RT by @mikenov: Billionaire Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan served as an agent of Israel’s LAKAM technical intelligence organization for more than two decades. Milchan grew up in Israel and took over his father’s struggling chemical business in 1965. He soon turned it around after negotiating with major global companies like DuPont to become their distributor in Israel. His father’s old friend Shimon Peres soon introduced him to Benjamin Blumberg, head of LAKAM (Bureau of Scientific Relations). Milchan was a perfect fit for LAKAM, where he created dozens of companies which did business with major US defense firms. He facilitated huge defense purchases including Hawk missiles from Raytheon a

Billionaire Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan served as an agent of Israel’s LAKAM technical intelligence organization for more than two decades.

Milchan grew up in Israel and took over his father’s struggling chemical business in 1965. He soon turned it around after negotiating with major global companies like DuPont to become their distributor in Israel. His father’s old friend Shimon Peres soon introduced him to Benjamin Blumberg, head of LAKAM (Bureau of Scientific Relations).

Milchan was a perfect fit for LAKAM, where he created dozens of companies which did business with major US defense firms. He facilitated huge defense purchases including Hawk missiles from Raytheon and received millions in sales commissions. That money was funneled into Israel’s non-attributable covert operations budget.

In 1972 he recruited Richard Kelly Smyth, a senior engineer at Rockwell. Smyth resigned and partnered with Milchan in a new company, Milco. They began purchasing components from US companies for Israel’s weapons programs. Most notably this included more than 810 krytrons, small devices with many industrial functions that were also a key component in nuclear weapons triggers.

In the early 1980s, Milchan began producing independent films in Hollywood. He financed several major hits, most notably Pretty Woman, which earned nearly $180,000,000 on a $14,000,000 budget in 1990.

Meanwhile, his personal fortune grew through arms deals with South Africa. He also helped arrange Israel’s secret nuclear in the Indian Ocean known as the Vela Incident. He was onboard a nearby ship and observed the explosion himself.

Smyth was arrested by the FBI in 1985 for smuggling krytrons, after which Milchan immediately cut ties with him. Smyth and his wife disappeared before his court date and remained on the run for more than 15 years. All the while they lived on Spain’s southern coast, where they’d settled with help from the Israeli government.

For episode 265 of the Spycraft 101 podcast, I spoke with Joseph Gelman, author of the book Confidential: The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon Arnon Milchan. The episode is available now.

#hollywood  #producer  #israel  #nuclear  #fbi

open.spotify.com/episode/6mg…

— @spycraft101 Oct 13, 2026