanted his change of scenery to be local only. He mainly led an uneventful life in Mirror Park, LS and wasn't involved with any crime. During the 2020 economic collapse, M. Popescu was laid off from his trucking corporation in Los Santos. Unsuccessful with finding other work, he became a freelance bouncer around the city on a whim. Joining him was David Utkin and Iosif Blumkin, who he met while getting involved with the nightlife. M. Popescu and Blumkin would go on to create the Vinewood Bouncers, a nightlife security company headquartered in Vinewood, LS. The first employees included Oleg Molchan, Tigran Arshakuni, Timur Kudryavtsev and Lucas Archer. Similar to M. Popescu himself, most of his co-workers were military veterans, and if not, had criminal histories. M. Popescu was eventually appointed the co-owner of the company by Blumkin, who provided him with a decent salary and positional authority. He started leading bouncer crews around Los Santos, making a presence at renowned venues such as Casanova's, Omega, Dungeon Crawler, Couer Noire, Singletons and the Playboy Mansion. The Vinewood Bouncers closed in 2021, several months after its founding, after internal disputes and open criminality forced them out of business. M. Popescu is presently employed as a unionized laborer with Horizon Developers LLC in Los Santos, SA. Edited November 8, 2021 by 13 Ways Edited title and character biography 3 Link to comment
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13 Ways Posted September 8, 2021 Author Share Posted September 8, 2021 (edited) I'm really not big into screenshots, so I edited a bunch of them that I had forgotten about. The character biography for Matei Popescu has also been edited with added information. Edited September 8, 2021 by 13 Ways Explanation 1 1 Link to comment
Horas Posted September 8, 2021 Share Posted September 8, 2021 13 Ways keeping Romanian legacy on check. Link to comment
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