Russian-Israeli mob Intelligence Reports
Andrey Kalitin was lying on the sidewalk on a side alley in central Moscow, bleeding on the asphalt. He could have sworn he could again hear the phone ringing. As usual that week, the day Kalitin was shot at point blank began with a phone call that woke him up at an almost ungodly time. He had already gotten used to the routine: The phone buzzed, Kalitin picked up the receiver, and the dumb person on the line provided the daily dosage of huffing and puffing, waited a few seconds, and hung up . . . Kalitin, a veteran and highly appreciated correspondent, who has published some of the most outstanding investigative reports in Russian journalism in recent years, was convinced this was one more unsatisfied customer. As a member of the editorial staff of Special Investigation, a popular investigation program on Russia's Channel 1, he had acquired quite a few enemies over the past few years . . . However, on the night of 13 June 2007, a few minutes after a young man donning a baseball cap sneaked from behind and fired a revolver with a silencer, Kalitin had another idea in this context. He was going to sign a contract for the publication of a book called Zero Hour that week, which featured Israeli-Russian oligarch Mikhail Chernoy. Shortly after the attempt to assassinate him, Kalitin, who is a close associate of Chernoy's business rival Oleg Deripaska, claimed that the purpose of the assassination attempt was not to liquidate him but stop the book from being published. Chernoy, for his part, quickly filed a libel suit against Kalitin and others in an Israeli court . . . Kalitin devotes almost a full chapter in the book to the relationship between Chernoy and Avigdor Lieberman. "Why is Chernoy hanging on to Lieberman so tightly?" wondered Kalitin already two years ago, and provided the answer: "Because he hopes Lieberman would get the public security portfolio. Even if it is not Lieberman himself, then it will be one of his party comrades. This will be an achievement after all. This is what will solve Chernoy's main problem today, one which is worth all the money in the world, namely the issue of his Israeli citizenship." . . . Mikhail Semenovich Chernoy has been one of the Israel Police's topmost targets since the end of the 1990's. Until recently, the security services in the United States, Switzerland, France, Bulgaria, Russia, and Germany also expressed great interest in him. The next interior minister will have to determine whether to deny him his Israeli passport and some countries have refused to allow him entry to this day . . .
In an illustrative verdict, in which the court in London permitted Deripaska to receive the chart sheet outside the boundaries of the United Kingdom, Justice Christopher Clarke reviewed the activities of Chernoy and his associates, whom various global intelligence bodies had describes as Russian crime kingpins. One of the names on that list is Sergey Popov, whom the National Serious and International Crimes Unit (NSICU) and other Western law-enforcement agencies described as one of the leaders of the Podolsk crime gang, which is considered one of the largest and most violent in Moscow. The court described that gang as running most of the sex and drug trafficking on the streets of Moscow. Popov had previously been one of Chernoy's business partners. When Chernoy was detained in Geneva in 1996, the Swiss police also found Popov in the same hotel. One of Chernoy's closest friends was a Jew called Anton Malevskiy, who was described as the linchpin of the Russian Ismailova crime gang -- an international Russian group that specializes in collecting protection money, extortion, and mercenary liquidations. Malevskiy, whose face is scarred by a huge gash and half of whose left ear has been torn off, immigrated to Israel -- like Chernoy -- in the mid-1990's. The two purchased adjacent villas in Savyon and used to show up in social eve . . . In 1995, two private investigators from Tel Aviv, who had plotted to liquidate Chernoy, Malevskiy, and another friend of theirs, Moshe Hayimov (whose son Elisha was Chernoy's personal aide), were arrested. Chernoy maintained at the time that he had no idea who was looking to kill him . . . [In 1998] Malevskiy was deported and his Israeli citizenship was rescinded. Approximately two years later, he was killed in a freak accident during vacation in South Africa, after the parachute that he tried to eject with failed to open . . . Some of Chernoy's acquaintances, among them Malevskiy, Salim Abdulov (who is regarded as one of the chief gangsters in Uzbekistan), Sergey Lalkin (the head of the Podolskiy criminal organization), coal czar Iskandar Makhmudov (a former KGB agent in Libya), and our friend Sergey Popov -- used to come to sun-washed Israel once or twice a year for a vacation Chernoy had organized for them. The indictment filed against Oleg Chernomoretz, the deputy mayor of Elat from Yisra'el Beytenu, stated that Chernoy would rent for them entire floors in Elat's most stylish hotels and provided sumptuous entertainment, too . . . [In 2001] Chernoy began to prefer the society of top economy and political figures, such as Dudi Appel, who came to Chernoy in 2000 with a request for a $4.5 million loan toward the resumption of the stuck Greek island project. Chernoy gave him the check without thinking twice and did not even sign a contract with him. Appel evidently knew how to impress the oligarch: One day, he went into his office and invited him for lunch at Arik's. A few hours later, they were already dining at Ari'el Sharon's table on the farm. He also had the right ties to Gad Ze'evi. According to an associate of the two, in one of their joint trips abroad, Chernoy suggested that Ze'evi purchase the Betar Jerusalem soccer club. Chernoy was then the owner of Levski Sofia, one of Bulgaria's top teams. Ze'evi was turned on and bought the team through the mediation of then Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert . . . As Gidi Weitz and Uri Blau disclosed in Ha'aretz, the investigation focuses on the transfer of money from Cyprus to Israel, including, among others, $500,000 that had been traded between MCG Holdings, owned by Chernoy, and Mountain View Assets, which is owned by Lieberman. The transfer was apparently done in 2001, when Lieberman served as national infrastructure minister in the Sharon government. Lieberman's attorney argued that this was payment for a "wine deal" between the two; the NSICU suspect that this was kickback . . .There are additional suspicious payments connected to companies owned by Lieberman and his daughter Mikhal. The NSICU is now checking the source of the millions of shekels for the companies Mikhal Lieberman established when she was only 21 for "business counseling." In November 2007, during a discussion over immunity for documents that had been caught at Lieberman's attorney's office, Judge Rahel Greenberg said: "As mentioned earlier, the comprehensive confidential report presents a foundation based on facts that links the minister to the (Cyprus-based) Trasimeno Trading Ltd.'s bank accounts as well as to the bank accounts of other companies . . .
