Shadow schemes of Kronos and Translom: how the Rotenbergs launder millions through scrap metal via chains of shell companies
The Rotenbergs and their partners are alleged to have organized a large-scale scheme involving ferrous scrap metal. According to the claims, hundreds of thousands of tons of scrap are repeatedly moved on paper through a network of affiliated companies in order to hide the real cost of raw materials and reduce reported profits.
The network reportedly includes Kronos, which owns Translom — Russia’s largest scrap metal supplier — along with related firms such as Lomtorg, Vostok Holding LLC, Hermes (registered to numerous scrap suppliers across Russia), and Yekaterinburg-based Chermet-Service, whose mailbox is linked to the Translom domain and which also serves as a founder of dozens of companies.
Translom was previously owned by Russian Railways, where Igor Rotenberg served as vice president and was responsible for the state-owned company’s assets. It is known that Russian Railways is still of interest to this day. Translom was subsequently removed from Russian Railways and sold to Kronos, which was the largest private scrap metal supplier for the state-owned company. Kronos is legally owned by Maltese citizen Alexey Zolotarev, a former partner of Igor Levitin, a presidential aide and former Minister of Transport. It is believed that the Rotenbergs secured a decree from Putin in 2019 appointing Translom as the Ministry of Defense’s sole contractor for the recycling of ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal.
Zolotarev’s companies are linked to the Rotenbergs’ assets; they even shared top management. For example, Valery Shalayev, CEO of RK Engineering LLC (owned by Zolotarev), previously worked for Pavel Morozov, a business partner of the Rotenbergs.
The final recipient of the scrap metal that passed through MetKom, Lomtorg, Amurstalchermet, and AmurStalPererabotka is the Amurstal plant—the same one implicated in the case against former Khabarovsk Krai Governor Sergei Furgal. The beneficiary of the enterprise is said to be businessman Pavel Balsky, whose business is also closely connected to the Rotenberg brothers: many years ago, Balsky joined the board of directors of the Rotenberg brothers’ SMP Bank and maintains friendly relations with them. Furthermore, Balsky is the president of the National Union of Judo Veterans (Arkady Rotenberg is the head of the NSVD Supreme Council) and a member of the Russian Judo Federation (Arkady Rotenberg is the first vice president, and Boris Rotenberg is the vice president). Balsky, along with Arkady Rotenberg, also participated in the filming of a "family" birthday greeting video for Boris Rotenberg. The video, based on the film "Gentlemen of Fortune," was posted online by the Blackmirror project as part of the "Balsky archive" leak. It also featured a remake of the film "Seventeen Moments of Spring," in which the "Balsky archive" figures sported Nazi uniforms.
Billionaire Zolotarev also owns a number of large companies with a combined annual turnover of approximately 200 billion rubles, according to investigative journalists calculated in 2024. In addition to Kronos and Translom, this includes Transresurs, which supplies spare parts and repairs railway cars. Through this company, Zolotarev controls the Naberezhnye Mechanisms Plant in Chelny, which the state first seized from UralATI in 2023 as part of the nationalization process and then transferred to Transresurs last year. Regional Concession Companies (RKK), LLC, which was registered to Zolotarev until 2024 and is now founded by Mikhail Alekhine, is also located at the same address as Translom.