There are
three, not two Chernoy brothers: the elder one – 47-year-old Mikhail Chernoy,
the middle one – 45-year-old Lev Chernoy, and the youngest one – 40-year-old David
Chernoy. In spite of the age hierarchy, Lev Chernoy dominated in the joint
business during a few years (1989-97).
In fact,
the elder brothers (and once main business partners) Mikhail and Lev Chernoy
have not been on friendly terms for a long time, moreover – since 1997 they
have been bitter enemies and competitors. The brothers are fighting for
re-division of property and conducting information wars against each other. In
this confrontation, the youngest of the brothers, US citizen David Chernoy, supports
Lev. However, all this may be showboating (Lev wants to look purer than his
mafiosi brother Mikhail).
In the
early 90’s, Mikhail was involved in the case of forged advice notes. No
evidence was found then (or wasn’t sought for a kickback), and Mikhail was
involved in the case as a witness. Among the criminal contacts of the Chernoy
brothers, one can note Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov (Taiwainchik) whom the
professional sportsman Mikhail Chernoy knew via Shamil Tarpishchev, the Russian
President’s Advisor for sports, one of the main lobbyists of the Chernoy
brothers in the early-mid-90’s. Lately, the mass media was focused on the
cooperation of Lev Chernoy with Anatoly Bykov, Chairman of the Board of
Directors, Krasnoyarsk
aluminium smelter, but let’s talk about this later, that’s another story.
According
to the mythological version, the actual creator and guardian angel of the
Chernoy brothers’ empire was Oleg Soskovets, First Vice Prime Minister of the
Russian Government (1993-96). But this is not exactly so. Back in 1994,
Soskovets cooled off relations with the Chernoys and made ONEKSIM group his
favourite. The Chernoys didn’t take any part in the famous loans-for-shares auctions
of 1995, but ONEKSIM Bank intruded into their favourite place: Novolipetsk metallurgical
complex (we will talk about it later). When ONEKSIM group shaped up, it started
– first with the assistance of Soskovets, then Chubais – to press the Chernoys
on the metallurgical front. The attack petered out only after the actual
bankruptcy of ‘Potanin’s empire.’
The famous
Trans World Group (TWG) does not belong to the Chernoy brothers: It is a joint
business of metallurgical traders, the brothers (again brothers!) David and
Simon Reuben, and Lev Chernoy. In essence, TWG is a conglomerate of British and
offshore trading companies. In the empire of the Chernoy brothers, this
conglomerate has never played a crucial role. His main objective has always
been attracting finance.
At present,
the Chernoy brothers control two thirds of the metallurgical plants of the
former USSR
with an aggregate annual turnover of about 5 bln dollars. And in the situation
of mass bankruptcy experienced by ‘the conscience of Russian capitalism’ – the
self-announced oligarchs – they can take under their control even more –
EVERYTHING!
The book Russian Crime: Who Is Who by Alexander
Maksimov (published in 1997 by EKSMO Publishing House CJSC) reads about Mikhail
Chernoy:
‘The
Izmaylovo, or Izmaylovo-Golyanovo criminal gang, which got its name from the
two respective neighbourhoods in the Eastern district, as well as by the name
of the hotel complex (near the metro station Izmaylovsky Park), which became
the headquarters of this criminal group is one of the most stable, powerful,
and warlike gangs of the capital. Unlike Koptevo gangs, shootings of Izmaylovo
leaders were rare: Everyone knew that they’d better not poke their noses into
‘the East.’ Unlike the Orezhovo guys, this gang has never been torn apart by
serious inter-clan factions: It has only gotten stronger and wider. And though
lately it has had no absolute and eminent leaders, such as Mikhas with the
Solntsevo guys, one can hardly overestimate its influence on the criminal
situation in the country. This is the only gang, the struggle with which was
reported in detail by Anatoly Kulikov, (former) Minister of the Interior, to
the State Duma deputies, and later to journalists. This is the only gang whose
leaders acquired connections (later confirmed by documents) with the Russian
political establishment. Let us give only three names: Otari Kvantrishvili,
Shamil Tarpishchev (the undoubted friend of Mikhail Chernoy!), and Vladimir
Zhirinovsky. This criminal group was formed out of young gangs in the early
80’s. It was initiated by Oleg Ivanov born in Kazan. This criminal community included,
besides the Izmaylovo guys themselves, the Golyanovo and Perovo gangs. Besides
Ivanov, the following criminal ‘leaders’ fortified their leading positions in
the gang: Malchik, Trofim, Anton Izmaylovsky (real last name – Malevsky), and Afonya.
By early 1995, the gang counted over 200 active members. Izmaylogo, Golyanovo,
part of Perovo and Sokolniki became under their control.
Certainly,
the leaders of the Izmaylovo mob had active communication with the criminal
elite of the country, too. For instance, in the same year of 1994, the meeting
of Sylvester and the gang ‘leader’ Anton Malevsky was registered. In order to
hold this rendez-vous, Timofeev (Sylvester) made a special trip to Israel where
the leader of the Izmaylovo guys settled down since the mid-90’s – closer to
the Chernoys. According to the intelligence agencies, the issues of interaction
in the area of the drug dealing business were discussed.
Anton
Malevsky (Izmaylovsky) lives, as we have already mentioned, in Israel.
By a strange coincidence, an attempt on Malevsky’s life was organised in the
Promised Land, but the criminal community leader survived. According to certain
data, there was also an attempt on his companion Mikhail Chernoy’s life, too,
which we will mention a little later.
Mr. Malevsky
continues tracking the development of affairs from Israel,
occasionally visits Moscow,
carries out legal business proactively – his capitals are invested in various
commercial projects in many countries around thw world. The criminal gang has a
large income from Moscow
gambling establishments, and controls a few commercial banks and large firms.
The number of fighters reaches 300-400 ‘guns.’ As a structural division, the
gang includes the Perovo brigade (about 100 gunmen) under the supervision of
Anatoly Roksman (Tolya Zhdanovsky) who is located in Western
Europe. The gang members control the Perovo neighbourhood and part
of Vykhino. The Perovo guys have their own commercial organisations in the
South-Western district of Moscow and the SouthPort.
They have well-developed connections with the criminals who settled in Germany, Holland,
and Turkey.
As it turned out, aluminium export became one of the ‘core’ businesses for the
Izmaylovo guys. The scandal of multi-billion dollar frauds with the ‘aircraft
metal’ was shaking the public mind during the entire year of 1996.
Even before
it started, I had the luck to meet and have a very frank conversation with
Sergey Glushenkov, the investigator who conducted ‘aluminium’ cases for many
years. Here is, in brief, the underlying reason of this drama directly related to
the Izmaylovo criminal gang.
n 1992,
the Tashkent residents Lev and Mikhail Chernoy move to Moscow, as well as the
former Director General of Karaganda metallurgical complex Oleg Soskovets and
his former deputy Vladimir Lisin.
Soskovets
became the Chairman of the Russian Metallurgical Committee, and the brothers
from Tashkent
started their business in the research and production enterprise Konversiya and
its subsidiary, joint venture Kolumb. The start was apparently quite
unsuccessful, and was darkened by the death (under rather strange
circumstances) of Igor Beletsky, the companion of the Chernoy brothers. At that
time, the fatal meeting took place of the brothers and Lisin who had good
connections in the chief metallurgical committee. A brilliant idea was born in
the minds of the schemers. To fulfill it, the company Mirabel was registered in
France; the brothers got
into the management of the offshore companies Trans-CIS Commodities (Monte Carlo), Transtech Company (France) and Trans
Commodities (New York City), which were not
known to anybody up to that moment, and Lisin became their representative in Russia. As soon
as in August-September of the same year of 1992, these companies made about 10
tolling-based contracts (i.e. production using raw materials provided by the
customer) with the major aluminium smelters: in Krasnoyarsk, Bratsk, and
Novokuznetsk. According to the terms of agreements, the ‘foreign’ Chernoys were
to provide metallurgists with foreign currency and foreign raw materials, and
were exempt from customs duties and some taxes in exchange. These terms were
broken from the very beginning: Instead of the dollars promised, the Chernoys’
companies paid by cash and non-cash roubles, and ‘foreign’ raw materials were
brought from Achinsk alumina refinery located near KrAZ. The terms of
‘partnership’ were truly predatory: advance aluminium shipments (the metal was
released earlier than its processing was paid for); processing fee reduced by
1.5 times; constant delays of money transfers. But the directors didn’t
grumble. Moreover, they literally begged the government to continue ‘the
tolling experiment.’ For example, the Director of BrAZ appealed in the letter
dated April 1993: ‘…In order to avoid a drastic production cutback and ensure
the economic and social stability of the plant, I hereby request you, dear
Boris Nikolaevich, to allow the plant to continue processing of tolling alumina
under contracts… with the companies ‘Trans-CIS Commodities, Ltd’ and
‘Transtech-Commodities’… This will allow making additional transfers of about
20 bln roubles to the budget.’ Sergey Glushenkov, senior investigator for
special cases of the Investigation Committee, Ministry of the Interior assumes
that the reasons for the friendship of directors with the Chernoys’ companies,
which became stronger day by day, are rather prosaic. – {A plant director who doesn’t suffer from
idiocy can agree to export aluminium for roubles only in one case: if the foreign
currency is transferred to his personal account in a Swiss bank.)
