Chernoy Lev Semyonovich. Cherney, Mikhail. Lev Black. "The first Russian entrepreneur"

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 to completely seize 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 to work 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 “Konservator” (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 the arms and drug trade, 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, was first met by 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 for the development of issues, primarily 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 made them take risks where, for example, Alcoa and others large companies they were afraid to take risks. Since in Europe the return 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 got 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 Leo controlled the three most large plant Russia for aluminum production: Sayan, Bratsk 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 his exit from the common business. Then he and Oleg Deripaska, CEO Sayan Aluminum Plant, through an additional issue of shares, SaAZ becomes the owner 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 Leo and his Western partners did not like Mikhail’s connections in criminal world, as well as especially close attention to the older brother from law enforcement agencies. Lev himself does not call this a quarrel, but due to disagreements at the end of 1996 he was offered to leave on his own general business, sell shares of factories that they jointly own. 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 concerning the purchase Israeli company telecommunications. 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 in murders. 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 businessman’s partner, but was an “authority” who “protected” an aluminum plant, London Supreme Court is considering the claims of Cherny, 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 connected 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 successful businessman, and not a poor student.

Thomas Beazley drew special attention of the court to the “connections” of M. Cherny: among influential people- 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”. Signed by Black Deripaska financial documents covered the “roof” 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 Beazley noted that between Cherny and Deripaska there were friendly relations. 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.

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. (www.chernoi.ru 10.04.00)

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 university, the security officers provided Lev Cherny with a warm place - he took the post head of quality control department 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 in Uzbekistan production cooperative. 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.

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. The 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 main interests of L. Cherny. 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 something unprecedented in the Russian aluminum industry. economic history humanity's method of pumping money out of a country is tolling. 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 in its scale could not act as a major investor and TWG was needed by L. Cherny only for the legalization of capital of criminal origin, primarily for investing funds from the “common fund” into 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 goods. 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 with such a scheme..03.00)

According to experts, L. Cherny is involved in the theft of at least 800 million dollars out of a total amount of 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 embezzlement case. Central Bank, at the center of which is a scam that includes multi-level transactions, under the cover of which the dollar-ruble exchange was carried out and, through Russian banks, using false advice notes, government funds were transferred 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, 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 factions 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 later became known, was taking 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 a representative 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 management for another five-year period and a half. 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 activities, including wiretapping telephone conversations Cherny, 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 Cherney poses a potential threat to the economic security of Great Britain and any other state where the company's branches operate. 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 partially emerged from suspicion 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 was 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 Reuben 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 allowed on 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)

