Belarus
“I’m willing to die, are you?”
Those words belonged to Mill Valley businessman Evan Neumann as he threatened a police officer, according to the FBI.
Neumann was one of more than 650 people charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol that left five dead. It was an effort to prevent presidential election certification and Neumann was charged with six federal crimes in a sealed 16-page criminal complaint, filed March 23 in Washington D.C. The now unsealed complaint included several photos of Neumann, some with him wearing a gas mask, others with a “Make America Great Again” cap atop his head.
The complaint included assaulting a police officer. His alleged crimes landed him on the FBI’s Most Wanted list after he was charged in July and resulted in Neumann fleeing the U.S. and asking the country of Belarus for political asylum.
I cover Wall Street for a living and frequently tell friends “you can’t make this stuff up.” But Neumann’s tale makes the behavior of those “financial titans” look almost whimsical.
And Mill Valley’s reputation as a liberal outpost is a bizarre fit for 48-year old Neumann.
Belarus and the U.S. have no extradition treaty, so he no longer needs to fear prosecution by the Department of Justice. He pleaded for political asylum on Belarus state TV, complaining of political repression and possible torture back home, and described how during the Jan. 6 attack, “the doors were opened from the inside and we were invited to come in.” He also claimed the attack on the Capitol was a “false flag” operation, that the attack included U.S. agents posing as protesters.
He proclaimed his innocence saying, “I have no hope in the U.S. justice system right now. I’m not strong enough to withstand torture.”
Neumann lived in Mill Valley for years and started a San Francisco-based company, Aslaen Vaugn LLC, that designed and manufactured luxury purses from imported Italian leather, at $855 a pop. The purses are round and include a backlit depiction of famed artwork. The objet ’d art includes a charging port to power the artwork light as well as a cell phone. According to the company website, the purses are sold in eight different states in a total of 13 stores and one in Canada.
In fact, he used the company, which is named after his two children, as cover to flee and avoid prosecution in March.
Before a previous trip, he was stopped by the FBI who trailed him to the San Francisco International Airport on Feb. 16, 2021, and questioned him about participating in the Capitol attack. He confirmed he was there but because charges had not yet been filed, he wasn’t taken into custody.
Prior to departing for Europe, Neumann sold his two-bedroom, one-bath abode in Mill Valley’s Tamalpais Valley for $1.3 million, a nice bump from the original listing at $990,000. The transaction included a quick close of just two-and-a-half weeks.
After landing in Italy, he spent time in Switzerland, Germany, Poland and Ukraine, renting an apartment. He departed for Belarus when he discovered he was being tailed by security officials. He depicted his journey on Belarus TV as a harrowing crossing that included quicksand, poisonous snakes and a menacing wild boar.
The outlaw life is hard.
Prior to his handbag business, Neumann was CEO at Advanced Management Systems International in Sonoma County and also the general manager of the Hotel La Rose in Santa Rosa, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He was also co-founder of Global Matchmaking, a Kiev, Ukraine-based company focusing on introducing Ukrainian women to California-based men.
The Jan. 6 Capitol attack wasn’t the first time Neumann protested a government. In 2004 and 2005, he participated in the Ukraine Orange Revolution, according to his LinkedIn profile. In fact, the federal criminal complaint against Neumann contains a Jan. 6 photo of him with an Orange Revolution scarf draped around his neck.
The Jan. 6 attack isn’t Neumann’s only clash with law enforcement. In 2018 he was arrested along with his brother for illegally entering a barricaded fire zone after the Tubbs fire in February 2018 to look at the ruins of their mother’s home in Fountaingrove. While his brother pleaded guilty, Evan elected to represent himself against the charges from the Sonoma County DA’s office. Eventually, he changed his mind and pleaded guilty. He was placed on probation.
It’s unclear whether Neumann will be granted asylum, but he’s been embraced as a political pawn in the country known as the last dictatorship in Europe.
Give Neumann credit though, maybe he can fashion a purse large enough for that kind of load.
Bill Meagher is a contributing editor for NorthBay biz. He is also a senior editor at The Deal, a Manhattan-based digital financial news outlet where he covers the public markets, small-cap equity, SPACs and the SEC. He wishes you a happy and peaceful New Year.