The
Investigation Committee received a lot of materials (alas, mostly anonymous),
which testified to opening of foreign currency accounts and purchase of real
estate abroad for managers of aluminium plants and some government officials,
including Oleg Soskovets who headed the Russian Metallurgical Committee from
1992 to 1993. Unfortunately, it is impossible to check this information out.} So, where did the
‘partners’ of the aluminium plants take dozens of millions of dollars required
for paying plants under tolling contracts? In the course of the investigation
which lasted for months, the officers of the Investigation Committee, Ministry
of the Interior determined three major sources of mythical wealth of the
aluminium tycoons. The first one was ‘dirty’ capitals of criminal organisations
(including the Izmaylovo gang), which required immediate laundering under
hyperinflation. The second one was cheap loans of some criminalised Moscow banks. The third
and the main one was forged advice notes. In fact, in 1992-1993 two major
economic subversive acts were happening simultaneously. On the one hand, this
is laundering of ‘black money’ in the aluminium industry, which was accompanied
by mass export of the ‘aircraft metal’ which cost nothing. On the other hand,
this is theft from the public purse of hundreds of billions of roubles by means
of the notorious advice notes.
In the
opinion of the investigators, an integrated brain centre could exist for
conducting business subversions (!!!).
At first,
counterfeit money was pumped into the aluminium plants directly; later, they
preferred to transfer non-cash payments through a series of dummy phony
companies. The schemes of transactions were so tangled, that when the
law-enforcement authorities discovered a fraud, they sometimes couldn’t
determine who was to be considered the aggrieved party. There was another
difficulty: As soon as the detectives approached one of the key figures of the
multi-phase fraud, that person was either reached by the killer’s bullet or
killed in a car crash. The aforementioned Igor Beletsky, Alexander Borisov who
made forged advice notes on behalf of Sibinvest Co., Yuriy Koletnikov who was
Deputy Chairman of the Russian Metallurgical Committee and supervised the
aluminium industry – all died under the wheels. ‘Cooperation’ of the offshore
businessmen with the Siberian plants was accompanied by countless criminal
showdowns. In Krasnoyarsk alone, five ‘aluminium generals’ were killed,
including the famous entrepreneur Vadim Yafyasov, who worked with NkAZ
(Novokuznetsk) on the orders of Chernoy. In the summer of 1993, he got into a
very difficult situation when the law-enforcement authorities found out that
the transfer of 900 million roubles to the plant account was made by the forced
advice note from Dagestan. And he was given a
job then… at the Russian Metallurgical Committee. Yafyasov’s destiny is very
revealing on the whole. He left the Russian Metallurgical Committee for Oleg Kantor
(see further his connection with Dobrovinsky) at the Yugorsky Bank, to the
position of Vice President. From there, he went to work as Deputy Director of
KrAZ (the Chernoys like to introduce their men into plant management very
much). But he didn’t manage to work there for a long time… The press has
already declared that the murders of Vadim Yafyasov and Oleg Kantor are the
links of the same chain which leads to the offshore business. Fresh light was shed
on this story by the sensational confessions of Boris Fyodorov in the Novaya Gazeta. The former sports
functionary mentioned a certain commercial relationship between the Chernoy
brothers and Tarpishchev, Barsukov, and Korzhakov. He also hinted there that
the presidential favourites knew who killed Oleg Kantor and why. Fyodorov also spoke
about the murder of a certain Felix. Probably, he meant Felix Lvov, who headed
the Russian representative office of the US corporation AIOC, one of the
largest Western aluminium traders. At some point, Lvov began cooperating with the Russian
intelligence agencies, assisting them to collect compromising evidence on ‘the
aluminium generals.’ He managed to report quite a lot of interesting facts
about the Chernoy brothers. He apparently paid for this with his life (the killers
who showed him the red ID’s of the officers of some intelligence agency
kidnapped him right in the airport, from the passport control area). The confessions
of the former sports functionary suggest that Felix Lvov, and later Boris
Fyodorov himself, was deliberately given out to the gangsters. In his
interview, Fyodorov hinted at the connections of his former companion Shamil
Tarpishchev with the leaders of the Izmaylovo criminal gang and the Chernoy
brothers.