On December 10, 1954, in the maternity hospital of the city of Tashkent, long after midnight, after a heavy slap from the midwife, a faint squeak was heard. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The boy was born long and difficult, as if this world did not want him at all.
Overwhelmed by Soviet reality and frightened by “Beria” for the rest of their lives, his parents gave him the proud name Lev. As if in revenge on the whole world for the frailty of the creature. And in the struggle for the life of the sickly boy, the mother, a convinced communist, not trusting the “pest doctors” exiled from Moscow, quietly, at night, read old-fashioned prayers to the formidable god Yahweh so that the boy would survive. And he did survive...
But active work the CPSU annihilates God's help - little Leva became seriously ill with polio. And the doctors, even though they were fellow tribesmen, really turned out to be pests: the leg below the knee had to be amputated.
And how can a disabled boy live? Especially in Soviet society, which is ruthless towards everything that goes beyond the norms imposed from above. One can imagine what kind of inferiority a cheerful and energetic boy must feel, deprived of the innocent childhood joys of socialist Uzbekistan: picking cotton during the holidays and filling gopher holes with water, like all the pioneers. And just give the offender back. It would have been very difficult if there had not been a patron. He became the chieftain of the local hooligans, Lyova’s classmate Alimdzhan, a physically strong boy who was not particularly diligent in his studies. The alliance was obviously mutually beneficial.
Having ensured his safety within the school and the surrounding neighborhood, Leva slowly approached the age when boys are interested in girls. But maturing, pimply girls are not interested in smart ones - they need slim, strong and beautiful ones. Like Alimjan.
Hanging out among the company of Alimdzhan, who had known all the surrounding girls since his youth, Leva tasted the fruit of sinful love, which turned out to be much tastier than imitating Onan in the toilet of a communal apartment, to the impatient cries of the neighbors. In order to taste such love, you did not need muscles and a cheerful appearance. If only there was money. This life lesson Levchik remembered it forever.
My student years at the Tashkent Polytechnic University passed to the sounds of the Beatles. The Soviet government did not encourage, but also did not forcibly cut off long hair. In dancing, it became permissible to make out. Girls in the seventies fell for jeans, ostentatious independence, Chumai port wine and the romantic Okudzhava. Leva barely mastered three chords on the guitar, but real branded jeans were expensive, and child-loving parents drove themselves into their graves just so that their crippled child would be warm in this life.
But even generous parental support was not enough to buy the desired girlish caresses - Tashkent is not Kyiv, and certainly not Moscow. It’s difficult with available young girls. I had to withstand powerful competition with the wealthy sons of the Uzbek party nomenklatura.
And Levchik, in search of additional income, got down to business: he began to “ride”. Smart Jewish boys play the violin or chess. Those who are not very smart become deputies, but the smartest ones become deputies. Simply put, they play cards in such a way that the saying “if I knew the deal, I would live in Sochi” does not work when applied to such guys. This is not Sochi, this smells like Monte Carlo. Specifically. Sleight of hand and no fraud. Your money will be ours, and if something goes wrong, then there is Alimdzhan with a gopa and “four on the side - yours are not.” Old business. This is how it was done in Odessa, and this is how it was done in Tashkent. Well, maybe the flavor was thinner: after all, the farmers from the Tashkent bazaar are not the Odessa bindyuzhniks from Malaya Arnautskaya.
However, Levchik, who saw nothing better, was not bothered by this. There was enough money for both chewing gum and American cigarettes: in those idyllic times it was still possible to seduce girls with them without additional costs. But the “office” was not asleep either: they caught student Cherny in Samarkand red-handed. Leva didn’t want to go to the zone and began to knock on the KGB about students telling jokes about Brezhnev, blackmailers and the same “catal” as himself. Not disinterestedly, of course. The security officers provided Leva with an increased scholarship and the opportunity to engage in cheating under their “roof”. Leva knocked on the local gang a lot, how could you refuse his school friend Gafur, who now walked in authority.
The security officers assigned Cherny, according to the concepts of that time, smartly - immediately to the position of head of the quality control department of a branch of the Tashkent excavator plant, which produced consumer goods, which are now called consumer goods. There is no time left for cards. And Leva is already accustomed to living widely.
But it was not for nothing that his father constantly said: “There is no leg, but there is a good potts and aidishe kopf.” Leva creates an underground workshop for the production of scarves and blouses with Lurex - aboriginal ladies are as voracious as magpies for everything shiny. My mother did the accounting, but I stole the necessary materials for my son. Chief Power Engineer knitting association. In Tashkent, a bribe thrust into the right hand at the right time decided a lot. Even Brezhnev’s son-in-law later went to jail precisely for Uzbek bribes. The production was carried out by the Leva brothers, and the “roof” was provided by the local KGB and an old school friend Gafur. By the time of perestroika, Chernoy had already become a major “guild worker.”
As soon as cooperatives were allowed, Leva immediately legalized his shadow “shop.” But little has changed in the organization of production: raw materials were still obtained through systematic theft of state property on an especially large scale. The only novelty was the laundering of Gafur’s income from racketeering, prostitution, arms and drug trafficking.
A tornado in the form of Gdlyan and Ivanov, who knocked out a significant wedge in the shadow economy of Uzbekistan, flew past Cherny - the security officers covered him. In addition, extremely cautious and calculating, Leva always avoided direct compromise, and repeated attempts by the local Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Moscow prosecutor's office to find documentary evidence of his involvement in organized crime were unsuccessful. You can’t attach school friendship to the matter...
Meanwhile, Gafur brought Cherny together with thief in law Vyacheslav Ivankov, known to the country as “Yaponchik” and Otari Kvantrishvili (“Otarik”). Uzbekistan became too small for Black. Moreover, in Moscow Gaidar proclaimed the construction of capitalism.
And if so, then Levchik took the first independent step in his life - he “threw” his brother Misha onto 1 (one) BILLION DOLLARS! (This is not a typo.) So, after this, listen to jokes about the “poor...” well, these same ones, in general, you understand who they’re talking about...
