In 1994, TWG was drawn into a government inquiry into the theft of more than $US100 million from Russia's central bank by a number of separate criminal groups during the early 1990s. In an article on TWG, "Fortune" magazine reported: "That a theft occurred is not in dispute, nor is the fact that the Cherneys ended up with a piece of the stolen money and used it to partially fund Trans World's startup phase in 1992... The inquiry's objective was to determine whether the Cherneys knew the funds were indeed stolen."