Later on,
this was brilliantly confirmed by the reporters and operators of NTV channel,
who made a whole documentary investigation series on aluminium frauds. In
particular, they told about the accounts opened in the West by the Soskovets
family, about the foreign currency transfers made to these accounts by the
companies of the Chernoy brothers. Besides, they shot with a hidden camera and
then demonstrated to millions of TV viewers how Mikhail Chernoy and Anton
Malevsky were meeting Shamil Tarpishchev, the Russian Minister of Fitness and
Sports, in the airport near Tel Aviv. The camera depicted a touching episode:
Anton Izmaylovsky was pushing a trolley with Tarpishchev’s belongings.
Apparently, even in the underworld hierarchy, the federal minister took the
position a lot higher than the ‘leader’ of a major criminal gang of the
capital. Later, Vladimir Gusinsky, head of the financial group MOST and NTV
founder, confessed to the author of these lines that the TV investigation was
conducted on his initiative and the security service of MOST was brought into
play. ‘I aim at cleaning the top echelons of authority of at least direct
connections with the gangsters,’ told the banker. And Gusinsky really achieved
something.
An
unprecedented scandal broke out, and special hearings at the State Duma
started. Glushenkov was given directions to promote the investigation of the
aluminium area. And at the end of February 1997, Anatoly Kulikov, head of the
Ministry of the Interior spoke to the parliamentarians. This time, he didn’t
confine himself to general phrases, but spoke specifically: both about the
Izmaylovo mob and the Chernoy brothers. One of the deputies gave me the
transcript of the impressive speech by the Minister of the Interior. Since it
has never been published, let us cite certain excerpts from this policy speech,
as well as from what the minister told at the press conference, where the
speech at the parliament was partially reproduced. Let us highlight again that
the Izmaylovo guys are the first criminal gang honoured with such a detailed
mention at the top level. – {Evaluating
the criminal situation in non-ferrous metallurgy on the whole, we should note
that compared to the year of 1994, the number of crimes related to unlawful
turnover of strategic raw materials grew by about two-three times on average
around Russia, and up to five times in certain regions. The existing methods of
stealing non-ferrous metals from industrial plants can be conditionally divided
into two types: controlled and uncontrolled. The first one assumes thefts
committee by various commercial organisations, using corrupted connections
among the officials of regional administrations, managers of production plants,
and law-enforcement authorities. This method predetermines the availability of substantial
financial resources of dummy firms, and connections with the criminal
organisations. In 1992, Trans-CIS Commodities Co. concluded contracts with the
enterprises of the Russian aluminium industry, including Bratsk,
Krasnoyarsk, and Novokuznetsk aluminium smelters, as well as
Achinsk alumina refinery. Payment for those contracts was made by Trans-CIS
Commodities by the money received in the banking industry of Russia as a result of fraudulent
transactions with forged advice notes. The interests of the firm were
represented by one of its managers, Lev Chernoy. At present, the information
about the connection of the Chernoy brothers with the Russian public officers
is of great importance for the investigation. The Investigation Committee of
the Ministry of the Interior also revealed the facts of duty-free aluminium
export from Krasnoyarsk
aluminium smelter. During the fulfillment of the contract with Trans-CIS
Commodities, 21,000 more tonnes of aluminium were shipped from the plant than the
amount of supplied alumina required for producing this metal. This allowed the
plant to evade payments of customs duties of two billion roubles. The
Investigation Committee of the Ministry of the Interior established direct
communication with the law-enforcement authorities of the USA, Canada,
and Great Britain,
which deal with the investigation of the Chernoy brothers’ unlawful activities
related to laundering the illegally obtained money. Special danger and the increasing
influence on the criminal processes happening in the metallurgical complex are
presented by the so-called kingpins, the leaders of criminal groups,
representatives of the criminal community elite, professionals of the criminal
environment. In the underworld environment, the trend to incline directors of
state enterprises whose products are in demand abroad has been reinforced, to
cooperate with the representatives of the criminal community. They remove the
issues of raw materials supply, selling products, defaulted payments from them,
and also use the underworld ‘common funds’ for the needs of the plants. Thus,
giving the mutually beneficial nature to these relations, the kingpins and
leaders of criminal gangs substitute the state mechanism of regulating economic
relations. According to the divisions for control over organised crime, almost
all aluminium transactions at Krasnoyarsk and Bratsk plants are
controlled by the leaders of criminal gangs. For example, the well-known
kingpins from Uzbekistan
are responsible for supply of raw materials to the aforementioned plants; they
invested the ‘common funds’ into that. Tyurik, the kingpin from Bratsk (D.’s customer, with whom he was acquainted by
Andrey Pestov from Krasnoyarsk, a.k.a.
