Chernoy Lev Semyonovich. Lev Black. "The first Russian entrepreneur" Lev black businessman

"Biography"

Lev Semenovich Chernoy was born on December 1, 1954. in Tashkent. Residual effects of polio forced the parents to send their son to a specialized boarding school. However, already in the 8th grade he was transferred to a regular Tashkent school high school №129.

Education

In 1972, Lev Chernoy entered the Tashkent Polytechnic Institute, where he studied and at the same time worked as a laboratory assistant at the department scientific organization educational process.

"News"

Lev Black. Aluminum fan fingers

First, a little history. The leading in the USSR, the first in Russia, the Achinsk Alumina Refinery (AGK) was brought to the end by 1996. The aluminum industry desperately needed raw materials, and the only plant remaining in Russia for its production was completely in debt. Eleven thousand unemployed people roamed the city. And this despite the fact that AGK is a city-forming enterprise.

Here the Ruben brothers appear from Foggy Albion and, together with the Cherny brothers, come up with an economic innovation - tolling. No one knew what it was exactly. But it’s like it was in our country during Chernomyrdin’s time: it’s unclear, but it’s great. But in fact, the “brotherly” company Trans World Group (TVG) imported imported raw materials - alumina, aluminum was made from it and exported. The plant is native, Russian, only for the minimum amount of work, and for the fact that they took on this, Mr. Soskovets exempted TVG from taxes. It wouldn’t have worked out this way under anything else, but under tolling... Result: $300 million a year is only the “visible” profit of the company.

In the third quarter of 1997, external manager G. Fetisov took over AGK in a completely ruined state. By the end of the first quarter of 1998, the plant not only restored production and reached its design capacity, but also sold alumina at 25-30 dollars below the market price per ton, which knocked the ground out from under TVG for lobbying for tolling - they say, domestic raw materials are too expensive . And then the tax authorities began to stir: it became clear to them that tolling profits, bypassing federal and local taxes, went straight into the offshore pockets of A. Bykov and L. Cherny. And you can see that these pockets are bottomless, like the bins of the homeland under socialism.

Business partners

The fingerprints of Mikhail Cherny will now be kept forever in the archives of the Swiss police...”

At the end of December 1999, a sparsely attended but quite representative press conference took place in one of the conference rooms of an expensive Manhattan hotel. It was convened by one of the first Russian-speaking immigrant millionaires, Sam, aka Semyon Kislin, and conducted by his lawyer Derald Walprin from the reputable law firm Rosenman & Colin LLP with offices in New York and Washington. The talk at the press conference was that Kislin found himself in the midst of the election fight, like chickens being plucked. A wealthy man, he regularly contributed contributions to Republican candidates for elected office and, most recently, was particularly active in supporting then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was about to run for the Senate to replace Alfonso D'Amato. However, the Kislin family also made contributions to the re-election of Democrats Clinton and Gore, as well as to the election of Democrat Chuck Schumer to the Senate, and Sam, as expected, took a photo with the president and decorated his office with this photo.

It may be added that on November 25, 1996, the Israeli police responded to Interpol in response to a request dated November 22 of the same year regarding Tcherny Mikhail Simionovich, born January 16, 1952, who immigrated to Israel on July 21, 1994 and received Israeli citizenship under registration number 313675308. “Judging According to the information we have, the Israelis reported to Interpol, the Cherny brothers were born in Uzbekistan, where they were part of the criminal world. In Israel they are suspected of belonging to the criminal group Smoolovo (I admit that this is how they transcribed “Izmailovo” - A.G.) One of the brothers, David, is in New York. Lev Chernoy is in London, and Mikhail (“Misha”) is in Israel. “Misha” traveled abroad several times a month, especially to Paris, Vienna, Zurich, Geneva and Istanbul. In addition to the above information, he has several passports - Polish, American Uruguayan and Russian. He may also have a diplomatic passport.” It was also noted there that the presentation of this certificate cannot serve as an arrest warrant for Mikhail Cherny or a request for his extradition. “All the above information,” it concluded, “is intended for the police only.” The “American Uruguayan” passport of Mikhail Cherny seemed suspicious to me - rather, we could be talking about Paraguayan passports, which at one time were almost freely bought by Russian nouveau riche, including, say, the late Babek Sirush. I looked at the Israelis’ response to Interpol with a strong magnifying glass - no, that’s right, “American auruguay”

The black man was shown the door

In the first business week of the new year, an event occurred that many media began to comment on. mass media. The number of publications that the well-known British Trans-World Group (TVG) has decided on a “friendly division” with businessman Lev Cherny and will independently represent itself in Russia from January 2000, almost surpassed the number of reports about the nomination of Vladimir Putin as a presidential candidate RF.

« New Newspaper“more than once addressed the topic of the alliance between TVG and Lev Cherny, who coordinated the activities of the British holding in the CIS countries mainly in those areas where the keywords were “aluminium”, “alumina”, “tolling”. What happened? The group comments on the demise of the seven-year alliance to develop the aluminum complex of Russia and the CIS countries in its press statement as follows: “Mr. Lev Chernoy pursues his own goals in Russia, and is also engaged in a variety of activities, developing projects and participating in areas that are not included in into the range of activities and areas of interest to the group.”

In a word, TVG made it clear that it does not want to have anything to do with everything dubious that is hovering around the now former coordinator. But he adds: “There is no reason to assume that certain interests of the group and the interests of Mr. Lev Cherny will not coincide at individual enterprises.” And further in the text: “This is a friendly section that gives the group greater flexibility and the opportunity to continue mutually beneficial relationships with existing partners, develop new partnerships and create new alliances.”

About flexibility. Now TVG has realized that Lev Chernoy last years specifically slowed down, giving preference to his own interests rather than corporate ones. Divorces, literally and figuratively, came in succession. And in all cases, Lev Semenovich Chernoy appeared, who, however, recently started talking about some kind of solidarity. With whom? He had a fight with his brother Mikhail. Vladimir Lisin (Novolipetsk Iron and Steel Works) and Oleg Deripaska (Siberian Aluminum group) left him. Then a scandal broke out in Kazakhstan, where Cherney, under the brand name TVG, essentially lost his sense of proportion, transferring funds to the accounts of his offshore companies. As a result, enterprises of the mining and metallurgical complex, which produced about 1/5 of Kazakhstan’s GDP, were brought to a deplorable state in just two less than two years, and the Kazakh leadership showed TVG and Cherny the door. Apparently, even then there was a spark between the British and the coordinator.

Capitalism in cold climates

If the Russian aluminum industry had a face, it would look like the face of Lev Cherny - mangled, pockmarked, isolated from the outside world by a metal detector and an army of erected guards. At 45 years old, Leo, who suffered from polio as a child, still walks with a severe limp, twisting and swinging his injured leg; his eyes are like two blue slits for coins, his hair is smoothed into a vampiric triangle to his forehead. He is dressed in a black suit and smokes a Cohiba cigar.

“Am I afraid of the mafia?” - Cherney asks with a smile. “If I answer you that no, then it will not be true. If I say yes, then it won’t be true either.”

With this one translucent answer, Chernoy summed up Soviet Russia. After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, a struggle began between the half-formed, often conflicting democratic impulses of Russians and the centuries-old criminal culture that wields an untold amount of power there. The West has enthusiastically embraced the rise of parliamentary democracy in Russia - grandly promising aid and investment - but Russia's recent trajectory has left little room for optimism. Today, even many of Russia's elected officials speak of the country as a kleptocracy, whose social, political and economic institutions are so infested with organized crime that even the most inveterate optimists have lost hope. Western companies that have invested in Russian economy in the early 90s, they either paid dearly for this mistake, or they had to make compromises the possibility of which had never occurred to them.

“More often than not, it is not clean-shaven, tanned, impeccably dressed yachtsmen under snow-white sails who achieve success in this stormy sea,” says Lev. reading from a prepared statement, “and the unkempt skipper. commanders of a pirate ship. And don't be afraid. These are the laws of the primitive accumulation of capital, applicable everywhere.”

Poisoned by aluminum. “The above persons use the services of hired killers”

The already legendary “aluminum wars” may break out again in RUSSIA. The fight over the abolition of tolling has been going on for months. This English word means that foreign company processes imported raw materials at Russian factories and then exports the finished metal. Tolling is beneficial for aluminum smelters because the foreigner pays them for their work. It is beneficial to intermediaries (such as the famous British company Trans World Group) - they receive a percentage of the transaction. Tolling is unprofitable for tax authorities and civil servants who are putting together a budget that is falling apart at the seams - according to them, the budget loses $300 million annually due to tolling schemes, that is, almost half of the IMF tranche expected by Russia. If we draw a “firing line” in this war, then on one side (“for tolling”) there are large metallurgical plants, primarily KrAZ and BrAZ (where businessman Lev Chernoy has great influence), as well as the Ministry of Economy, which is interested in sustainable work industrial enterprises. Against - the Ministry of Taxes and Duties, the Ministry of Finance, 23 senators who sent a letter to Vladimir Putin asking for the abolition of tolling, and the Siberian Aluminum company of Oleg Deripaska. Deripaska has his own reasons: Sibaluminium has created a joint venture with RAO UES of Russia, which is headed by Anatoly Chubais. Calculation - for more profitable terms access to energy resources. So there are no idealists in the aluminum business - if Chernoy had agreed with Chubais, then Deripaska would have opposed tolling.

Lev Black. "The first Russian entrepreneur"

Cherny Lev Semenovich, born in 1954 in Tashkent. Jew. Citizen of Israel.

Leo is the middle of three brothers. The older brother, Mikhail, born in 1952, lives in Israel, the younger brother, David, born in 1958, lives in the USA. After leaving Russia for the West in 1994, L. Cherny lived in Great Britain and Israel. (10.04.00)

Cherney killed the site. For nothing, for nothing...

03/23/2000 By decision of the company Internet Users Society-Niue, which administers the domain.nu, the registration (delegation) of the domain name from the previous owner was canceled. In connection with this decision, the press service of entrepreneur L.S. Cherny informs all interested parties the following.

While studying at the Tashkent Polytechnic Institute, student Cherny was actively involved in speculation, for which he was prosecuted. He bought his freedom in exchange for cooperation with the KGB. After graduating from high school, security officers provided Lev Cherny with a warm place - he took the post of head of the quality control department of a branch of the Tashkent Excavator Plant, which produced consumer goods. (Сompromat.Ru 10.03.00)

On the basis of this branch in 1985, Lev created one of the first production cooperatives in Uzbekistan. To work in it, he attracted his older brother Mikhail, who took over the organization of production, while Lev was involved in the supply of raw materials and sales of products, and financial issues. The cooperative essentially became the brothers' first and last joint venture.

Germany laundered Trans World Group

German investigators have concluded their investigation into money laundering by British company Trans World Group (TWG), saying they found no wrongdoing. The closure of the case can be considered a victory for TWG owners, brothers David and Simon Reuben, who maintained that their company never broke any laws.

British TWG since the early 90s. was a key player in the Russian aluminum market, being a co-owner of the Krasnoyarsk, Bratsk and Sayan aluminum smelters. The name of TWG, its creators, the Ruben brothers, and Russian partners, in particular the brothers Mikhail and Lev Cherny, have been repeatedly associated with high-profile scandals in Russia and abroad. Some of these scandals were caused by suspicions of ties between the TWG and its associates and international criminal circles. TWG curtailed its activities in Russia last year after it sold its aluminum assets - large stakes in KrAZ and BrAZ - to the current owners of the Russian Aluminum company.

Siberian barber

From rags to offshore riches

In 1992, members of the Big Ring of the London Metal Exchange (regular major players of the exchange. - “!”) agreed to establish control over aluminum production in Russia and its export supplies. By this time, Moscow liberal reformers announced that the market itself would regulate everything, and completely withdrew from the operational management of the economy.

For the role of the “market”, members of the LME Big Ring chose David Ruben, who rolled up his sleeves and began to regulate Russian market aluminum To begin with, Ruben established close contact with the brothers Lev and Mikhail Cherny, who controlled a significant share of non-ferrous metal exports from Russia. After the withdrawal of the state, this market rapidly became criminalized, so the English stockbroker needed reputable counterparties. Ruben quickly explained to the Blacks that it was unwise to work under an agreement with the “red directors” on kickback schemes. We need to take ownership of factories. This is why the simplest scheme was developed.

Trading firms established on shares with “red directors” had to register independent offshore companies and use money from metal exports to buy shares in factories. David Ruben, together with the Cherny brothers, established the TWG network of companies, which quickly brought the conceived scheme to life. Political cover for TWG was provided by Oleg Soskovets. At first, everyone considered Deripaska to be Soskovets’ future son-in-law. At the stage of the “divorce” from Lev Cherny, Oleg Vladimirovich already acted as the fiancé of Liza Berezovskaya, the daughter of Boris Abramovich. The marriage PR campaign ended with the wedding of Deripaska and the daughter of Valentin Yumashev.

Mikhail Chernoy, Deripaska’s criminal “roof”

Mikhail Chernoy together with the authorities of the Izmailovo criminal group, he participated in the division of the aluminum business in Russia, when the bandits began a total seizure of state property. You can verify this if you look at the archive of his case, located in the prosecutor's office. Now to the point.

Mikhail Chernoy born in Uman (Cherkasy region) in 1952. Mikhail has two younger brothers - Lev and David. 1954 - the family moves to Tashkent. Here Mikhail graduates from secondary school educational school, then enters the Faculty of Production Organization at the Tashkent Polytechnic Institute.

At the age of 14, he began working by mastering the profession of an electrician, then worked as a telephone operator.
Since 1981 he has worked as an administrator, and recently became head of the football team “Strat” from the 1st League of Tashkent. Having gone through this stage, the love of sports took on special significance in his life. Until 1985 inclusive, he worked at a consumer goods factory and was the head of one of the large workshops.

In 1985 Mikhail Chernoy together with his brother Lev, they open one of the first cooperatives in Tashkent, which is initially engaged in the flower business, but with the expansion of the brothers’ circle of interests, the eldest Mikhail takes upon himself the entire organization of production, Lev deals with financial issues, the supply of raw materials, as well as the sale of products, financial issues. According to Mikhail Cherny himself, this is where they earned their first million rubles. In Cherny's interview with World of News in 1999, they talk about the diverse activities of their cooperative with a very complex production of everything; from plastic to metal products.

Many media outlets confidently state that while running their business, the brothers were supported by the criminal world of Tashkent. For example, the newspaper “Conservator” (2003) reports that funds for business promotion for the Cherny brothers were provided by the Uzbek criminal community, including Tofik Arifov and Gafur Rakhimov. The Black Cooperative was regularly used by these criminal structures to launder proceeds from arms and drug trafficking, prostitution and racketeering.

Here in Uzbekistan, Mikhail Chernoy meets. Today, together with Oleg Deripaska, the latter is included in the list of the most reliable partners.

Sam Kislin was “dumped” by the Cherny brothers

In 1988, he left for Moscow, where he met many entrepreneurs and Western businessmen. In 1989, American citizen Sam Kislin (owner of the company Trans Commodities, born in Odessa), who at that time was selling many things - both oranges and sewing machines, first became acquainted with brother Lev Chernoy, then Mikhail himself, which determined, according to Mikhail Cherny himself, his future fate.

Kislin’s business consisted of organizing the supply of products to Russian metallurgical industry enterprises. The company's problems were associated with a number of critical issues to develop issues, first of all, problems with the delivery of raw materials. This is where Mikhail Chernoy, who had quite a lot of transport workers, came in handy, including in the Ministry of Railways. All this allowed Trans Commodities to deliver cargo accurately and on time.

The year 1991 was marked for Lev Cherny by his acquaintance with Goran Stanovich in Moscow, who represented the company Trans World Metals (TWM) - owned by David Ruben, an English businessman, a former broker of the metal exchange in London. At that time, TWM collaborated with the Raznoimport association on the foreign market and acted as an intermediary in the supply of small quantities of tin to the London Metal Exchange.

The publication “Conservator” (2003) reports that Lev Chernoy registers the company Trans CIS Commodities Ltd in Monte Carlo (Monaco). In fact, the entire Trans Commodities business went to her, but without Sam Kislin. In the past, the Odessa resident tried to get at least compensation, but was left without it.

Trans CIS Commodities finds a new partner and starts working together with David Ruben's TWM. The British side could provide all the opportunities for the sale of metal, provided in almost unlimited quantities by the Russian side. This is how the Trans World Group (TWG) partnership is born.

Mikhail Chernoy analyzes the production of Soviet enterprises to understand the true reasons for their degradation and lack of working capital. He is building a work production model that was supposed to overcome the production crisis, for which it was necessary to attract investment from the West. So he and his brother meet with representatives of the largest company in Yugoslavia, which traded coke, coal and metal. Cooperation begins with coke resale. At first we resold coke. By 1988, they began to export coal and iron ore from the USSR.

Its owners chose the aluminum industry as the main area of activity for TWG, and Russian plants became ideal sites for the production of such goods. Trans World Metals is the business of David Reuben, which directly affected the London Metal Exchange, namely, aluminum, unlike ferrous metals, is an exchange commodity.

According to the creators of the TWG, it was they who helped restore ties between the union republics after the collapse of the USSR and helped build the infrastructure of Russia. Greed led them to take risks where, for example, Alcoa and other large companies were afraid to take risks. Since in Europe returns from trading operations was a maximum of 1%, that is, $5 per 1 ton of metal. Here, as Ruben says, he saw an opportunity to earn $200 per ton. That's how the profits started flowing.

The Cherny brothers are credited with both the invention of the tolling scheme and the unconditional priority in the use of this scheme in Russia. The essence of the scheme was as follows: the aluminum smelter does not participate in the sale of metal or in the purchase of raw materials at all. He provides services to a tollinger company that supplies alumina to this plant and which takes the necessary metal from it. At the same time, the aluminum smelter receives from the company a minimum fee for this service, which is enough to pay wages to employees. The proceeds from the transaction are deposited in the tolling company, which is not subject to any taxes. So the plant’s income is equal to zero, and the tollinger’s income jumps to the maximum.

Thus, it was the Chernys who, since 1992, began to widely use the scheme for processing alumina (custom raw materials) in the aluminum industry of Russia. The scheme exempted aluminum producers from paying taxes and customs duties, while leaving about 2/3 of the cash proceeds in the bank accounts of intermediary companies.

TWG's expenses in the early days of the tolling scheme's existence amounted to quite considerable amounts, despite this, most of the profits remained in the hands of the partners. Many entrepreneurs who quickly became rich bought up real estate in the European part of the continent, at this time TWG bought up all the vouchers that were thrown out at check auctions for the privatization of aluminum smelters. Thus, with energetic steps, the Cherny brothers established control over them through the acquisition of significant blocks of shares in these factories.

Gradually by 1998 Mikhail Chernoy and his brother Lev controlled the three largest aluminum plants in Russia: Sayansky, Bratsky and Krasnoyarsk (more than 60% of aluminum produced in Russia).

Mikhail Chernoy by this time no longer lives in the capital of Russia; in 1994 he became a citizen of Israel.

In 1998, Mikhail quarreled with his brother Lev, which led to him leaving general business. Then he and Oleg Deripaska, General Director of the Sayan Aluminum Smelter, through an additional issue of SaAZ shares, became the owners of a controlling stake. SaAZ becomes the parent structure of Siberian Aluminum, Oleg Deripaska took the position of president of this group. Mikhail Chernoy remains in the shadows.

A quarrel between the brothers led to the redistribution of property in this industry. One version says that Lev and his Western partners did not like Mikhail’s connections in the criminal world, as well as the particularly close attention to his older brother from the outside. law enforcement. Lev himself does not call this a quarrel, but due to disagreements at the end of 1996, he was offered to leave the common business on his own and sell the shares of the factories that he owned together. Lev sells general shares, and retains only shares that he acquired on his own - the plant in Sayanogorsk, shares of coal and copper enterprises.

At the turn of the century, TWG began to have serious problems, as the head of the Russian energy system threatened bankruptcy of this enterprise and demanded payment of past debts amounting to several hundred million dollars (this was the effect of paying for electricity at preferential tariffs). In February 2000, the Rubens and Lev sold the largest assets they owned in the amount of $500 million to a group that was associated with Sibneft. The Rubens received half of this amount, and Lev was promised to give the second.

In 2001 Mikhail Chernoy became a participant in a major scandal involving the purchase of an Israeli telecommunications company. In 1999, Gad Zeevi (an Israeli entrepreneur) acquired a 19.6% stake in Bezeq from Cable & Wireless, a large British company. It soon became clear that Zeevi took a loan of $140 million from Mikhail Cherny for this purchase. In exchange for this, Cherney received an option to buy back a certain portion of Bezeq shares after 5 years at the price of the first sale, and if the company’s shares depreciated, he would receive the money back.

In the spring of 2001, this deal caused a serious scandal. Mikhail Chernoy came under suspicion from Israeli law enforcement agencies. Thus, the latter believed that the money provided on credit for the purchase of Bezeq was of dubious origin and that the Zeevi company did not inform the Israeli authorities about the sources of the funds found. A year later, Chernoy was charged with shadow financing.

Jacob Garanti, a spokesman for the Israeli Ministry of Justice, said that Mikhail Chernoy is accused of money laundering Money and obstruction of justice, that the money used to purchase the Bezeq shareholding was “dirty.” In these situations, Mikhail Chernoy always remained true to himself and repeatedly asserted that the reason for all the accusations was his personal enemies and competitors in Israel. Police regard the Bezeq deal as an attempt by the Russian mafia to seize an Israeli telecommunications company for wiretapping. telephone conversations citizens of this country. At this point, Chernoy emotionally stated that for the last 6 years his conversations have been monitored around the clock, but he cannot come to terms with the lack of incriminating evidence.

August 19, 2000 Mikhail Chernoy receives a ban on entry into Bulgaria for 10 years and is expelled from the country. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation stood up for the businessman, declaring this case a political provocation to discredit Russian business. Then M. Cherny was denied entry into France, Switzerland, the USA and Britain due to suspicions of connections with the criminal world and money laundering.

Black himself denies his connections with the Russian mafia, and explains the charges brought against him by orders carried out by the Israeli authorities. In December 2000, several non-ferrous metal trading companies announced a $2.7 billion lawsuit in New York court against Russian company"Russian Aluminum" (the largest aluminum producer in the Russian Federation) on charges of extortion to gain control over a certain Russian plant, as well as murder. The claim filed by Alucoal Ltd., Base Metals Trading Ltd., Base Metal Trading SA is also addressed to the main owners of this enterprise Oleg Deripaska and Mikhail Cherny.

Cherny's interrogation in March 2001 at the Israeli Police Department for International Crimes Investigation resulted in house arrest. In May of the same year, M. Chernoy made an official appeal to the Israeli authorities and asked the latter to bring him to trial on charges of bribery, kidnapping and organizing murders. The close and thorough “guardianship” of M. Cherny by the police became the reason for this decision. People from M. Cherny's inner circle are arrested: Oleg Chernomorets, a member of the city council of the resort city of Eilat, Elena Sakir, Mikhail Cherny's secretary. They fell under suspicion of organizing “gatherings of the Russian mafia” on the shores of the Red Sea.

At the beginning of 2001 Mikhail Cherny controls the shares of Levski Spartak, a Bulgarian football club, and a small stake in the GSM operator MobiTel (Bulgaria). Chernoy also controls a certain part of the business of UMMC (Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company), and in 2000 controlled approximately 45 percent of the shares of Siberian Aluminum, with partners he shares Naftex - a Bulgarian oil trading group, the Technology Industry group and a number of metallurgical enterprises in Bulgaria. In 2002, Chernoy sold Russian assets belonging to him.

The lawyer of the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska said at a court hearing in London that Mikhail Chernoy was never a partner of the businessman, but was an “authority” who “protected” the aluminum plant. The London Supreme Court is considering the claims of Chernoy, an Israeli businessman, for 20% of Russian Aluminum. .

In response to the words of lawyer M. Cherny regarding the fact that his client assisted O. Deripaska in establishing a business when he did not even have food, the Russian oligarch’s defender objected to the fact that Cherny is a criminal who made a fortune through criminal connections. He also protected the factories of Deripaska himself, for which he received the money that was due to him.

O. Deripaska's lawyer Thomas Beasley states that Cherney's career was built as follows: the Israeli "businessman" was an authoritative bandit throughout Tashkent, after which he linked Uzbek and Russian crime. In Moscow, Cherny is accepted into Anton Malevsky’s group, which has offered protection to the business of oligarch Deripaska.

The plaintiff’s lawyer said that at the time the oligarch and Cherny O. Deripaska met, he was already a successful businessman, and not a poor student.

Thomas Beasley drew special attention of the court to the “connections” of M. Cherny: among influential people is B. Yeltsin’s tennis coach, and well-established connections with criminal businessmen (Thomas Beasley named 10 authorities - acquaintances).

The lawyer also explained the acquaintance of the client and the defendant. In Russia, the “roof” was a mandatory element of business in the 90s until President V.V. Putin stopped the situation. The lawyer explained that O. Deripaska was a “young man” at the head of a huge Siberian plant, far from large cities riddled with organized crime. Malevsky and Chernoy persistently offered their services to the Russian oligarch. They considered Deripaska a good “target”. The financial documents signed by Cherny Deripaska covered the “krysha” relationship, but not the partnership. In 2001, businessmen signed a document that became the final document in their “cooperation” on the payment of “compensation.” Then O. Deripaska transferred $250 million to the organized group of M. Cherny.

Thomas Beasley noted that there were friendly relations between Cherny and Deripaska. The defendant only complied with the requirements of the roof, namely, he met with the people who represented it and was friendly to them.

In the period from 1996 to 2007, a case was investigated in Switzerland against M. Cherny, who was suspected of having connections with the “Russian mafia.” The trial took place in 2008 and ended with the complete acquittal of Cherny. On May 13, 2010, a Swiss court compensated Cherny for unfounded suspicions in the amount of 30 thousand Swiss francs.

In 2009, Central Court No. 4 (a branch of the National Court of Spain) issued an arrest warrant for Mikhail Cherny, suspected of money laundering, and put him on the international political wanted list.

Mikhail Chernoy demanded 20 percent of OJSC Russian Aluminum (13.2 percent of UC Rusal - after the merger) of O. Deripaska. Chernoy filed a lawsuit against O. Deripaska in 2006. On July 3, 2008, an English court ruled that Cherney has the right to try Deripaska in England. He also noted that if the hearing of the case is transferred to Russia, Mikhail Cherny could be killed or detained on false charges. However, the consideration of the case began only on July 9, 2012. The defense of the Russian oligarch continued in September this year after a short pause in the trial. Cherney expected compensation in the amount of $1 billion. The consideration of the case was terminated by the businessmen signing a settlement agreement. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Businessman, former aluminum tycoon

Entrepreneur, founder of the Mikhail Cherny Foundation to help victims of terror. In the past, he was an aluminum magnate: together with the Trans World Group company, he owned large blocks of shares in the Bratsk, Krasnoyarsk and Sayan aluminum smelters, and until 2001 he was a shareholder of Siberian Aluminum (he refuted the allegations of the media, which called him the actual owner of the company). In 2006, he filed a lawsuit in a British court against the owner of the Basic Element company, Oleg Deripaska, for violating an agreement to pay money for a share in the aluminum business sold in 2001; in 2012, the process ended with a settlement agreement. In 2009, Interpol put him on the international wanted list on suspicion of money laundering. Israeli citizen since 1994.

