Michael Cherney
| Michael Cherney | |
|---|---|
| Born |
16 January 1952 Tashkent, Uzbek SSR |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Occupation | Businessman |
Michael Cherney (Hebrew: מיכאל צ'רנוי, Russian: Михаил Чёрный, also Mikhail Chernoy, Mikhail Chorny or Mikhail Chernoi; born 16 January 1952) is a Uzbekistan-born Israeli entrepreneur and industrialist. He is known for his significant role in the 1990s Aluminium in Russia, and his business ventures in Israel. He is also the founder of the Michael Cherney Foundation and a sponsor of The Intelligence Summit.
Cherney grew up in Tashkent, Uzbek SSR, in a family whose father was a book-keeper and an engineer, the eldest of three sons. At the age of fourteen, Cherney started working, as he joined his father on moonlighting jobs. After high school, he was drafted into the Soviet Army and attended a technical college. Later, his athletic pursuits – boxing and football – led to employment in sports administration.
In the early 1990s Cherney immigrated to Israel but kept close ties to Bulgaria, where he had bought a leading newspaper, a top football team and Bulgaria's only mobile phone company, Mobiltel. In August 2000 Bulgarian authorities denounced what they said were his ties to foreign criminal rackets and expelled him, saying he could not return to Bulgaria for 10 years.
Furthermore, the United States has "denied Cherney a visa since 1999 because of alleged ties to the Russian mafia, according to The St. Petersburg Times".
Cherney is wanted on an Interpol international arrest warrant on allegations of money laundering and organised crime, but in June 2010 The Jerusalem Post reported that Cherney is preparing an application to contest it before the European Union Court of Human Rights.
In August 2010 the Israeli TV Channel Two aired a short program about the most expensive and lavish wedding ceremony in Israel until that time, costing 20 million ILS (about 5 million US dollars). The program revealed that the bride was Cherny's daughter, that the wedding was paid by him and that Israeli ministers and members of parliament (Knesset) of Russian origin attended.
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