Israel Police: Oleg Deripaska Wiretapped Chernoy, Lieberman

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

Israel Police: Oleg Deripaska Wiretapped Chernoy, Lieberman

 By Isadore Levy
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem, Israel ---- November 20, 2007 ..... On November 5, Israel police announced that they had arrested two private investigators in Israel, Rafi Pridan and Aviv Mor, on suspicion of illegally wiretapping several people in an effort to gather information about Israel Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman and businessman Michael Chernoy (Mikhail Chernoy, Michael Cherney).

The police also arrested right-wing extremist Avigdor Eskin on suspicion of serving as a liaison between the private eyes and their employer. Israel Police believe the employer is Oleg Deripaska, the richest oligarch in Russia (his fortune is estimated at $22 billion), a business rival of Michael Chernoy who has been waging a public smear campaign against him. A police source told the Israel News Agency that dozens of pages of material found at the suspects' homes and offices indicated that Chernoy was the target of their "operation", a part of the material relates to his ties with Lieberman.

A source from Lieberman's political party, Israel Beiteinu said: "There is a very clear public relations campaign against Lieberman, and we are supposing that at least a large part of the millions came from overseas and not from Israel."

The police investigation began two weeks ago in response to a complaint from Lieberman, who said that private information about himself and Chernoy (Cherney) had recently appeared online and other places, and he suspected that it had been obtained by illegitimate means from people who knew both men. It was Lieberman who suggested Chernoy's business rival - Oleg Deripaska - as the possible culprit.

Other prominent Israel businessmen mentioned in the documents include Arcadi Gaydamak and David Appel.

Israel newspaper Maariv reports that the eavesdropping was apparently done to hurt Cherney, to secure compromising evidence against him, and to compel Israel's Ministry of the Interior to revoke Chernoy's Israel citizenship.

Eskin is suspected of being in contact with different persons employed by companies owned by Deripaska in Russia and England. They provided Eskin with the funds to carry out professional, defamatory PR campaigns against Chernoy in Israel and UK, which included bribing news reporters and publishing libelous journalistic "investigations", producing and distributing fliers and posters, besmirching Chernoy, and also organizing a lobby against Chernoy among various MKs in Israel Knesset and MPs in British Parliament.

It is suspected that Eskin was successful in recruiting Russia speaking aides and advisers to a number of Israel MKs, especially in the ruling Kadima party, and members of the Israel cabinet to lobby their bosses against Chernoy.

At a hearing in the Petah Tikva, Israel Magistrate's Court, police said that there could be additional wiretaps that they do not yet know about, possibly including some overseas. All the wiretaps discovered so far are in Israel.

Israel newspaper Haaretz reports that the confiscated materials, which include Internet downloads, press clippings and reports from agents who tailed Cherney and other people, detail Chernoy's businesses, his holding companies worldwide, his ties to other businessmen from the former Soviet Union, and his personal and business disputes. They also include information about a highly defamatory book on him written by a Russia journalist Andrei Kalitin, which is due out in Russia soon. Russian media has reported that this "black book on Chernoy" was also commissioned by people close to Oleg Deripaska.

Media reports from Russia state that this covert, illegal operation, code-named "Compatriots", has embarrassed Russia Secret Services. The leaders of Russian Foreign Intelligence (SVR) are worried that a further Israel investigation might reveal a major amateur operation of spying and political sabotage, ordered by a number of Moscow oligarchs, which would cast a shadow over Russian special services.

The Russia news outlet Stringer reported that a number of Moscow - based oligarchs (some of them former business partners of Vladimir Gusinsky, Leonid Nevzlin, and Michael Cherney) indeed formed an alliance to neutralize these businessmen who settled in Israel. The alliance's objective is to curry favor with the Kremlin and advance their own business interests: to protect themselves from the former partners' lawsuits, to get tax breaks from the government, et cetera. At the first stage the Russian special services granted tacit approval of this "operation", since the first two targeted oligarchs are the Kremlin's political foes, and the third one is at least not a friend. In order to make sure that the campaign did not look like an obvious vendetta against ex-partners and to get extra points for "patriotism" from the Kremlin, Moscow oligarchs' special services turned it into an unofficial branch of Compatriots program. Its purpose is to establish Russia political influence over the Russian-speaking communities within the diaspora in order to control or discredit their political and business leaders who refuse to toe Moscow's line. In Israel among the former are Scharansky and Lieberman; among the latter, Gusinsky, Nevzlin, and Cherney.