Mikhail Semenovich Chernoy (Cherny) was born on January 16, 1952 in the city of Uman, Cherkasy region of the Ukrainian SSR. Some media also indicated that he was born in Tashkent (confusion could arise from the fact that Cherny’s family moved to the capital of the Uzbek SSR in 1954, where Mikhail’s younger brothers Lev and David were born). In 1981, Mikhail Chernoy graduated from the “production organization” department of the mechanical faculty of the Tashkent Polytechnic Institute.

Information was published that since 1981, Chernoy worked in the football team of the 1st league “Start” (he was an administrator and team leader). Later, Chernoy began doing “functional work” in the Tashkent sports association. Chernoy himself said that after graduating from the institute, he began working “at one of the local industrial plants”: he was a foreman, a shop manager, and a deputy production manager.

According to some reports, in 1985, Mikhail’s brother, Lev, who worked as the head of the quality control department at a branch of the Tashkent Excavator Plant, created one of the first production cooperatives in Uzbekistan. He also recruited his older brother to work in the cooperative. Later, the Russian media mentioned the Cherny brothers as large “guild workers” who worked “in the sphere of shadow production,” which was provided by raw materials obtained through theft. Later, Chernoy took up trading and, in the interests of this business, began to actively use the connections he had in sports circles, thanks to which he “gained the opportunity to travel throughout the country as a sports official.”

In 1988, Chernoy moved to Moscow and soon met the owner of the Trans Commodities company, Sam (Semyon) Kislin, with whom he began exporting iron ore, coke and coal from the USSR. In the first half of 1992, Lev Chernoy registered the company Trans CIS Commodities Ltd in Monaco. (TCC). According to media reports, “the Trans Commodities business actually passed to her - but without Sam Kislin,” who unsuccessfully tried to achieve a civilized division of the business.

In 1992, the Chernys got new partners - British businessmen David and Simon Reuben. The Rubens and Lev Chernoy created a joint offshore company Trans World Group (TWG), which soon received permission Russian government for duty-free export of aluminum and import of alumina. Some sources claimed that Mikhail Cherny was also among the co-owners of TWG, but the entrepreneur himself denied this, without denying his cooperation with the company. Subsequently, the media indicated that the Cherny brothers created their fortune through aluminum tolling. His scheme involved the operation of enterprises using raw materials supplied by customers without paying for their cost. Thus, it turned out that the factories operating under the tolling scheme provided a service to the tolling company TWG registered offshore and received a minimum fee for this.

After the start of privatization in Russia, the Blacks took "vigorous steps to establish control over the factories through the acquisition of significant stakes in their shares." By the mid-1990s, TWG became the owner of large blocks of shares in the Bratsk (BrAZ), Krasnoyarsk (KrAZ) and Sayan (SaAZ) aluminum smelters and began to control the financial flows of the Novokuznetsk (NkAZ) and Bogoslovsk aluminum smelters. It was claimed that the company controlled 73 percent of aluminum production in Russia. In addition, Cherny and TWG became owners of large blocks of shares in Russia's largest steel producers - the Novolipetsk and Magnitogorsk metallurgical plants. During the same period, they began to cooperate with Oleg Deripaska, who held the position general director"Rosaluminproduct" (since 1993 - JSC "Aluminproduct").

Russian media wrote that crime showed interest in aluminum during this period, as a result of which aluminum smelters became “objects of struggle between various criminal groups,” and Mikhail Chernoy began to acquire enemies. In 1994, he emigrated to Israel, received Israeli citizenship and, according to some reports, “stepped aside from the aluminum wars raging in Russia.” Meanwhile, according to press reports, Russian aluminum smelters were under the control of the Cherny brothers until 1997 (according to other sources, until 1998).

According to Cherny himself, at the end of 1996 - beginning of 1997, as a result of disagreements, he was asked to leave the common business and sell shares in the factories that he owned jointly with Lev and TWG. After selling the shares of part of the aluminum enterprises, the businessman reported, he kept for himself “shares of the plant in Sayanogorsk” - SaAZ, as well as shares of copper and coal enterprises. Deripaska became Chernoy’s partner, and soon they became the owners of a controlling stake in SaAZ, which became the parent structure of the Siberian Aluminum group, which was headed by Deripaska, and Mikhail Chernoy, as journalists put it, “preferred to remain in the shadows.”

Journalists in the Russian media have repeatedly expressed suspicions about the businessman’s connections with the criminal world. In particular, Cherny’s name was mentioned in the press along with the names of businessman, leader of the Izmailovo organized crime group Anton Malevsky and Sergei Popov, who was considered one of the leaders of the Podolsk organized crime group. Mikhail Chernoy appeared in the press in connection with the 1995 investigation into the criminal case of “Chechen advice notes” (suspicions were expressed that Trans CIS Commodities earned “its first money through dummy banks in Chechnya” using false documents). Despite the fact that Mikhail Cherny managed to win several lawsuits against the Russian media and achieve a refutation of the information published in them about the possible criminal connections of the businessman, France, Great Britain, the USA and Switzerland subsequently denied the businessman the right to enter. In August 2000, Chernoy, who had a business in Bulgaria, was expelled from the country with deprivation of the right to stay on its territory and enter it for ten years - as a person associated with international criminal organizations and threatening the national security of the state. The media also wrote about attempts by the Israeli authorities to deprive Blacks of Israeli citizenship. However, they failed to prove that he was engaged in illegal business - money laundering, extortion, drug trafficking and posed a threat to the country's national security.

At the beginning of 2005, Cherney announced that Deripaska's Basel had not paid him all the money for the share in the aluminum business received in 2001, so he was claiming $3 billion or 20 percent of Rusal shares. In 2006, after the deadline for payments expired in March, Cherney filed a lawsuit in a British court against Deripaska. In 2007, Chernoy, speaking about the essence of the claim, stated that now he no longer owned 20, but 40 percent of the company, since using their common money, Deripaska “over the past years” bought out the shares of Roman Abramovich and Boris Berezovsky. In turn, Deripaska denied Cherny’s accusations. Moreover, he insisted that Mikhail Chernoy extorted money from him: according to the businessman, Chernoy was part of the Izmailovo organized crime group, which provided their company with a “roof” in exchange for a share in the enterprise’s profits. When talking about the conflict, the media especially noted that it was Deripaska Cherney who especially trusted as a business partner. Subsequently, the businessman even suggested that Deripaska was the organizer of the campaign launched against him. In 2012, Chernoy renounced his claims against Deripaska, concluding a settlement agreement with him.

In May 2009, the Central Court No. 4 of the National Court of Spain issued an arrest warrant for Cherny, suspected of money laundering. In the summer of the same year, according to Cherny, “in the Spanish case” he was put on the wanted list by Interpol.

The media occasionally published information about Cherny’s condition. So, in February 2006, the magazine "Finance." He estimated the entrepreneur's fortune at 1 billion rubles ($35 million). In publications in the Israeli press in 2009, you can find information that Chernoy himself estimated his fortune at $5 billion.

Cherney is married for the second time and is the father of four daughters. It was reported that Chernoy lives with his family near Tel Aviv. The founder of the Mikhail Cherny Foundation to help victims of disasters and terrorist attacks called helping kind and honest people his hobby.

