FBI seeks possible Cohen ties to Chicago taxi medallions owned by Ukrainian operators there:

[Leghorn21]

FBI agents who raided the New York offices of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Michael D. Cohen last week reportedly were seeking information on the attorney’s ties to the Ukrainian operators of one of Chicago’s largest taxicab management companies.

Among Cohen’s “business interests and sources of income” that court documents indicate were the target of the search warrant, sources told CNN that agents were looking for information the lawyer’s dealings with Semyon and Yasya Shtayner.

Semyon Shtayner is the secretary of Chicago Medallion Management Corp., which has offices in the West Town neighborhood and manages 368 taxi medallions — the metal licenses that allow cabs to operate in the city.

The company manages 22 medallions owned by Cohen’s company, along with many others.

more:
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/fbi-raid-of-trump-lawyers-office-sought-info-on-ties-to-chicago-cab-operators/

Yasya Shtayner Medallions in Chicago, 2012:

https://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/bacp/publicvehicleinfo/medallionowners/medallionlicenseesthatrequirewavoct162012.pdf

Here’s a link to some kind of court action against the Shtayners in Oct. ‘16: (I can’t make heads/tails of it! -)

https://dockets.justia.com/docket/illinois/ilndce/1:2016cv10155/332955

OH LOOK - here’s Yasya in SUNNY ISLES, FLORIDA:

https://www.mylife.com/yasya-shtayner/yasyashtayner

And here he is, listed as living in Chicago, NY and FL:



https://www.instantcheckmate.com/people/yasya-shtayner/

SUNNY ISLES is also known as LITTLE MOSCOW:

August 2016:

These days Sunny Isles Beach is also known as Little Moscow. According to the 2010 census, just over 7 percent were Russian-speakers – and since then that number is likely to have increased. Next door to the real estate agency Big International is the restaurant Kalinka, the tourist agency Amber Tours, the caviar bar Nutcracker, as well as another real estate agency – all Russian-speaking businesses. On the streets of Hollywood and Hallandale Beach one can also hear a lot of Russian.

Snip

Besides the Trump Towers, the business-mogul-turned-presidential-candidate has another development in the area. Trump is a household name with Russian-speakers here, says Eli Nektalov. “People from the former Soviet Union know Trump because he has many projects in those countries,” says the owner of the real estate agency. “They know him as someone who achieves his goals. That is why I am sure that most Russian-speakers will vote for Trump.

http://wlrn.org/post/praise-trump-sunny-isles-little-moscow

....this is also where all the little Russian “anchor babies” are being born, I believe?

Anyhoo - Mr. Mueller & Co. will surely let us know if Cohen and the Shtayners and Trump’s Little Moscow are affiliated via coincidence or...careful planning?!

This thread by dixiegrrrl started this google-fest - in particular, lunasun’s post re: Chicago:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210493511

Thank you dixiegrrrl and lunasun for getting this NYC/Chicago/Sunny Isles party rolling!!

[dalton99a]

1. Kick

[C_U_L8R]

2. He was hanging with Russian taxi mobsters yesterday

On the freaking sidewalk... smoking their bigdick cigars in defiance

[Leghorn21]

3. From Vox, 3 days ago:

...Around this time, Cohen’s personal life and business interests both became deeply enmeshed in a community of Ukrainian immigrants in New York City. Both Cohen and his brother Bryan married Ukrainian immigrants, and both did business with their wives’ fathers. Cohen and a Ukrainian partner began buying up taxi medallions (the expensive city-issued permits necessary to operate taxis).

Also, Cohen legally represented something called the Ukrainian Capital Growth Fund, he and two Ukrainian partners made failed investments in a gambling cruise business, and he tried to pitch US investors to fund a Ukrainian ethanol company controlled by an allegedly mob-connected oligarch.


https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/4/11/17218010/michael-cohen-raid-fbi-trump-mueller-explained

[yortsed snacilbuper]

4. Kick

[BigmanPigman]

5. 3 out of 5 relatives have the name "Felix". Huh?

[Leghorn21]

6. Semyon and Yasya were mentioned in a 1979 NYT article:

Buying watermelon on a recent evening, 25‐year‐old Semyon Shtayner and his wife, Yasya — and 2‐year‐old Felix, bright‐eyed in a stroller — were part of a Red Apple crowd that was plainly reveling in the array of fruits and melons. “In Russia, harder to get,” Mr. Shtayner explained. Like many of his countrymen here, he drives a taxi (as he did back in Chernovetse), earning $700 a month. He pays â300 for a one‐bedroom apartment. With a wide grin, he said that he had “enough food, enough clothes, enough job,” as he also did in the Ukraine; that he goes to synagogue “not every week” and that he really left to get “a good life, a Jewish life, a free life.”

https://www.nytimes.com/1979/08/21/archives/soviet-jews-find-old-woes-new-joys-in-new-world-a-good-life-a.html

Semyon has 2 LLCs in Las Vegas...(well...I’m 99% sure this is him):

https://nvsos.gov/SOSEntitySearch/CorpDetails.aspx?lx8nvq=X4ZObnKd0wVtplyr6ltQEw%253d%253d

https://nvsos.gov/SOSEntitySearch/CorpDetails.aspx?lx8nvq=g9AwPtsRFC00u4sU1vdqDQ%253d%253d

Is it standard business practice for one person to have 36 companies/LLCs? I honestly don’t know:

https://www.bizapedia.com/people/semyon-shtayner.html

This one has four LLCs attached to Semyon: