# Mikhail Chernoy Mikhail Semyonovich Chernoy (born January 16, 1952, Tashkent, Uzbek SSR), known internationally as Michael Cherney, is a Russian-Israeli industrialist who co-founded Trans-World Group (TWG) with his brother [[Lev Chernoy]] and the Reuben brothers. The Chernoy brothers assembled a metals empire during the violent post-Soviet [[Kleptocracy]] of the 1990s that at its height controlled the majority of [[Russia]]'s aluminum production. Mikhail is the elder brother and the one most prominently linked to allegations of organized crime ties, [[Money Laundering]], and political [[Corruption]] across multiple jurisdictions. He holds [[Israel]]i citizenship and has lived there since 1994. ## Early Life and Background Chernoy grew up in Tashkent in an Ashkenazi Jewish family. His father was a bookkeeper and engineer. Mikhail started working at fourteen alongside his father on moonlighting jobs. After high school he was drafted into the Soviet Army and attended a technical college. His athletic career in boxing and football led to work in sports administration, where he befriended Shamil Tarpishchev, the future coach of the USSR national tennis team who later entered [[Boris Yeltsin]]'s inner circle. In 1985, younger brother [[Lev Chernoy]] launched one of [[Uzbekistan]]'s first production cooperatives and recruited Mikhail to handle operations. Mikhail organized production while Lev managed strategy and finances. The brothers moved to Moscow in the late 1980s, where they founded the Columbus joint venture in 1989 and began their trajectory toward dominating Russian metals exports. ## Trans-World Group and the Aluminum Wars In 1992 the Chernoy brothers partnered with London metals traders David and Simon Reuben to create Trans-World Group (TWG). The venture exploited tolling agreements — supplying raw materials to smelters and retaining ownership of the finished aluminum for sale at Western market prices — to capture the lion's share of [[Russia]]'s aluminum export revenue. Political protection came from Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets. The struggle for control of Siberian smelters during 1994-1998 was extraordinarily violent, with dozens of murders including those of factory directors, bankers, and rival traders. BusinessWeek reported the Chernoy brothers "were known for their rough style of doing business." Fortune described TWG's history as filled with "bribes, shell companies, profiteers, and more than a few corpses." Within the family operation, Mikhail's role was specifically to manage "force support" — maintaining relationships with organized crime figures who provided physical enforcement and protection. By 1997 TWG was the world's third-largest aluminum producer with revenues estimated at $5-7 billion and stakes in at least twenty metallurgical plants. ## Organized Crime Allegations Multiple law enforcement agencies have linked Mikhail Chernoy to organized crime networks. Russia's Interior Minister Anatoly Kulikov publicly connected both the Chernoy and Reuben brothers to the Izmaylovskaya organized crime group, led by Anton Malevsky, in 1997. [[Boris Yeltsin]] removed Kulikov from his post months later. The Chernoys' "roof" (krysha) — the combined political-criminal protection apparatus — allegedly encompassed the Izmaylovskaya gang, Soskovets, and presidential security chief Alexander Korzhakov. According to Russian journalist Yulia Latynina, Mikhail had joint ventures with [[Oleg Deripaska]] and Anton Malevsky in the coal industry, and with Sergei Popov of the Podolskaya organized crime group in the fashion industry. The [[FBI]] reportedly told investigators that "it believed Michael himself was an organised crime figure." When the Reuben brothers hired former DEA acting head Terrence Burke to investigate, Burke recommended they sever ties with Mikhail. The Reubens paid him approximately $400 million "just to go away." In 1994 TWG was drawn into a government inquiry into the theft of more than $100 million from Russia's central bank. Fortune reported that the Chernoys "ended up with a piece of the stolen money and used it to partially fund Trans World's startup phase in 1992." ## The Deripaska Lawsuit In 1994 [[Oleg Deripaska]], then an independent metals trader, won Chernoy's and TWG's backing to take control of the Sayansk aluminum plant in Siberia. This led to a partnership in SibAl and several joint ventures between 1995 and 1998. After the TWG empire fragmented, Mikhail claimed Deripaska owed him a 20% stake in what became [[Rusal]], the world's largest aluminum company. In November 2006 Chernoy sued Deripaska in London's High Court, seeking approximately $3 billion. Deripaska countered that his relationship with Chernoy was "one of a businessman being extorted by a crime boss" and claimed he had already paid $250 million to be free of Chernoy's demands. A British judge ruled in 2008 that Chernoy had the right to proceed, noting he might be "assassinated or held on trumped-up charges" if he tried the case in [[Russia]]. The case settled out of court in September 2012, with terms undisclosed. ## Israeli Citizenship and Legal Troubles Chernoy immigrated to [[Israel]] in 1994 under the Law of Return and settled in Savyon, later moving to Herzliya. His legal exposure spans multiple countries: The United States has denied Chernoy a visa since 1999 due to alleged ties to the Russian mafia. In 1994 he was detained at London's Heathrow Airport attempting to enter the UK on a false Polish passport. In 2000, Bulgaria expelled him for ten years, citing ties to foreign criminal rackets. In 2009, Spain's Supreme Court issued a detention order against him on suspicion of [[Money Laundering]], and Interpol issued an international arrest warrant. Chernoy also had deep ties to [[Israel]]i politics. He was a close associate of Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's Deputy Prime Minister, who was questioned by police in 2007 over $500,000 traced from Chernoy to Lieberman associates through Cyprus. Israeli prosecutors alleged Lieberman used his government posts to try to restore Chernoy's passport, which had been revoked in 1999. Chernoy was eventually acquitted and his passport returned. ## Connection to Broader Oligarch Network Mikhail Chernoy's business network fed into the broader architecture of [[Russian Oligarchy]] and post-Soviet [[Kleptocracy]]. [[Andrey Melnichenko]]'s MDM Bank provided banking services within the metals-trading ecosystem. Sam Kislin, the Chernoys' early American partner through Trans Commodities, later surfaced in investigations connected to [[Rudy Giuliani]] and [[Donald Trump]]'s political orbit. [[Oleg Deripaska]], who rose to prominence through TWG's patronage, became central to the [[Mueller Investigation]] through his relationship with [[Paul Manafort]]. Chernoy also founded the Michael Cherney Foundation and was the primary sponsor of the Intelligence Summit, a conference that drew former CIA director John Deutch and former CIA director James Woolsey as advisers — until both resigned in 2006 after learning of Chernoy's alleged organized crime connections. ## Current Status Chernoy lives in [[Israel]]. He remains subject to an Interpol international arrest warrant. He cannot travel freely to the UK, the US, Spain, or Bulgaria. He has never been convicted of a crime. ## See Also - [[Lev Chernoy]] - [[Oleg Deripaska]] - [[Andrey Melnichenko]] - [[Russian Oligarchy]] - [[Mafia State]] - [[Kleptocracy]]