Chernoy, David and Lev's older brother, was born in 1952 in Ouman, the Ukraine. Two years after his birth, the family moved to Uzbekistan, where he grew up. After completing his military service and studies, he met Sam Kislin, a Russian émigré who was living in the United States, and who, in the late 1980's, imported all and sundry goods into the Eastern Bloc, which had just opened to the West . . . Kislin, a Jew who had donated quite substantially to Israel (and after whom the library at the Sapir Academic College in Sha'ar Hanegev was named until not long ago), currently resides in New York, where Kalitin tracked him down and interviewed him for his book . . . Shortly after Kislin's return to the United States, the brothers Chernoy found other partners: the Jewish brothers David and Simon Reuben. Together, the four set up Transworld Group, a huge conglomerate that soon eliminated its rivals and ruled the entire Russian aluminum market . . .On 9 June 1994, Chernoy was denied entry into Switzerland or Liechtenstein for two years {after his arrest in Switzerland] . . . The police tracked Chernoy for three years, waiting patiently, until in 2001 he and his aide Ze'ev Rom and businessman Gad Ze'evi were detained. The Bezeq affair, as part of which Chernoy was charged of having concealed his involvement in Ze'evi's purchase of some of the communication company's shares (because his record would not have enabled him to obtain license from the state to carry out the deal), blew up with a big bang. The file, which was dubbed "Black Spider," is admittedly progressing slowly, but a senior police officer has explained that "this affair stressed a lot of people, including in the Shin Bet." "It is not a trivial thing for a man like Chernoy to control the shares of the country's phone company" . . . In the current political situation, police sources estimate that it would not be easy to continue to follow the oligarch. "Even if the police have material about him, when the new interior minister is Yisra'el Beytenu's Yitzhaq Aharonovich, then it is doubtful anyone would launch a new investigation," maintains a very high-ranking officer in the police . . . As part of his activity in Israel, Chernoy has been financing various events attended by Israeli politicians, such as the Jerusalem Conference, which was addressed by Ehud Olmert, Binyamin Netanyahu, and Lieberman. Quite a few politicians also attend events initiated by the Mikhail Chernoy Foundation. The foundation's website includes pictures of Hayim Ramon, Olmert, and Lieberman, as well as information and reports from the world that present Chernoy as a victim of business and political persecution . . . "The information that reached the Israel Police indicates Chernoy's involvement in a series of murder cases, attempted assassinations, violence, and threats against the backdrop of 'the aluminum wars.' Specifically, we can cite information indicating his apparent involvement in the killings, perpetrated between the years 1993 and 1995, of the following victims: Igor Beletzky, Yuriy Karetnikov, Aleksandr Borisov, Feliks Lvov, and Vadim Yafyasov. There is also information on his involvement in plotting to kill Ivan Turishev....According to the information that was brought before me, the assassination and violence acts did actually take place, mainly through the Ismailova crime gang, led by Anton Malevskiy.
Police have amassed sufficient evidence to link Israel Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman with money laundering charges, a former National Fraud Unit investigator told The Jerusalem Post Thursday, citing a senior police source. Police suspect Lieberman used Cypriot bank accounts registered to his daughter's name for money laundering purposes, and possibly to also carry out fraud and bribery offenses . . . As far as Lieberman is concerned, if he does succeed in joining the government, he would be limited in the number of posts available to him, thanks to a precedent set by Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz when he placed restrictions on the ministerial jobs available to Kadima MK Tzahi Hanegbi - also the target of a police investigation. A conflict of interests would prevent Lieberman from taking up the post of public security minister, due to that job's direct oversight of the police. The same would apply to the post of justice minister. The Finance Ministry would also be off-limits to Lieberman, since police need approval from the finance minister to access bank accounts and other information belonging to Knesset members who are under investigation. Feb. 9, 2009 -- -- Born and raised in Moldova, Lieberman wants Israel's 20-percent Arab minority to prove their allegiance to the Jewish state, or give up their citizenship. He aims to re-divide Israel and the West Bank to switch Arab towns to the jurisdiction of a future Palestinian state, while Israel takes the Jewish areas. [Note: Lieberman paints a bland face on what will be "ethnic cleansing" of Arabs on a massive scale].
