A lawsuit seeking $900 million in damages has been filed in the US against the Russian Aluminium Consortium, claiming that it tried to corner Russia's aluminium market through "fraud, extortion and murder".
Also named in the US action is Mr Mikhail Chernoy. He is one of those named in Germany as being investigated by prosecutors in Dusseldorf for involvement in a $7 billion money laundering fraud.
Base Metal Trading SA, Base Metal Trading Ltd, and Alucoal, in an action under anti-racketeering legislation, claim that Russian Aluminium, its general director, Mr Oleg Deripaska, Mr Chernoy as an indirect shareholder, and the Sibirsky Aluminy Company had attempted the illegal seizure of the entire Russian aluminium industry.
Russian Aluminium described the allegations in a statement as "absurd and beyond criticism", and completely unjustified.
Russia went through what was described as an "aluminium war" in 1999 in which many of the so-called oligarchs involved with the Yeltsin administration were reported to be implicated.
Mr Mikhail Chernoy and his brother, Mr Lev Chernoy, have been accused frequently in the Russian press of criminal activities and have in turn won damages for defamation against several media companies.
Two of the country's leading businessmen, Mr Boris Berezovsky and Mr Roman Abramovich, have also been named by Die Welt in its reports on the money-laundering investigation. Both men have strong connections with the Russian aluminium industry.
Mr Berezovsky, who is under investigation in Russia, is currently outside the country at an undisclosed location.
Mr Abramovich was recently elected governor of Chukotka, an ice-bound wilderness directly across the Bering Straits from Alaska. The region is inhabited mainly by Eskimos and nomadic reindeer hunters, but election to political office in Russia carries immunity from prosecution.
A spokesman for Mr Abramovich has described allegations that he was involved in money laundering as "nonsense".
According to Mr Yegor Stroyev, chairman of the Federation Council (upper house of parliament), the "shadow economy" produced 40 per cent of the state's GDP last year.
The finance director of MediaMOST, headed by exiled Kremlin critic Mr Vladimir Gusinsky, was charged with fraud yesterday and arrested.