Milchan Brothers is an Israel-based international conglomerate originally founded as a fertilizer business by Menahem Milchan. It was inherited by Arnon Milchan around 1965 following his father's death and expanded into a successful chemical business specializing in plastics, electronics, pharmaceuticals, and representation of arms manufacturers such as Raytheon and North American Rockwell. In the 1960s, Arnon Milchan and the firm were recruited by LEKEM (also known as LAKAM or the Bureau of Scientific Relations), a secret Israeli intelligence organization, to procure technology and materials for Israel's nuclear weapons program and other secretive military programs. The conglomerate served as a front for intelligence operations, including supervising government-backed accounts abroad.

A key component of this network was Heli Trading Ltd., an Israeli front company owned and operated solely by Arnon Milchan. It functioned as a central node in the Israeli Ministry of Defense's clandestine procurement network under the Bureau of Scientific Relations (LEKAM/LAKAM), directed by LEKAM chiefs Benjamin Blumberg and later Rafi Eitan. Heli Trading acted as the primary broker and recipient for illegal U.S. exports from MILCO International Inc., owned by Richard Kelly Smyth, facilitating sanctions-busting operations for Israel's nuclear and defense programs during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Key activities under codename Project Pinto included the smuggling of 810 krytrons—high-speed electrical switches critical for triggering nuclear weapons—from 1979–1982, which formed the basis of the criminal case U.S. v. Richard Kelly Smyth and the related Smyth v. Milchan. Additional procurements involved thermal batteries in 1977, as well as missile chemicals and lasers. Notably, future Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu worked at Heli Trading during the krytron smuggling period (1979–1982) and was regularly introduced to American suppliers like Smyth during business meetings in Tel Aviv, according to FBI debriefings.