Already in the 90s, Lev became a business partner of an American citizen, a native of Odessa, Sam Kislin, owner of the company Trans Commodities. This was the time when all foreigners were paranoidly interested in Russian metal. Any. From scrap metal to zirconium. Foreign businessmen found in the collapsing USSR a land of unafraid bureaucrats and beggars, by Western standards, directors of the world's largest factories. The lack of working capital forced enterprise managers to resort to the services of gesheftmakhers like Chernoy throughout the country. Moreover, Western buyers did not waste their time on “glass beads.”
Comprador mediation yielded good profits: Chernoy had 50% of the difference in domestic and international prices. And supply volumes were constantly expanding. But greed... Greed... Chernoy still keeps one personal driver - he saves on the salary of the second.
Not wanting to share any more with Kislin, Leva registered the company Trans-CIS Commodities Ltd. (TCC) in Monte Carlo, which practically appropriated not only the business, but also the name of Kislin’s company. So Leva cheated on his partner again. For now only for money. Sam’s friend’s attempts to achieve a civilized division came across advice: “Think seriously if his wife wants to see him and his children alive.” Sema grew up in Odessa and also had an Aidish Kopf. He met in the company of Black and Yaponchik. He didn't need to repeat himself.
The same Yaponchik became a partner in Cherny’s new company and the company, in addition to buying metal in Russia, became a powerful laundry for laundering Ivankov’s “dirty” money, including money received from the drug business. This was documented by the Swiss police, who opened a criminal case against Cherny. (As L. Chernoy himself states in an interview with Nezavisimaya Gazeta, December 24, 1999, “... the details of this case are widely covered in Reuters, France Presse, Figaro, New York Times.)
1991 became a fateful year for Leva. In Moscow, he met Goran Stanovich, a representative of the small intermediary company TWM (Trans-World Metal). The company itself was headed by David Ruben, whose acquaintance was not long in coming. The value of this company was that it had brokerage seat on the London Metal Exchange, where Leva and his Monegasque company TCC could not get through for a year: not everyone is allowed there. TSS Cherny became an agent of TWM. It is with light hand Ruben, Lev Chernoy became seriously interested in aluminum.
Over the course of a year, Chernoy, Yaponchik and Otarik put together a conglomerate of intermediary “floats” around TWM, called Trans-World Group (TWG), which they registered with the help of David Ruben in London as a holding company.
In 1992, Chernoy contacted Soskovets, who sanctioned a method of pumping money out of the country, unprecedented in the economic history of mankind, in the Russian aluminum industry - tolling 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 tolling, TWG quickly 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 established business in the territory of the former Soviet Union.” Chernoy was listed as only a general consultant at TWG, but, according to company employees, he resolved all issues related to the conduct of business in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan single-handedly. Ruben waved the papers without looking.
Chernoy, under the threat of being deprived of raw materials and work, transferred Russian aluminum production plants to export raw metal. With almost complete loss domestic market and working capital, the factories were forced to submit. Thus was born a new type of neocolonialism – work-based. Factories worked for a breath of oxygen. Getting back on their feet was out of the question - no one was going to share profits from metal sales with factories. Thus, the most profitable business in the world finally fell on its side in Russia. Working capital he was deprived by Gaidar and Matyukhin, finished off by Chernoy and tolling.
In 1992, when the Iron Curtain was replaced by a continuous metal export, Leva Chernoy finally turned from a petty swindler into a major shark of capitalism. Precisely in the sense that is put into it outside the borders of our long-suffering Fatherland. All youthful complexes are satisfied. Everything is possible, everything is available, any luxury, any pleasure. Family, three children. But Black is still missing something. Something is gnawing at him and preventing him from enjoying life. The complexes of a young cripple who has always been offended by children - children, they are cruel - do not allow him to enjoy luxury. Leva saves on everything, even on children, all the worries about which, and Leva himself, were always paid for by his wife from her own income.
Black has always lacked self-importance. And significance precisely in your own eyes.
He simply didn’t have enough money anymore. I feel sorry for those that exist.
In order to get around the 20% barrier of foreign companies owning shares in Russian enterprises, he bakes offshore companies in Monaco, Gibraltar, the Bahamas and Cyprus like pancakes on Maslenitsa. In turn, these offshore companies register subsidiaries in Russia, of which there are already several hundred. And this whole gang was involved in buying up shares, which allowed him to become a shareholder in enterprises producing 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. Leva learned back in Soviet times not to expose himself. Or the security officers who snitched on them were trained. Chernoy showed his rare ability to use gaps in the legislation and financial system of the country, which always left loopholes for those in power.
From that moment on, Leva realized that everything was allowed to him. That there is no God, to whose mother’s prayers he remained to live, but only the Golden Calf, who exists only so that Black can scrape him with a file.
And strange events began to spread across the country. They seem to be unrelated to each other. It seems... Cherny’s partner in the Columbus joint venture, Igor Beletsky, and Deputy Chairman of Roskommetallurgy Yuri Kaletnikov (supervising the aluminum industry), having agreed to testify in the case of “Chechen advice notes,” die one after another in car accidents. A little later, Alexander Borisov, the president of Medico SA, one of the companies paying for the Trams-CIS Commodities contracts, crashes to death in his car.
In April 1994, in Moscow, he was shot dead by the hired killer Otari Kvantarishvili - Otarik, whom Cherny had been introduced to by Gafur at the dawn of perstroika. Reason: Otarik became seriously interested in the aluminum business. It’s hard to lose close friends, but Leva survived it.
In April 1995 The vice-president of the Yugorsky commercial bank, Vadim Yafyasov, was killed; in July, the president of this bank, Oleg Kantor, was brutally stabbed to death at the guarded dacha of the Russian Government “Snegiri”. Reason: Yugorsky Bank, faced with financial problems, tried to switch to financing the profitable aluminum industry. Yafyasov, a few days before his death, even took over the post of commercial director of KrAZ. And if you consider that Yafyasov was Cherny’s partner for a long time and had information about his business. According to investigators, the death of the bankers occurred as a result of their decision to testify in the case of false advice notes.