Quoting Russian sources, the Moscow - based Delovaya.com (business Internet paper) posted dozens of e-mails revealing how exactly the associates of Deripaska had hatched a plot against Cherney. The Bulgarian newspaper The Standard made these documents available in English.

Oleg Deripaska denied personal involvement in the plot, but the revealed documents clearly show that all the links of the arrested Israel plotters lead back to Alexei Drobashenko, a close associate of Oleg Deripaska, former head of the foreign-relations department of the Deripaska-owned "Sibirsky Alluminum" (SibAl).

This is not the first time that Oleg Deripaska, the owner of RusAl aluminum giant, is being accused of ordering international espionage, computer hacking, wiretapping and subversion against his rivals or former partners. In 2006 a London High Court claim was brought by Ansol Company and its consultants, Ashton Investments. Deripaska's RusAl and Ansol were formerly partners in a joint venture to supply alumina to TadAZ, a smelter in Tajikistan. Ashton alleged that in January 2006 it discovered its computer had been hacked. That "netspionage" was traced back to IP addresses registered to Rusal.

Deripaska denied the allegations, but the British court found the computer forensic evidence convincing and Deriapska hurried to settle with Ansol out of court.

US authorities have long blocked the entry visa of RusAl owner Oleg Deripaska, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Russia's billionaire had been unable to get the US visa due to suspected links to the international criminal community and attempting to control strategic businesses in the United States.

Prior to 2001, Cherney was engaged in charity work in Russia, Ukraine, Central Asia, Bulgaria, the US - wherever he did business. He made valuable contributions into Jewish philanthropy in Russia. Following the Dolphinarium terrorist attack in Tel Aviv, the Cherney Fund became the helping hand for all its victims.

The Cherney Fund renders help mostly to the new arrivals, victims of catastrophes and terrorist acts that continue to bleed Israel, as well as to the low-income victims of terror in other countries. Another equally important task assumed by the Cherney Foundation is the media effort in the war against terrorism. Shortly after the Dolphinarium attack, the Foundation published a book called Dolphinarium: Terror Targets the Young.

 http://www.israelnewsagency.com/olegder ... 12007.html

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

October 26, 2008

Peter Mandelson oligarch Oleg Deripaska linked to mafia boss

Oleg Deripaska
Steven Swinford and Jon Ungoed-Thomas

The Russian oligarch who gave hospitality to Peter Mandelson is this weekend revealed to have been linked to the former boss of one of Russia's most powerful criminal gangs.

A High Court judgment details the alleged social and business links between Oleg Deripaska and Anton Malevsky, a Russian mobster. Malevsky was then reputedly the head of an organised crime gang and his brother Andrei had a 10% stake in Deripaska's company.

Deripaska insists that the arrangement with Malevsky was a protection racket that was forced upon him. But a High Court judge, Mr Justice Clarke, said in a preliminary judgment in July that he considers Deripaska may not have always told the full truth about his links to the mobster, who was killed in a freak parachute accident in 2001.

Deripaska, the richest Russian businessman in the world before the credit crunch, is unable to travel to America after his visa was withdrawn. The decision was made after a series of allegations in American courts about alleged criminality in his business. These claims are strongly denied by Deripaska, who says courts have ruled the allegations lack "factual support".

However, the alleged involvement of a Russian mafia boss in Deripaska's early business career is likely to raise new questions over Mandelson's judgment in accepting his hospitality and holding a series of meetings with him.

The Sunday Times revealed two weeks ago how Mandelson had accepted hospitality on Deripaska's yacht, the Queen K, in Corfu this summer.

Yesterday, in a letter to The Times, Mandelson admitted he had known Deripaska since 2004, despite previously suggesting they had first met in 2006.

Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat MP, said: "Mandelson must publish all details of his meetings and make it clear where they took place and what the hospitality was. There is a vast difference between meeting someone at an office in Brussels and eating canapés and drinking champagne on an oligarch's yacht.

"It is clearly not wise for an EU trade commissioner or British minister to be associating with someone who is banned from the US."

Mandelson now faces further questions about all hospitality received from the tycoon. An authoritative source has said Mandelson stayed overnight on Deripaska's yacht in August, but the business secretary still refuses to confirm or deny this.

He is also likely to face questions over whether he has discussed Deripaska's business affairs with British officials. The Sunday Times has been told that in a discussion between Mandelson and senior figures at the British embassy in Moscow, it was said there was a "shared wish" for the oligarch to remain involved in British business. It is not known if Mandelson declared his friendship.