Chernoy Mikhail Semenovich, Chernoy Lev Semenovich, Chernoy David Semenovich

After graduating from the Tashkent Polytechnic Institute, Lev Chernoy was hired at the Tashkent Excavator Plant to the position of head of the quality control department of the branch that produced consumer goods. It was reported that on the basis of this branch, Lev created one of the first production cooperatives in Uzbekistan. To work in it, he attracted his older brother Mikhail, who took over the organization of production, while Lev was involved in the supply of raw materials and sales of products, and financial issues. According to Mikhail Cherny’s own words, in the early 1980s he was engaged in functionary work in the Tashkent Sports Association, during which he met the coach of the USSR national tennis team, Shamil Tarpishchev, who in the 1990s entered the highest political elite of Russia.

Information was published that Lev Chernoy relied on the support of organized criminal groups in Tashkent, the leaders of which were his former school friends. According to various publications, one of the Cherny brothers (Lev or Mikhail) studied at the same school with Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov (nickname “Taivanchik”), who later became one of the foremen of the Izmailovo organized crime group in Moscow. According to some reports, money for the promotion of the Chernykh cooperative was allocated from the local “common fund”, since Lev was of interest to criminals in connection with the creation of a structure for laundering proceeds from racketeering, prostitution, arms and drug trafficking. Through connections with the Uzbek criminal community, primarily with Gafur Rakhimov and Tofik Arifov, Lev Chernoy allegedly established relationships with such major figures of the Russian criminal world as thief in law Vyacheslav Ivankov (“Yaponchik”) and Otari Kvantrishvili. Thanks to this cooperation, Chernoy became one of the largest “guild workers” in Uzbekistan working in the sphere of shadow production of consumer goods.

In the field of selling consumer goods, the Chernys established cooperation with an employee of the foreign trade organization Uzbekintorg (according to Mikhail Cherny, this happened in). “Uzbekintorg” supplied abroad the products of Uzbek factories (metallurgy and chemistry), and in return received consumer goods that were in short supply in the USSR, which were sold in Uzbekistan, including through the Cherny brothers.

In the late 1980s, the Blacks moved from Tashkent to Moscow, where they founded the Soviet-Panamanian joint venture Columbus. Chernykh's closest associate in the Columbus joint venture was a native of Tashkent, Yakov Goldovsky. The official activity of the joint venture was timber trading. There was information that Italians of Bulgarian origin took part in the organization of the enterprise, the name of Laura Vidinlieva was mentioned.

At the end of the 1990s, Lev Cherny’s shares in Siberian aluminum smelters were bought by Sibneft shareholders Boris Berezovsky, Badri Patarkatsishvili and Roman Abramovich. And in the early 2000s, Mikhail Chernoy sold his shares in Rusal to Oleg Deripaska, and in UMMC and Kuzbassrazrezugol. With Mikhail Cherny remained a good relationship, but he sued Deripaska for a long time in British courts, claiming that Deripaska had not fully paid him for the Rusal shares.

In the 2000s, Mikhail Chernoy left for permanent residence in Israel.

Since 1998, Lev Chernoy has been trying to implement political projects in Russia, creating for himself the image of a patriotic entrepreneur and statesman. On this basis, Lev Chernoy actively collaborated with Boris Berezovsky. In 1999, Lev Chernoy created and headed the Institute of Prospective scientific research at the Department of Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which “conducts systematic research in the field of macroeconomics, sociology and high technologies”, “participates in the development and implementation of the Basic Research Programs of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences “Economics and Sociology of Knowledge” and “Scientific and Technological Forecast for the Development of the Russian Economy.” It was reported that Lev Chernoy supported the creation of the Unity party, but what contribution he made to its creation is unknown. In 2000, Cherny created the Interregional Public Organization for Promoting Democratic Reforms “Mobilization and Development,” which functioned at least until 2012.

Date of information update: 2015.

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Cherny Lev Semenovich, born in 1954 in Tashkent. Jew. Citizen of Israel.

Soon Lev Cherny became one of the largest “guild workers” working in the sphere of shadow production of consumer goods. Production was provided by raw materials that were obtained through systematic theft of state property on an especially large scale. In this, L. Cherny relied on the support of organized criminal groups in Tashkent, whose leaders were his former school friends. According to some reports, money for the promotion of the cooperative was allocated from the local “common fund”, since Lev was of interest to criminals in connection with the creation of a structure for laundering proceeds from racketeering, prostitution, arms and drug trafficking. Through connections with the Uzbek criminal community, primarily with Gafur Rakhimov and Tofik Arifov, Cherny established relationships with such major figures of the criminal world as thief in law Vyacheslav Ivankov (“Yaponchik”) and Otari Kvantrishvili (“Otarik”). (www. chernoi.nu)

In 1990, Cherny met the owner of the Trans Commodities company, Sam Kislin, a native of Odessa and now an American citizen. Together they begin to supply raw materials to Russian metallurgical enterprises. a lack of working capital forced directors to resort to the services of L. Cherny and Kislin. The scope of Trans Commodities' activities expanded and soon L. Cherny registered the company Trans-CIS Commodities Ltd in Monte Carlo (Principality of Monaco). (TCC), which essentially took over Trans Commodities' business. Kislin’s attempts to achieve a civilized division were harshly suppressed: he was advised to “think seriously if his wife wants to see him and his children alive.”

According to the US FBI and Swiss police, “Yaponchik” became L. Cherny’s partner in Trans Commodities and the company was actively used to “launder” dirty money, including money received from the drug business.

In 1991, L. Cherny met in Moscow Goran Stanovich, a representative of the small company Trans-World Metals (TWM), owned by the English businessman David Ruben. At that time, TWM mediated the supply of small quantities of tin to the London Metal Exchange (LME) and collaborated with VO Raznoimport.

TCC began working together with TWM. It was then that the aluminum industry of Russia and other former republics of the USSR became the sphere of L. Cherny’s main interests. In 1992, a conglomerate of intermediary firms formed around TWM, called the Trans-World Group (TWG). (www.chernoi.nu)

In 1992, Cherny contacted Soskovets, who sanctioned a method of pumping money out of the country—tolling—in the Russian aluminum industry, unprecedented in the economic history of mankind. The regime of customer-supplied raw materials (alumina) “under customs control” exempted TWG from taxes and customs duties on imported raw materials and exported metal. At the same time, up to 75% of foreign currency earnings remained in the accounts of intermediary firms. Thanks to TWG tolling for short term became one of the three largest players on the London Metal Exchange. In 1995, TWG sold over 1 million tons of aluminum on this exchange. 5% of total world production. TWG's annual revenue reached US$5 billion. TWG President D. Ruben repeatedly emphasized in the British press that “it was Lev, with his connections, who set up business in the territory of the former Soviet Union" Cherny was listed in TWG as just a general consultant, but, according to company employees, all issues related to the conduct of business in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan were resolved individually..03.00)

Cherny himself argued that a foreign partner in the person of Ruben was necessary to raise funds to finance operations with aluminum smelters. However, in reality, Trans-World Metals, due to its scale, could not act as a major investor and L. Cherny needed TWG only for the legalization of capital of criminal origin, primarily for investing funds from the “common fund” in a legal business. TWG President D. Ruben is assigned the role of “sic-chairman”.