In September of the same year, Felix Lvov, a representative of the American company AIOC, was killed. This company worked with Russian aluminum smelters using 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 TWG. He refused. And, after some time, he was found murdered.
The coordinator of some of the murders and intimidation was Anatoly Bykov (Bull). Competent sources claim that Leva did not spare $10 million for these purposes, part of which was used through Chechen channels to purchase weapons for the separatists in Chechnya.
It seems that everyone who, in one way or another, communicates with the Black One is stained with a black mark from him. There is no evidence that can be submitted to the court... But let’s ask ourselves the sacramental question of Roman law: who benefits? And only Black benefits. He “cut off the tails.”
Cherney avoids cooperation with law enforcement agencies. The senior investigator for particularly important cases of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, S. Glushenkov, stated in March 1997 that “it was not possible to personally interrogate Mr. Chenoy, although attempts to contact him have been made since 1994.”
But suddenly the Ministry of Internal Affairs lost all interest in Cherny. In 1998, he is in Moscow, personally and very intimately communicates with a number of politicians and high-ranking bureaucrats, lives openly, does not hide from anyone, but for some reason investigator Glushakov is no longer interested in him. Why? This great mystery exists.
And in the West, Black was surrounded with flags like a wolf. The US FBI has opened a case of tax concealment by TWG. In France and Germany, companies associated with TWG immediately fall under the total surveillance of law enforcement agencies, in Switzerland a criminal case has been opened against L. Cherny, the National Criminal Investigation Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Great Britain, in cooperation with Interpol, is conducting an investigation in regarding the “laundering” of drug mafia proceeds through TWG, L. Chernoy is the main defendant in this case. In Kazakhstan they want to talk to him about tolling, which was banned there, as well as about money laundering for the drug mafia. In Israel, he faces arrest for illegal transactions involving the purchase of land planned for civil construction. The only place on the planet where Chernoy is not needed by law enforcement agencies is Russia.
Preparing Russia as a springboard for hiding, since last year Lev Chernoy has been leading a massive PR campaign in the country to create an image for himself as a major industrialist entrepreneur. He bribes trade unions (FPSR secretary A. Isaev supported him publicly through the press), took R. Abramovich and B. Berezovsky into his support. Through the latter he is actively buying up media (TV-6, Kommersant, etc.) Berezovsky understands. That it’s not entirely decent to dance in circles with an offshore Israeli - they might even think something bad - so he’s stocked up on parliamentary immunity.
Cherney completely took over the support of the Kedr party, which, after being exposed, withdrew from the election race. Or rather, it was shot by No. 2 on the party list - director Ivan Okhlobystin. He turned out to be a decent person.
Over the past year, Chernoy has stated that he met with Zyuganov. Vengerovsky, Zhirinovsky (from whom he bargained for second place on the list for Bykov), Ryzhkov Jr., Veselkin, Petrenko, Kolesnichenko, Kurginyan, Isaev, Lipitsky, Podberezkin, Berezovsky, Dzasokhov, Kokov, Nazdratenko, Rossel, Yakovlev, Simonov, Platov, Aminov , Mitin, Evsyukov, General Nikolaev (whom he offered financial assistance). I am far from accusing all these people of short-sightedness: of course, they did not meet Leva, but even talking to him on the phone is dangerous for his reputation... After all, most likely, Leva, as has happened more than once, decided to play with them “into the dark” in financial and political poker: fight and quit. In what way, and in this sport he has no equal...
And at the same time, he is actively “cutting off tails” that could compromise him: Yaponchik on American bunks, Bykov on Hungarian ones. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
His siblings have long been afraid to have common affairs with him, and during the divorce, according to Western press reports, his wife, out of fear, even ordered his removal for 400 thousand dollars. Chernoy did not give her a divorce for a long time, since he saved his own money and lived on money from her business. Chernoy himself claims that he eats “the same as everyone else,” and he has only one suit, since he “doesn’t need fifteen suits or ten cars. He’s not interested in a luxury vacation.” This is very reminiscent of Panikovsky’s complaints to Bender, when he, while in the bathroom, complains that he hasn’t been to the bathhouse for a year and that the girls don’t like him. In fact, in Soviet history there was a leader of the entire industry who, from the age of 17 until his death, wore the same patched tunic - Iron Felix, whom Lev taught to “make a life from” back in school.
After all, everyone around here is screaming that Leva Cherney is a very rich man. That Leva Chernoy is an outstanding industrial entrepreneur. And Leva also puffs out her cheeks, like the father of Russian democracy and a person close to the emperor. What is his wealth? There are no houses. There are no factories. There are no steamers. There is only one car. One suit. He has shares in a dozen offshore companies on foreign islands, so what? What is he like? Russian businessman, if in Russia he owns nothing except tolling? He boasts of his Russian-Israeli citizenship, but is he a citizen? Citizenship provides for residency, that is, the payment of taxes to one’s homeland. And Chernoy does not pay taxes to either Russia or Israel. He doesn't pay taxes anywhere. He is a poor gigolo supported by his ex-wife.
Having shunned journalists all his life, Chernoy now actively speaks in the press with the ideas of “state capitalism and the solidarity of entrepreneurs.” In November of this year, he published an article in Nezavisimaya Gazeta, which the public immediately dubbed “The Manifesto of Criminal Capital.” In it, Chernoy actively talks about his desire for supreme power. About the transformation of the state into a single company, with the complete subordination of all law enforcement agencies of the country to it. And the most important thing there, naturally, is he. It’s not for nothing that his favorite hero is Napoleon Buonaparti. I want to go from rags to riches so much that I can no longer stand it.
Lev Chernoy turned out to be surprisingly banal. He ended up doing what all intelligent, but impressionable and flawed teenagers end up with - the desire to remake the world to their liking. Lev Chernoy dreamed of becoming Leon Trotsky, although due to his lack of literacy he had not read the latter’s biography... Unlike the lazy Leiba, who grew up in ease, wealth and universal love, Chernoy earned his billions through hard work and then, it only seems from the outside that the life of a swindler is easy and carefree. You don’t get other people’s money without difficulty. And to facilitate this process, Leva is building a black hole in one particular state. The ashes of Marx knock on his heart.
Dmitry Karasev.

