# Lev Chernoy Lev Semenovich Chernoy (born December 1, 1954, Tashkent, Uzbek SSR) is a Russian-Uzbek businessman who, together with his elder brother [[Mikhail Chernoy]], built one of the most powerful metals empires to emerge from the [[Collapse of the Soviet Union]]. Disabled by polio in childhood, Chernoy was nonetheless the strategic architect of Trans-World Group (TWG), a commodities conglomerate that by 1997 controlled the majority of [[Russia]]'s aluminum output and held stakes in at least twenty metallurgical plants. The brothers' rise is inseparable from the violent "aluminum wars" that left hundreds dead in the smelter cities of Siberia during the 1990s. ## Early Career After graduating from the Tashkent Polytechnic Institute, Chernoy worked as head of quality control at the Tashkent Excavator Plant. In 1985 he created one of the first production cooperatives in [[Uzbekistan]], recruiting his brother Mikhail to handle production while Lev managed supply chains, sales, and finances. The brothers' early capital reportedly drew on connections to organized criminal networks in Tashkent, whose leaders were Lev's former schoolmates. In the late 1980s the Chernoy brothers relocated to Moscow and in 1989 founded Columbus, a Soviet-Panamanian joint venture nominally involved in timber trade. By 1990-91 they had partnered with Sam Kislin, an Odessa-born emigre whose U.S. firm Trans Commodities gave the brothers access to American metals markets. A 1996 Interpol report later alleged that Trans Commodities was used by the Chernoys for fraud and embezzlement. The brothers soon severed ties with Kislin and pivoted to a far more consequential partnership with David and Simon Reuben, London-based metals traders. ## Trans-World Group and the Aluminum Wars In 1992 the Chernoys and the Reuben brothers established Trans-World Group (TWG). The venture exploited a "tolling" scheme: TWG supplied raw materials to Russian smelters, retained ownership of the finished aluminum, and sold it at London Metal Exchange prices through the Reubens' Western distribution network. The smelters received only minimal processing fees while TWG captured the bulk of foreign-exchange earnings. Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets, connected to the Chernoys through aide Vladimir Lisin, provided political cover by approving the tolling arrangements. By 1994 TWG was selling more than 600,000 tons of aluminum annually, roughly a quarter of [[Russia]]'s total exports. As [[Oligarchy]] deepened through [[Corruption]] and [[Kleptocracy]], the group aggressively acquired stakes in smelters to block competitors. Resistance was met with extreme violence. When the Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Factory refused a tolling deal, its deputy director Vadim Yafyasov was murdered outside his Moscow home in April 1995. Felix Lvov, a TWG rival, was abducted at Sheremetyevo Airport and found dead in nearby woods. Fortune magazine reported that TWG's history was filled with "more than a few corpses." TWG eventually seized the Krasnoyarsk plant in partnership with Anatoly Bykov, described by the New York Times as "one of Russia's most infamous mobsters." At its 1997 peak TWG was the world's third-largest aluminum producer, behind Alcoa and Alcan, with estimated revenues of $5-7 billion. ## Political Connections and Organized Crime Allegations The Chernoy brothers' "roof" (krysha) — the political and criminal protection structure essential to 1990s Russian business — allegedly included the Izmaylovskaya organized crime group, led by Anton Malevsky, as well as Oleg Soskovets and presidential security chief Alexander Korzhakov. Russia's Interior Minister Anatoly Kulikov publicly linked both the Chernoys and the Reubens to the Izmaylovskaya gang in 1997, but [[Boris Yeltsin]] removed Kulikov from his post the following year. Within the family operation, Lev was the strategist who designed TWG's economic architecture. Mikhail handled "force support," maintaining relationships with organized crime figures. A third brother, David (born 1958), relocated to the United States to liaise with the "Brighton Beach" criminal networks of Soviet emigres. The [[FBI]] and Interpol classified the Chernoy brothers as "suspected of [[Money Laundering]], embezzlement of funds, contract killing." The Russian government accused them of defrauding the central bank of $100 million and using the proceeds as seed capital for their offshore aluminum empire. Neither brother has been convicted of a crime. ## Connection to Key Oligarchs Lev Chernoy's network intersected with several figures who became central to [[Russian Oligarchy]]. [[Oleg Deripaska]], then an independent metals trader, won TWG's backing in 1994 to take over the Sayansk aluminum plant in Siberia. [[Andrey Melnichenko]]'s MDM Bank served as a financial node for metals-trading operations in the 1990s. Vladimir Lisin, Lev's top aide and former deputy to Soskovets, went on to become one of Russia's wealthiest steel magnates. When TWG began to fracture in 1997, assets split along fraternal lines. Lev retained the partnership with the Reuben brothers; [[Oleg Deripaska]], Iskander Makhmudov, and Alexander Abramov aligned with Mikhail. In 1999-2000, Lev and the Reubens sold their aluminum stakes to a partnership led by [[Roman Abramovich]] and Boris Berezovsky for approximately $600 million — widely regarded as a fire sale, given the smelters' annual revenues. ## Political Projects and Later Career After divesting from aluminum, Lev Chernoy pivoted to political entrepreneurship in Russia. In 1999 he founded the Institute for Advanced Scientific Research at the Russian Academy of Sciences, focused on macroeconomics and technology forecasting. He reportedly supported the creation of the Unity party and in 2000 established the "Mobilization and Development" public organization, which functioned at least through 2012. He cultivated an image as a patriotic statesman-entrepreneur and actively collaborated with Boris Berezovsky. ## US Connections and Legal Exposure The Chernoy brothers' American connections run through Sam Kislin and Trans Commodities. Kislin was a campaign donor to [[Rudy Giuliani]] and had business ties that later drew scrutiny in investigations involving [[Donald Trump]]'s orbit. The Center for Public Integrity reported that the [[FBI]] tracked alleged Russian mob ties linking Kislin to the Chernoy network. Lev Chernoy has been denied entry to the United States due to organized crime allegations. ## See Also - [[Mikhail Chernoy]] - [[Oleg Deripaska]] - [[Andrey Melnichenko]] - [[Russian Oligarchy]] - [[Kleptocracy]] - [[Mafia State]]