Throughout almost his entire career in big business L. Cherny was in the field of view of law enforcement agencies. Thus, at the beginning of 1992, the American company Newtel Co., founded by emigrants from Russia, carried out a large-scale operation to collect ruble funds from Russian buyers for the purchase of imported industrial goods and food products. The collected funds were converted into hard currency (the total amount amounted to millions of dollars) and transferred abroad. It is alleged that their conversion through Stolichny Bank was organized by L. Cherny. (www.chernoi.ru)

Seeing the high profitability of operations in the Russian aluminum business, L. Cherny took energetic steps to establish control over the plants through the acquisition of significant blocks of their shares. To circumvent the 20% restriction on free acquisition of shares introduced by the Government of the Russian Federation Russian enterprises, L. Cherny created dozens of anonymous offshore companies in Monaco, Gibraltar, Switzerland, the Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, Cyprus, etc. In turn, these offshore companies established subsidiaries in Russia, of which there were over a hundred. A network of these companies was actively involved in buying up shares, which allowed TWG to become a shareholder in enterprises that produced a total of more than 2 million tons of aluminum per year by the beginning of 1995. These are Bratsk (BrAZ), Krasnoyarsk (KrAZ), Sayan (SaAZ), Novokuznetsk (NkAZ) and Nadvoitsky (NAZ) aluminum smelters.

When buying shares in factories, funds were used stolen from the country's budget with the help of so-called “Chechen advice notes.” The investigation into the case of false advice notes revealed that most of the companies making payments were one-day floats and disappeared after payment under an agreement with TCC. There were no formal grounds for bringing charges against the head of Trans-CIS in such a scheme..03.00)

According to experts, L. Cherny is involved in the theft of at least $800 million from total amount about 2 billion stolen from the Russian banking system using forged bank documents.

It is still unclear how exactly Trans-World financed the start of its activities in Russia. David Reuben claims that he and Simon invested their own funds in the initial activities, but not a single document was presented indicating that they were the source of the initial funding. And this brings us back to the case of the theft of funds from the Central Bank, at the center of which is a scam involving multi-level transactions under the guise of which dollar-ruble exchanges were carried out and, through Russian banks, government funds were transferred using false advice notes to a number of companies, including Trans-World. In the midst of the deals are two companies with similar names: Trans-CIS Commodities, founded by Lev with the help of David Ruben, and Trans-Commodities, a company located in New York, 50% of which belonged to Mikhail (Mikhail’s partner in Trans-Commodities was Sam Kislin, who was mentioned in the FBI report as having ties to the imprisoned Russian "godfather" and whose nephew Joel Bartow claims worked with Mikhail Cherny. Kislin subsequently became a member of the New York City Economic Development Committee and made significant financial contributions in support of Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Rudolph Giuliani. He denies any ties to the Mafia or Trans-World). (Fortune 06/12/00)

In the struggle for the division and redistribution of property in the aluminum industry, the forces of organized crime were most actively involved. The death toll in this fight (which journalists called the “Great Patriotic Aluminum War”) was in the dozens. Particularly bloody were the clashes between groups vying for control of the Krasnoyarsk aluminum smelter. At the instigation of L. Cherny, in 1991, one of the local criminal leaders Anatoly Bykov (“Bull”), whose “godfathers” were the leaders of Uzbek organized crime groups, in particular Cherny’s school friend T. Arifov, infiltrated KrAZ. He recommended Bykov to his former countryman L. Cherny, and he convinced Ivankov-“Yaponchik” to place a bet on “Bull”.

Over the next two years, Bykov managed to oust or destroy all his competitors and headed the organized criminal community of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. There was also a corresponding division of the spheres of influence of criminals in the aluminum industry of the region: thief in law Vladimir Tyurin (“Tyurik”), who represented “Yaponchik” in Eastern Siberia, oversaw the supply of alumina to BrAZ, Bykov was legalized as one of the co-owners of KrAZ, and Vladimir, closely associated with Bykov Tatarenkov (“Tatar”) tried to establish control over SaAZ. “Tatar” led a gang that numbered up to 60 active fighters and, for its cruelty, was recognized as the most dangerous criminal group in the East Siberian region. During May-June 1994 alone, Tatar militants killed 10 people related to the struggle for influence at KrAZ.

Shortly before this, in April 1994, O. Kvantrishvili was shot in Moscow, who, as it became known later, took certain steps in order to displace L. Cherny's companies in the aluminum complex of Russia.

Fearing for his life, L. Cherny moved to the West with the beginning of criminal showdowns. There, especially at first, he constantly moved from place to place, living alternately in London, Paris, Monaco, New York, Tel Aviv, and Caracas.

In 1995, the victims of contract killings were: in April, the vice-president of Yugorsky CB Vadim Yafyasov, in June the president of the same bank Oleg Kantor, in September the representative of the American company AIOC Felix Lvov.

Bank Yugorsky, faced with serious financial problems, tried to reorient himself to servicing aluminum plants, and Yafyasov even took over the post a few days before his death commercial director KrAZ, where the structure he and Kantor represented became a competitor to TWG. Moreover, Yafyasov was a partner of L. Cherny for some time and had information about his business. Despite the pressure put on him, Yafyasov agreed to testify in the case of false advice notes, which, according to law enforcement officials, was the reason for his murder. (www.chernoi.ru)

In September of the same year, Felix Lvov, a representative of the American company A1OC, was killed. This company worked with Russian aluminum smelters and according to the tolling invented by Cherny, and inadvertently wandered into his “garden.” Lvov had the imprudence to declare at hearings in the State Duma about the need to investigate violations of the law during the privatization of the aluminum industry, which directly affected the interests of L. Cherny, who then carried out the seizure of KrAZ through Bykov. Lvov was offered a post in the TWG and, after refusing, he was killed.

In June 1996, in the center of Moscow, the president of the National Sports Foundation, Boris Fedorov, received a bullet and four stab wounds, who had recently refused to cooperate with Trans-World and made public some information about the business of L. Cherny and his partners in Russia. On the night of April 24, 1999, Fedorov, under unclear circumstances, suddenly died in his home in Moscow.

