Wilbur Ross was a partner of Viktor Vekselberg when he paid Michael Cohen

[muriel_volestrangler]

Bernardo de La Paz pointed this out in a thread, but I thought it worth an OP: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210591797#post44

Viktor Vekselberg, chairman of asset manager Renova Group, is an oligarch close to Vladimir Putin, and last month the Trump administration placed him on a list of sanctioned Russians for activities including election interference. The purpose of the payments, which predate the sanctions, and the nature of the business relationship between Vekselberg and Cohen is unclear.
...
Avenatti alleged the $500,000 went into the bank account for Essential Consultants, a shell company that Cohen set up before the election that was used to pay Daniels. Avenatti added that the payments occurred from January to August 2017.
...
Lamesa Investments Ltd, an affiliate of Renova, acquired a large stake in the Bank of Cyprus at the same time Wilbur Ross, then a private equity investor, made a capital infusion into the then-struggling bank. Lamesa now holds a 9.2% stake in the Bank of Cyprus. Ross resigned from his position as vice chairman of the bank after he was confirmed as Trump's commerce secretary.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/08/politics/robert-mueller-russian-oligarch-payments-michael-cohen/index.html

Interestingly, Ross became the vice chair of the Bank of Cyprus in the summer of 2014 — a bank with known money laundering issues and connections to Russian oligarchs. The Commerce Department says Ross has never met Timchenko, Mikhelson, or Shamalov, and there is currently no indication that they interacted while Ross held his position at the bank.

Ross resigned his vice chairmanship with the Bank of Cyprus on March 1 after he became the secretary of commerce.

https://www.vox.com/world/2017/11/6/16612242/ross-russia-putin-business-navigator-sibur

[malaise]

1. I mentioned him on a thread yesterday

I said look out for his name

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Yup

Wonder if Manafort/Gates funneled any money into that (or other) Cohen shells.

[Wounded Bear]

3. Quite a den of thieves...

[Hortensis]

4. I don't remember the name off the top of my head,

but the NYT has a journalist, a Russia expert, who wrote an article at the time Ross was nominated by trump that specifically stated that Ross cleaned up the Bank of Cypress, was not part of its seamy activities. It was a fairly lengthy article that left me thinking Ross might be a fairly okay appointee. (!) Regardless of his role at the bank, of course, Ross is dirty as hell with many questionable activities and links to the Kremlin, and Putin himself.

I've checked a couple times since to see if this journalist's still with the NYT, and yes. I reread the articles, and yes, it still said that. Since then we've canceled our subscription, so I can't find him and see what he's doing now. Given what we think we know about Ross, though, your comment about this den of thieves brings that journalist and his presence at the NYT to mind again.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. This?

New Commerce Secretary Was No Friend to Russians at Cyprus Bank

By Andrew Higgins
March 6, 2017

NICOSIA, Cyprus — When Wilbur L. Ross, a billionaire American investor, bought shares in the Bank of Cyprus three years ago, he found himself part owner of a big but failing bank with a vice chairman who used to work with Vladimir V. Putin in the Leningrad K.G.B. and five other Russians on its board. That was enough to raise concerns when President Trump nominated Mr. Ross to be his commerce secretary. The president’s critics wanted to know if Mr. Ross had ever met with Russian intelligence, or if the bank ever gave favorable loans to the new president. They suspected that might be why Mr. Trump had spoken so favorably of Mr. Putin.

But while several of Mr. Trump’s closest allies have come under scrutiny for Kremlin ties, Mr. Ross, who was confirmed by the Senate on Monday, was no friend to the Russians in Cyprus — and in fact, he forced them out of the bank. According to bankers, lawyers and others who have worked closely with the Bank of Cyprus, within months of Mr. Ross’s becoming a shareholder in the summer of 2014, all six Russians who were on the board when he arrived, including Mr. Putin’s former K.G.B. colleague, Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, were gone, ousted in a rolling purge of Kremlin influence.

“He has not been an accomplice of the Russians but the opposite,” Loizos Hadjicostis, president of the Cyprus Union of Bank Employees, said in an interview. “Ross came in to block the Russians, not to help them,” he added. “The theory that Ross is a Russian Trojan horse does not make any sense to me.”

Helping to keep such theories alive, however, has been a refusal by the White House — over Mr. Ross’s objections — to release his written responses to questions posed by United States senators. In a speech in the Senate on Monday, Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, complained that the White House was “sitting on” the replies. Mr. Nelson said he had spoken with Mr. Ross about the Bank of Cyprus and had been told that Mr. Ross had one meeting of about an hour with a Russian investor in the lender in 2014. “He knows of no loans or interaction between the bank or anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign or organization,” the senator said. He added that he believed Mr. Ross and that he could not understand the White House’s “secretive behavior.” “Not only is this lack of transparency unsettling, it’s behavior that everyone in this Senate should agree is unacceptable and shouldn’t be tolerated,” Mr. Nelson said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/world/europe/wilbur-ross-russia-bank-of-cyprus.html

But when hunting for that, I found this -

‘Vulture’ or ‘Phoenix’? Wilbur Ross, Risk-Taker, Is Eyed for Commerce Post

By Matthew Goldstein
Nov. 25, 2016

Wilbur L. Ross, the billionaire investor expected to be nominated as the next commerce secretary, has made his fortune through the tricky business of buying deeply troubled companies.

