Detective Hired by Deripaska's Employee to Wiretap Cherney Sentenced in Tel-Aviv

TEL AVIV, Israel, January 22 - On January 13th, 2010 the Tel Aviv Court handed down its first verdict in
the case of illegal eavesdropping on businessman and philanthropist Michael
Cherney. Illegal spying was commissioned by a Russian citizen, who at the
time was an executive in Oleg Deripaska's empire.

On January 13, the Tel Aviv Court confirmed the plea bargain between the
DA's office and Aviv Mor, a private investigator. Mor was found guilty of
illegally gathering information of personal nature - in particular, tapping
the phones of Cherney.

Judge Daniel Beary stressed that Cherney and his Secretary, Elena Skir,
are "victims of a crime". He added that Israel must fight illegal violations
of privacy of and subsequent damage to its citizens.

The plea bargain handed down a 14-month sentence to Mor. Part of the
sentence will be in the form of community service and the rest will be a
suspended sentence. In addition, Mor will pay a penalty of 20,000 shekels.
Mr. Cherney asked the court that the collected fine be used to help
orphanages.

The DA's office stated in court that the cases of other suspects in the
illegal data collection case "are at an advanced stage and close to
indictment."

The charges against Mor cite their names: Avigdor Eskin, working
in PR; Rafael Pridan, formerly a PI; and Maksim Gurevich, who has also worked
in private investigations.

The same document in Hebrew says that "in May 2007 Eskin asked the
defendant (Mor) to get him in touch with a foreign subject Alexei Drobashenko
(further referred to as Client), who was interested in the defendant's
services at Eskin's recommendation.

'As per Client's request, Eskin, the defendant, and Pridan went to meet
him (Drobashenko) in Moscow. At the meeting the Client made it clear that the
subjects he represents are in conflict with Michael Cherney and would like to
collect information on him for advancing their own interests.

At that time Alexei Drobashenko was the head of the External Relations
department at Basic Element, a financial and industrial group that belongs to
Oleg Deripaska. In February 2008 Mr. Cherney filed a suit in a Tel Aviv
court, claiming that it was this Russian oligarch, acting through
Drobashenko, who had hired Eskin, Pridan, and Mor. In his claim Mr. Cherney
accused a group of 10 plotters, including Oleg Deripaska, Alexei Drobashenko
and the already sentenced Aviv Mor, of illegal wiretapping, hacking the
computers of his charity fund, publishing slanderous articles, and harassing
him with insulting graffities and leaflets.

In his interview to Haaretz Daily, Cherney noted that Deripaska
had tremendous influence in the Russian government, in particular maintaining
close relations with Prime Minister Putin and President Medvedev. Mrs.
Deripaska is the daughter of Valentin Yumashev, President Yeltsin's chief of
staff.

Deripaska and Cherney are former partners in an aluminum business.
Currently, a multi-million dollar suit that Cherney brought against Deripaska
is being decided in a London court.

    Contact:
    mail@cherfund.org
    fax: +972-3-516-1078

Contact: mail at cherfund.org, fax: +972-3-516-1078