In 1998, TWG took control of the Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Plant (KrAZ), which owns 60% of the shares of the Achinsk Alumina Refinery (AGK). In the summer of 1998, the term of external management at the plant ends. Manager G. Fetisov insisted on the immediate sale of the AGK at auction - anyway, the plant's 827 creditors do not intend to wait long. The real buyers - the Alpha group and the Siberian-Ural Aluminum Company - disputed with each other the right to pay $200 million for the plant. And this epic would have ended with normal bankruptcy, but in this case KrAZ was deprived of its property, and therefore, control over the prices of raw materials. TWG could not come to terms with this - tolling was under threat. And so in June 1998 - as if by order of L. Cherny - the Krasnoyarsk Regional Arbitration Court removed G. Fetisov from the post of AGK manager and extended external control for another one and a half five-year period. The court appointed a new arbitration manager, also according to the same personal order - Nail Nasyrov. N. Nasyrov came to the plant after working at the Pavlodar aluminum smelter in Kazakhstan, from where TWG was expelled in disgrace by the authorities of the republic. And Nasyrov then simply fled from Kazakhstan, having previously caused damage to its economy - according to the highest assessment Arbitration Court Republic of Kazakhstan, in the amount of 40 million US dollars. Due to the activities of the TWG in his country, President Nazarbayev was forced to admit that tolling is a big economic mistake. The results of manager Nasyrov’s activities had an immediate and dramatic impact on AGK. Production of raw materials, which are in short supply on the domestic market, fell over the month from 70 thousand tons (May) to 36 thousand (August). But this record is not the limit for Nasyrov - in September, alumina production at the plant was 26 thousand tons per month. A normally operating enterprise in two months (!) reached the level of 1996, when in the city of Achinsk, where the AGK is the city-forming enterprise, there were 11 thousand unemployed and the city lived in conditions of a humanitarian catastrophe! Alumina supplies to TWG-controlled plants have dropped sharply, leaching working capital AGK. Thus, N. Nasyrov, thanks to his Bolshevik method of leadership, caused five million dollars in damage to the plant in the first two months alone. (Novaya Gazeta, 11/15/99)

In 1997, the UK's National Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS) conducted a special operation codenamed "Copperfield". As the Western press reported, the center of the investigation was, in particular, an emigrant from the Soviet Union with an Israeli passport, Lev Cherny. According to NCIS intelligence, he was a liaison between the British trade and intermediary company Trans World Group (TWG) and the organized criminal groups of the “Russian mafia”. During operational investigative measures, including wiretapping of Cherny's telephone conversations, it was possible to identify his contacts with people involved in international drug trafficking and the laundering of large funds of criminal origin. In addition, according to British intelligence services, the network of offshore companies created under the wing of TWG and managed by Cherny poses a potential threat economic security Great Britain and any other state where the company has branches. Most of them, according to experts from Interpol and the Russian Federal service security (FSB), created specifically for the legalization of capital of criminal origin... (Moskovsky Komsomolets 12/23/98)

As a result, the intelligence service established connections between Cherny and Vyacheslav Ivankov, the imprisoned “godfather” of the American branch of the Russian mafia. It was discovered that 25% of all phone calls from Trans-World's London office were made to apparent mafiosi involved in money laundering, drug and gem smuggling. In Russia, one of the investigators established a connection between Chernykh and the transfer of funds proceeds from the sale of drugs and theft of cars through retail trade in London. According to the investigator, the volume of these frauds was too large to create a clear picture, as the report on the Copperfield operation claims. Minister of Internal Affairs Russian Federation, in the absence of money laundering legislation, requested assistance from the FBI

Russia's new interior minister, Anatoly Kulikov, publicly announced in 1997 that he was expanding the Central Bank investigation into Lev and his associates. Kulikov also linked the aluminum trade to the Izmailovo group, and stated that the group is under the control of Mikhail Cherny’s friend, Anton Malevsky, who runs it from Israel. He also stated that “practically all” transactions between KrAZ and BrAZz were under the control of criminal groups.

In March 1998, Yeltsin removed Kulikov from his post, and two weeks later the new Minister of Internal Affairs announced that Lev Cherny was no longer under suspicion as an accomplice in the theft of Central Bank funds.

The Blacks were officially cleared of complicity in the Central Bank affair because the Home Office concluded that despite the fact that a group of people linked to organized crime were behind the scam, and despite the fact that the Blacks clearly benefited from it , there is no evidence that the Blacks knew that the funds were stolen. These findings not only helped Lev return to Russia in a (now clearly failed) attempt to restore the crumbling Trans-World empire, but also stopped an investigation that could have destroyed Trans-World's operations in Russia. Lev came out of suspicion partly thanks to the testimony of Gennady Druzhinin, one of the leaders of KrAZ. Imagine our surprise when it was discovered from bank documents that Trans-World had previously paid Druzhinin exactly a million dollars - and this at a time when Trans-World was allegedly sold out of KrAZ. (Fortune 06/12/00)

In the summer of 1998, L. Cherny moved to Russia, where he planned to stay permanently and hide from possible criminal prosecution. Here he is conducting an active PR campaign to create the image of a major patriotic entrepreneur, a statesman, which would allow him to legalize himself and legalize his business. To pay for publications within the framework of this campaign in many central newspapers (“Komsomolskaya Pravda”, “Trud”, “ Russian newspaper”, “Parliamentary Newspaper”, etc.) millions of dollars are spent. In addition, Lev Cherny tried to use Berezovsky’s opportunities to enter the Russian establishment and even the presidential circle. However, having paid for Berezovsky’s purchase of the Kommersant publishing house (through a certain fund headed by Cherny’s man Kia Jurabchian) and a controlling stake in TV-6, Cherny essentially received nothing in return, since in the run-up to the elections politicians and high-ranking officials tried to distance themselves from him. so as not to be compromised by connections with such an odious person.

Cherny's relationship with Berezovsky did not go unnoticed. The Swiss prosecutor's office, conducting an investigation against Berezovsky, also became interested in companies associated with Lev Cherny, and during the investigation, they arrested one of their top managers, David McNeil. However, at present L. Cherny continues his public campaign, main goal which is not only personal positioning in the ranks of the political elite, but also the introduction of their proteges into the structures of all branches of government at the federal and regional levels. Lev Cherny’s close ties with the top of organized crime and the origin of his capital give every reason to believe that he is carrying out the task of ensuring the massive penetration of crime into power. (www.chernoi.nu)

Instead of an afterword:

Cherney's partner David Ruben likes to claim that Trans-World "saved" Russia's aluminum industry, the only industry to increase productivity by 7% since 1989. At the height of their influence, in 1997, the Reubens claim they "invested" approximately $400 million in these plants. The Russian Ministry of Economy puts a figure close to zero. In reality, Trans-World was systematically starving one of the most viable industries of the former Soviet Union, giving plants oxygen only so they could work for their tolling racket while the equipment became obsolete both morally and physically. The BrAZ audit report for 1997 shows $600 million in sales losses - for the world's largest aluminum smelter. The Reubens' internal reporting for the same year shows that Trans-World and plant management made nearly $200 million in profits.

In exactly the same way, the Rubens and Chernys acquired control of one of Russia's largest steel enterprises in 1995 - and by 1997 they were pumping out of it approximately $300 million a year. When a group of American investors, including George Soros, announced that... that they acquired approximately 50% of the plant's shares, they were not admitted to the board of directors and were not allowed to familiarize themselves with the company's trading contracts, although the court ruled in their favor. And no wonder - the plant's profit (before taxes) fell from $80 million in 1995 to $40 million in 1996, despite the strengthening of the steel market. (Fortune)

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