<...>

In 2002, he won praise from workers when he bought the shuttered steel mills of LTV, a bankrupt company in Cleveland. Four years later, Mr. Ross was pilloried after an explosion at the Sago Mine in West Virginia, which his company had bought a few weeks earlier, killed 12 miners. The stark contrasts reflect the nature of the world in which Mr. Ross operates: distressed investing. He made his name scouring the landscape for businesses left for dead that he could sink money into and then profit from when they were resurrected.

<...>

His best-known bet was in the steel industry more than a decade ago, a time when few wanted anything to do with it. Mr. Ross cobbled together the ailing assets of LTV and Bethlehem Steel into a new company called International Steel Group, which was sold in 2004 to Mittal Steel for $4.5 billion. “There were no outsiders who were willing to step forward and make an investment,” said Ron Bloom, an investment banker who negotiated with Mr. Ross for the United Steelworkers. “He went where angels feared to tread.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/25/business/dealbook/wilbur-ross-commerce-secretary-donald-trump.html

And regarding the above - Since Bethlehem Steel is here in PA, I remember all the mess that went on about that and he was deep into it - notably this sad fact (from a LTE) -

Ross proved costly to Bethlehem Steel

FEBRUARY 28, 2017 5:00 PM

You reported on the Senate confirmation of Wilbur Ross as U.S. Secretary of Commerce ("Billionaire investor easily confirmed to lead Commerce Dept.," Feb. 28). This is the same Wilbur Ross who in 2003 purchased Bethlehem Steel after it declared bankruptcy and dumped its pension liabilities and cut off health insurance for all retirees and survivors.

After promising to keep the Sparrows Point plant open and operating for many years, Mr. Ross sold it after only 18 months earning up to $300 million in the bargain and leading to its final closure and leaving thousands of Bethlehem Steel workers without a job, pension or health care that they had contributed to for many years.

Let us hope that Mr. Ross doesn't defraud the American people the way he did Baltimore's steelworkers.

Jack Kinstlinger, Towson

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-ed-ross-letter-20170228-story.html

I.e., not only did current Bethlehem Steel employees lose their pensions/healthcare but the retirees did as well!

[Hortensis]

7. That may be the one, the Andrew Higgins article, but

I don't remember the one I'm thinking of quoting someone else's words. That's the kind of thing I usually take note of.

In any case, agree entirely with your sentiments on the other. Sure, pension and healthcare liabilities far beyond what they were expected to be when entered into decades earlier threatened to destroy whole industries, take the national economy and livelihoods of many millions with them. But settlements that left owners of those companies extremely wealthy while retired workers were reduced in many cases to poverty, and the laws written to enable this, are all wrong. Used to be owners got what was left AFTER the company's bills were paid. Now they call themselves employees and allocate enormous sums to "pay" themselves up front.

And Wilbur Ross is a conscienceless predator.

[FailureToCommunicate]

8. Helpful graphic! Thanks.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. That graphic had been tweeted last evening by a WH reporter for CNBC

Link to tweet

TEXT

Christina Wilkie
✔
@christinawilkie

Must see: How Russian oligarchs like Viktor Vekselberg (in Avenatti's report) are connected to Trump and each other. Amazing work by @dallasnews >>>
6:26 PM - May 8, 2018

She gave credit for it to the Dallas Morning News -

Link to tweet

TEXT

Dallas Morning News
✔
@dallasnews

Stormy Daniels' lawyer (@MichaelAvenatti) claims Trump lawyer Michael Cohen was paid $500K from Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg.

Russian economic expert @ruthcmay outlined in December of 2017 how Vekselberg fits into the larger picture. https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/04/05/putins-proxies-helped-funnel-millions-gop-campaigns …
6:49 PM - May 8, 2018

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/04/05/putins-proxies-helped-funnel-millions-gop-campaigns

[FailureToCommunicate]

12. Thanks. Good provenance.

[Zoonart]

9. Thanks, Malaise.

I was wondering when Wilbur's name would be brought to the party, and when we would begin to uncover heis part in the money laundering at Alfa Bank and Bank of Cyprus.

[Achilleaze]

5. Stinkeroo (R)

[kentuck]

11. Wilbur knows a lot...

...don't you think?