Diplomat), attracting a few Moscow kingpins and leaders, using his connections
with the managers of Bratsk aluminium smelter and the Chernoy brothers, is
responsible for aluminium shipments to the London Exchange via US, Spanish, and
Israeli companies controlled by him. Last year [1996], the Russian law-enforcement
authorities detained 74 active members of the Izmaylovo criminal gang suspected
of complicity in the illegal ‘aluminum business.’ With regards to the members
of this gang, 32 criminal cases were commenced. The Moscow regional administration for control
over organised crime continues its work on localisation of the Izmaylovo gang.
The major obstacle to its neutralisation was the circumstance that many former
officers of the law-enforcement authorities, who had a wide information base
among the corrupted officials, were related to it. Besides, the leader of the
Izmaylovo gang, Anton Malevsky is now located in Israel. With regards to him, in
1993 the Moscow Public Prosecutor’s Office commenced a criminal case for
illegal possession of arms, however, in the summer of 1996 it was closed ‘due
to changed circumstances.’ The Ministry of the Interior has nothing to do with
this decision.} By
the way, soon after the minister’s speech, the General Public Prosecutor’s
Office again commenced a criminal case against Anton Malevsky on possession of
arms. As for the management of the Ministry of the Interior, it demanded all
investigative information on Malevsky, which was available in the divisions of
the internal affairs bodies. As reported to the journalists by a source in the
law-enforcement authorities, the management of the Ministry of the Interior
hoped, in case Anton Izmaylovsky were granted extradition from Israel to
Russia, to interrogate him about his relations with the brothers Lev and
Mikhail Chernoy and about their joint participation in promoting the division of
the Russian aluminium market.
Judging by
the arrest of the famous businessman Lerner and Sylvester’s widow, the Israeli
policemen are disposed rather resolutely in their struggle for mopping up the
country from Russian mafia. They may well reach the Chernoys…’
Meanwhile, The Novaya Gazeta won two suits against
Mikhail Chernoy. The motive for the suits of M. Chernoy were the articles
about corruption in the top echelons of authority (Favourites of July 1996 and Mafia
Attacks). The publications made public the conversation of Fyodorov, the
former President of the National Sports Foundation, with a few people, where
Korzhakov, Barsukov, and Tarpishchev appeared in a most negative light. A
certain Chernoy was also mentioned there a few times: As it appeared from the
conversation, that person was related to the mafia and the kingpin gang which
surrounded the President.
Having read
the articles, Mikhail Chernoy (the person who was called the aluminium king of Russia)
sued the newspaper. The cost of actions amounted to 100 million roubles.
The winning
argument of the lawyer Ariya was the phrase that the journalist who called
somebody ‘mafia’ had the right to express his opinion which did not need proof,
especially if that opinion was based on generally known facts.
Meanwhile,
Mikhail Chernoy took a large-scale financial part in the election of the
governor of the Sverdlovsky region, which was held on August 25th,
1999, as reported by APN.
Therefore,
it was not indifferent for the businessman what the outcome of the governor
election would be.
The
interests of Chernoy who permanently lives in Israel
were represented in the region by his younger partner Iskander Makhmudov, known
as ‘the copper king’ of Russia,
and Andrey Kozitsyn, head of Uralelektromed JSC.
According
to this source, Chernoy supported two candidates for the position of the head
of regional administration: Andrey Kozitsyn and the functional governor Eduard
Rossel. In the expert opinion, Rossel actually suited Mikhail Chernoy completely,
and Kozitsyn’s running for the governor’s office pursued a single objective: to
divide the constituency of Rossel’s main rival, Yekaterinburg Mayor Arkady
Chernetsky.
By his 48th
birthday, Mikhail Chernoy was one of the major ‘traders’ of the Russian market
of ferrous and non-ferrous metals. The aggregate turnover of Russian plants
which were de facto controlled by Mikhail Chernoy exceeded $1.2 bln per year at
that time.
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