The aluminum sector was one of the most contested industries during the
Russian privatization process. David Reuben had been buying aluminum from the Soviet state since the late 1970s. In the post-Soviet turmoil, Reuben that found he could get the finished metal at low Soviet-era prices and then sell it at market rates. Under the system, both the raw material and the finished product were the property of TransWorld. By 1994, Trans-World was selling more than 600,000 tons of aluminum a year, or a quarter of Russia's total exports. Oleg Soskovets was dismissed from his government post in 1996, after falling out of favor with
Yeltsin. A series of investigative reports broadcast by the
NTV television network in 1996 accused TransWorld Group of working with the Izmailovsky gang of the
Russian mafia, and of having committed a series of high-profile murders: in particular, those of Felix Lvov, Oleg Kantor and Vadim Yafyasov. In 1997 the company was investigated by the Russian police and the
National Criminal Intelligence Service of Britain, but no charges were brought. By late 1997 Trans-World Group was being squeezed out by Russia-based financial groups, and had lost control of parts of its holdings, including
Novolipetsk Steel. In early 2000, Trans-World sold most of its aluminum holdings to
Roman Abramovich, who merged them with
Oleg Deripaska's company to create Russian Aluminum (today
Rusal). While noticing that the victims included both allies and competitors of Trans-World, the story stressed that David Reuben "angrily denies any hint that they or their partners had any role in the violence". ==References==