Lev Semenovich Chernoy– Scientific director of the Institute for Advanced Scientific Research, Chairman of the Scientific Council of the IPNI – Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor, full member of the Russian Academy of Social Sciences, Honorary President of the football club for disabled children “Lev Chernoy-Olympia”. L.S. 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 secondary school No. 129. 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.

Lev Chernoy was already actively involved in cooperative activities in the early 80s. Even within the narrow framework of permitted entrepreneurship of that time, he was able to create effective commercial structures, the products of which were instantly absorbed by the Soviet market. The extraordinary talent of a market economist who perfectly knows all the mechanisms, pitfalls, problems and vulnerabilities of the Soviet economic system, made Lev Cherny one of the leaders of the cooperative movement of the USSR, one of the most prominent figures among business people - ideologists and business practitioners - who emerged during perestroika.

In 1992-2000 Lev Chernoy is the General Coordinator of economic and production programs in the CIS countries and Eastern Europe of the British metallurgical corporation Trans-World Group (TWG). In this capacity, the name of Lev Cherny is associated with the organizational development and practical implementation of a tolling scheme for working with metallurgical enterprises, which saved the largest aluminum smelters from collapse former USSR, as well as the promotion of a number of advanced Western technologies into the post-Soviet non-ferrous and ferrous metallurgy.

