Is The Charming Mr Cherney Just One Oligarch Too Far?

Is The Charming Mr Cherney Just One Oligarch Too Far?
By Keith Dovkants and Adrian Gatton
6 December 2006
Evening Standard (London)

Banned from the US, dogged by Russian mafia rumours and facing fraud charges, this is the billionaire eyeing a mansion in London and a Premiership football club.

There was an especially disappointed fan amongst those watching Chelsea beat Levski Sofia 2-0 in the Champions League at Stamford Bridge last night. Billionaire business magnate Michael Cherney is Levki's honorary president and had dearly wanted to see his side giving Roman Abramovich's Blues a thrashing. Cherney and Abramovich have history. Until he Anglicised his name, Michael Cherney was Mikhail Chernoy, one of the last men standing when the smoke cleared after Russia's bloody Aluminium War in the 1990s.

He and Abramovich go back a long way, to the time when they both made colossal fortunes out of the wreckage of the old Soviet Union.

But while Abramovich settled in London with £7bn in the bank, buying a football club, a country house and various homes in Belgravia, Cherney (as we must now call him) has been unable to shake off the shadows of the old days. He is stalked constantly by allegations of links to the Russian mafia, his fortune was created during a violent business war and today he finds himself facing serious fraud charges.

Cherney, 54, would like to put all this behind him and, we can reveal, follow Abramovich's example by starting a new life in London. He is currently based in Israel, but he has been looking at one of the capital's most expensive homes, the Emir of Qatar's Beechwood House in Hampstead.

The property, set in 11-acres and guarded by a state-of-the-art security system, has been discreetly offered for sale at £65m. Cherney looked at it recently on a visit to London and is believed to consider it ideal, not least because it has extensive accommodation for staff, including, of course, bodyguards.

According to a reliable source Cherney has also consulted the football agent Pini Zahavi, about the possibility of buying a Premiership club. Unlike Abramovich, Cherney has had a lifelong passion for football. He turned Levski Sofia into a winning side when he bought the club and has pumped in millions of dollars. But difficulties with the Bulgarian authorities over business deals forced him to sell.

Officially, he is an honorary president, but insiders chuckle at this title, and it has been widely sugested that although he does not own the club on paper, in reality, he does ...

Full text of this two-page news feature article is available via the Evening Standard archive.

Polonium-Spuren bei Beresowski

Polonium-Spuren bei Beresowski
By Sabine Rennefanz
29 November 2006
Berliner Zeitung

LONDON - Es war ein überraschender Fund. Im Fall des ermordeten russischen Ex-Agenten Alexander Litwinenko hat Scotland Yard jetzt im Büro des Milliardärs Boris Beresowski Spuren der Substanz Polonium 210 gefunden ..

A German newspaper article analysing the death of the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, including an interview with Adrian Gatton about the poisoning, and how - breaking an historical truce - the rivalries of Russian oligarchs are now played out in London. The comments draw comparisons with the mysterious death of the Menatep/Yukos lawyer Stephen Curtis in a helicopter crash in Dorset in March 2004, who had allegedly become a police informant and had been receiving death threats shortly before he died.

Adrian Gatton first revealed the mysterious circumstances surrounding Stephen Curtis' death in a series of exclusive stories: see Mystery Crash (Channel 4 News, 24 April 2004); Russian tycoon's British lawyer was 'a police informant' (Independent on Sunday, 25 April 2004), Crash lawyer 'in fear of Russian spies' (30 April 2004), Russians apply to raid London offices of jailed Yukos oligarch (Independent on Sunday, 2 May 2004).

If you have any information at all on the death of Alexander Litvinenko and Stephen Curtis or related matters please email Adrian Gatton via this website.

She looks like any ordinary woman in London, but at 30 this Kazakhstani is set to be the first female oligarch

She looks like any ordinary woman in London, but at 30 this Kazakhstani is set to be the first female oligarch
By Keith Dovkants and Adrian Gatton
26 October 2006
Evening Standard

Borat, eat your heart out. This young woman, with her elegantly understated outfit and designer handbag, is about to prove the zany comedian has got it all wrong about Kazakhstan. Mounissa Chodieva, like everyone else from a Kazakh background who has had to endure Sacha Baron Cohen's jokes, is poised to become Britain's first woman oligarch.

Until now the oligarchs have all been men. Mounissa Chodieva is expected to join their ranks next year when her father's huge mines and metals conglomerate seeks a listing on the London Stock Exchange.