It is understood that Deripaska does not at present have a visa to visit the UK. This is apparently because he is anxious about being served legal papers relating to the High Court action, in which Michael Cherney, a former business partner of Deripaska, is suing him for £2 billion.

The preliminary High Court judgment relating to the case, issued in July, details the alleged links to Malevsky, who, according to both the former Russian interior minister and Interpol, was the leader of the Ismailova gang, one of Russian's biggest criminal organisations.

In a newspaper report of the court proceedings, Deripaska claimed he was forced into the association with Malevsky. He said Malevsky provided protection for businessmen and plant managers, who were unable to "withdraw from such arrangements without serious consequences".

According to the judgment, Deripaska told a Swiss court in February 2005 that he knew Malevsky only by name. But Malevsky's widow insisted she and her late husband had stayed at Deripaska's home.

Clarke said in the ruling: "Deripaska appears to have sought to hide any connection with Mr Malevsky from a Swiss investigating magistrate . . . Mrs Malevsky says that [Deripaska's claim] is completely untrue, and, in the light of her evidence, that seems likely to be so."

A spokesman for Deripaska said the claims made in the High Court were "vexatious and utterly without merit". He was unable to comment on the fact that, according to the High Court judgment, Deripaska himself accepted Malevsky had been part of a protection racket involving his business.

Mandelson is likely to face further questions this week about the initial account of his holiday in Corfu, a number of aspects of which have been apparently contradicted.

When first questioned about hospitality on the Queen K two weeks ago, his Brussels spokesman, Peter Power, said Mandelson had been invited on board the Queen K only for drinks. When it was pointed out that an authoritative source had told The Sunday Times Mandelson had stayed overnight on the boat, he refused to comment further on the issue.

In addition, Power insisted Mandelson had "never" discussed EU matters with Deripaska. This too was contradicted — this time on a blog by Mandelson's former aide Ben Wegg-Prosser. Power subsequently said he had in fact been referring to only discussions held in Corfu.

Officials in Brussels insist Mandelson was not involved in any conflict of interest relating to his decisions as EU trade commissioner or his meetings with Deripaska and he will not be subject to an inquiry. Any EU decisions that benefited Deripaska were reached in "an entirely standard manner" without intervention by Mandelson, said David O'Sullivan, director-general for trade at the commission.

The business secretary is however likely to face further questions about possible conflicts of interest. Less than a month ago, Mandelson said he wanted to see "writing commitments on free trade in raw materials" in bilateral trade agreements. The EU strategy reflected his belief in free trade, but is likely to benefit Deripaska's aluminium empire.

MPs will also scrutinise his current role for any possible conflicts of interest. The minister, who was ennobled this month, sits on Gordon Brown's newly formed National Economic Council, and if it discussed the liabilities of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), he may have to declare his links to Deripaska. The oligarch, who has been badly affected by the credit crisis, is reported to be trying to refinance a $4.5 billion loan from a group of western banks, which includes RBS.

A spokesman for Mandelson's department said he was unable to comment on any discussion the minister might have had with embassy officials in Moscow. He added that Mandelson would comply at all times with the ministerial code.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/p ... 014782.ece

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US refused oligarch visa over alleged criminal associations



    * News
    * World news
    * Oleg Deripaska

US refused oligarch visa over alleged criminal associations

    * Misha Glenny, Robert Booth and Tom Parfitt
    * The Guardian, Friday 31 October 2008
    * Article history

Oleg Deripaska. Photograph: Alexander Aleshkin/Epsilon/Getty Images

Oleg Deripaska. Photograph: Alexander Aleshkin/Epsilon/Getty Images

Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch who entertained the business secretary, Lord Mandelson, and the shadow chancellor, George Osborne, on his yacht in Corfu this summer, was denied a visa to the US due to his alleged "criminal associations and relationships", the Guardian has learned.

A senior former state department official said US officials who considered Deripaska's case in 1998 believed he was associated with several Russians involved in organised crime, including Anton Malevsky, head of the notorious Ismailovskaya Brotherhood. Others believed by the US authorities to be his associates were involved in the so-called Aluminium Wars during the mid-1990s which resulted in dozens of killings. Deripaska has always strenuously denied any links to organised crime.

The state department official said: "There are four grounds that are relevant in Deripaska's case. Number three is, does this person have criminal associations and relationships? That's the one that applied to Deripaska."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oc ... visa-rusal