In 2000, Lev Chernoy stopped working in a large Russian metallurgical business and refocused on financing a number of projects innovation economy, as well as for scientific and social activities.

Since the fall of 1998, after the August financial crisis, Lev Chernoy regularly publishes conceptual and programmatic articles in the Russian press with proposals for an accelerated exit of Russia from the crisis. In 1999, L. Chernoy and a group of like-minded people took the initiative to create a public organization capable of developing and proposing comprehensive measures and programs for practical implementation effective development Russian national economy. In the summer of 2000, the Interregional public organization promoting democratic reforms "Mobilization and Development", which was headed by Lev Chernoy. Since then, the IOO SDR "MIR" has been conducting extensive scientific and organizational work in the field of research of key Russian socio-economic problems, providing expertise economic projects and programs at the national, industry and regional levels, regularly convenes scientific and scientific-practical seminars and conferences, publishes thematic brochures, collections and monographs on current problems of the Russian economy, and allocates research grants to promising young economists.

L.S. Cherny's own areas of scientific interests include macroeconomics, the strategy of reforms of the Russian economy in the context of globalization, socioeconomics, innovation and the efficiency of corporate systems, the theory and methodology of business ethics.

In 2000 L.S. Chernoy successfully defended his PhD thesis on problems of the Russian economy at the Central Economics and Mathematics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and published the monograph “Economy, Market, State” in the Nauka publishing house, containing a systematic comparative analysis of the economies of Russia, developed and developing countries, as well as a comprehensive program of strategic economic measures aimed at forcing the country out of the crisis and transitioning the national economy to a sustainable development mode.

In 2001, L.S. Chernoy was elected a full member of the Russian Academy of Social Sciences and Humanities.

In 2003, the publishing house "Akademkniga" published Lev Cherny's book "Globalization: past or future? Transformation of market economic systems." In 2004, the same publishing house published his monograph " Social factors and risks of economic development of Russia." These monographs received high praise from experts and great public response.