If, as expected, the corporation is take public, it could command a market value of £3bn. Ms Chodieva, 30, plays an important role in the business, owns part of it and will become concomitantly rich, or, more accurately, even richer than she already is. To be a true oligarch, of course, she has to have a link to real power and, as we shall see, she satisfies that with ease ...

Full article on Mounissa Chodieva and the background of and plans by the so-called "Trio" of Kazakh oligarchs - Patokh Chodiev, Alexander Machkevitch and Alijan Ibragimov - to float their company in the UK available via the online Evening Standard archive. Or full-text version available here.

For other stories on the Trio on this site see London-based oligarchs face cash probe (Independent on Sunday, 08 August 2004).

Reubens sue Russian oligarch for £159m in row over metal deal

Reubens sue Russian oligarch for £159m in row over metal deal
By Adrian Gatton and Brendan Malkin
12 April, 2005
Evening Standard

Billionaires Simon and David Reuben are to sue Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, recently listed as Britain's sixth richest man, for $300m (£159m) over a disputed alumium trading venture.

Oleg Deripaska faces $300m claim in fallout from aluminium wars

Oleg Deripaska faces $300m claim in fallout from aluminium wars
14 March 2005
Metal Bulletin

Four dealmakers at the cutting edge of Russia’s aluminium privatisations allegedly met in London in 1995 to join hands as partners in an exciting new venture ...

Scarred By the Aluminium Wars, Oleg the Oligarch Steels Himself for a New Battle

Scarred by the aluminium wars, Oleg the oligarch steels himself for a new battle

He's gone from Siberia to Belgravia, but now Russia's second-richest man faces a $300m lawsuit over a joint venture that turned sour

By Adrian Gatton and Brendan Malkin
Independent on Sunday
27 February 2005

Russia's second-richest man, Oleg Deripaska, is being sued for $300m (£156m) by Britain's billionaire Reuben brothers over a disputed aluminium trading venture, The Independent on Sunday has learnt ...

London-based oligarchs face cash probe

London-based oligarchs face cash probe
Billionaires who 'practically own the Kazakh government' under investigation for money laundering. Adrian Gatton reports
The Independent on Sunday
08 August 2004

Three London-based oligarchs from Kazakhstan, who are understood to have invested heavily in the capital's property market, are under investigation by Belgian authorities for money-laundering.

Abramovich faces fraud probe over sale of gold mine

Abramovich faces fraud probe over sale of gold mine
By Adrian Gatton
The Independent on Sunday
23 May 2004

Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, is being investigated by Russian authorities over the controversial sale of a mine in his Arctic governorship to London-listed Highland Gold.

Russians apply to raid London offices of jailed Yukos oligarch

Russians apply to raid London offices of jailed Yukos oligarch
By Abigail Townsend and Adrian Gatton
Independent on Sunday
02 May 2004

The Home Office is believed to be considering an application from the Russian authorities to allow them to raid the London offices of oil giant Yukos.

Crash lawyer 'in fear of Russian spies'

Crash lawyer 'in fear of Russian spies'
By Nigel Rosser And Adrian Gatton
Evening Standard
30th April, 2004
A millionaire British lawyer who died in a mystery helicopter crash was being targeted by the Russian secret service...read

Russian tycoon's British lawyer 'was a police informant'

Russian tycoon's British lawyer 'was a police informant'
By Adrian Gatton
The Independent on Sunday
25 April 2004

The secretive British lawyer behind the jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky became a police informant only days before he died in a mysterious helicopter accident, it was claimed last night.

Channel 4 News: Mystery Crash

Crash Death Investigation
Channel 4 News
24 April 2004

EXCLUSIVE

What was the British lawyer who died in this crash telling British intelligence here about the struggle between the Kremlin and a Russian oil empire?

When the closest confidant of Russia's wealthiest man died in a helicopter crash in Dorset last month, suspicions were raised.

While air accident investigators are still trying to find what caused the crash, local police say they have no plans to investigate.

But the National Criminal Intelligence Service is apparently taking an interest in the case.

Channel Four News has learned that shortly before he died, Stephen Curtis contacted officers to offer his services as an informant. And friends told us the millionaire lawyer was afraid for his life in the weeks before the crash.

Watch the Channel 4 News report here.

Reporter: Sarah Smith
Producer: Adrian Gatton
Director: Rob Lemkin