July 9, 2010 at the Central Economics and Mathematics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences L.S. Cherney successfully defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic “Performance Management corporate system Russia". The Presidium of the Higher Attestation Commission of the Russian Federation on November 26, 2010 awarded Cherny Lev Semenovich the degree of Doctor of Economics.

July 15, 2011 Presidium of the Higher Certification Commission The Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation awarded Cherny Lev Semenovich the academic title of professor in the specialty “Economics and Management of the National Economy”.

In 2011, a fundamental monograph by L.S. was published. Cherny “National corporate system. Conceptual foundations of performance management" (M., Economic Education, 2011. – 424 pp.). The book was published under the auspices of the Scientific Council for the Program basic research Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences “Economics and Sociology of Knowledge”, Central Economics and Mathematics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Socio-Political Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Advanced Scientific Research. The preface to the book was written by prominent Russian scientists, academician V.L. Makarov and academician G.V. Osipov. The monograph identifies the main characteristics of the national corporate system, the totality of corporations and firms in a market economy, its intrasystem connectivity, dynamics and resistance to destabilizing external influences. It is shown to what extent and due to what mechanisms market self-organization of the Russian corporate system is possible, as well as targeted management of its main parameters by means government regulation. The most important management priorities that can increase the efficiency of the Russian national corporate system are substantiated. Raised current problem operational efficiency state corporations, acting on market principles and in a competitive market environment, but enjoying special government support.

In 2015, the monograph by L.S. Cherny was republished in the USA on English language: Chernoi L.S. THE NATIONAL CORPORATE SYSREM.
Conceptual foundations of performance management // PLEIADES PUBLISHING (452 ​​Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018, 2015.

In 2018, under the auspices of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Science and higher education Russian Federation in a series of scientific works “Economics and Sociology of Knowledge” was published A new book L.S. Cherny “Entrepreneurial ethics as the most important factor in the opportunities and risks of economic development” - M., St. Petersburg. : “Nestor-History”, 2018. – 116 p. The monograph examines the economic and sociocultural specifics, historical dynamics and variability of entrepreneurial ethics in the area of ​​market economies from antiquity to the present, the connections of entrepreneurial ethical transformations with changes in local and global economic conditions are identified and discussed. The transformations of entrepreneurial ethics in European Modern times, as well as in special conditions globalization of modern times. Special attention focuses on the development and transformation of entrepreneurial ethics in old Russia, in the Soviet era, as well as during the period of the late Soviet and post-Soviet transition to market relations. The influence of negative transformations of business ethics on the conditions and risks of economic development in Russia is analyzed.

L.S. Chernoy – author of more than 60 scientific articles on problems of the Russian and world economy, published in 1999-2018, including in leading scientific economic journals - “ Economic science modern Russia”, “The Economist”, “Russian Economic Journal”, “Society and Economy”, “Economic Strategies”, “Russian Foreign Economic Bulletin”, “Industrial Policy in the Russian Federation”, etc. Under the scientific leadership of L.S. Cherny, one was successfully defended doctoral and 5 candidate dissertations.

L.S. Chernoy actively participates in the activities of the International Foundation for Economic Research named after Academician N.P. Fedorenko. On his initiative and with his direct participation, scientific seminars are regularly held together with the Central Economics and Mathematics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Social Sciences, and the Institute of Socio-Political Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Lev Semenovich Chernoy is the Scientific Director of the Institute for Advanced Scientific Research, Chairman of the Scientific Council of the IPNI, working under the scientific and methodological guidance of the Department of Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Ilona Zhorzhevna Vanina was approved as the Director of the IPNI, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Gennady Vasilyevich Osipov as the Deputy Chairman of the Scientific Council, and Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Boris Ivanovich Katorgin as the head of the scientific and technical direction of research.

The Institute for Advanced Scientific Research conducts systematic research in the field of macroeconomics, sociology and high technology, as well as on scientific support important for the socio-economic development of Russia innovative projects. For a number of years, he has been participating 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” and “Modernization and economic security Russian Federation". Within the framework of the scientific and technical direction, IPNI is developing innovative technologies for use in production and entrepreneurial activity in order to create powerful “growth engines” and promising world-class “technological breakthrough zones” in the real economy.