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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWow. John Schindler's tweetstorm om Trump's links to Russian intelligence services, organized crime
Schindler tweeted a link to this minutes ago:
Link to tweet
This was a series of tweets he posted on January 9, collected here:
https://twitter.com/i/moments/818487233439207424
Trump Org's secret ties to Russian OC are well known in certain circles, including some IC folks. But MSM has been (mostly) derelict. /2
MSM has been reluctant to seriously explore Trump's Kremlin ties because Don loves suing everyone. And his Russia mafia pals kill people. /3
Moreover, actually grasping what the Trump Org does -- which Don works hard at anyone getting a look at -- requires a lot of knowledge. /4
You need to understand real estate finance, and Russian organized crime AND Russian intelligence...if you do, the picture is quite clear. /5
Mogilevich is the biggest mob boss in Russia -- maybe the world -- and his capos+footprints are all over the Trump Org since early 1990s. /6
Mogilevich launders money in the West, including the USA, on a gargantuan scale; he is clever and good at this. FBI knows all about it. /7
In 1992, Mogilevich sent a capo to NYC to run his US show. That was Yaponchik AKA Vyacheslav Ivankov, who was murdered in Moscow in 2009. /8
Yaponchik/Ivankov -- for 3 years until the FBI caught up with him -- was dividing his time between Trump Tower & Don's Taj Mahal Casino. /9
There are literally dozens of Russian OC scams, some gargantuan, that we know were based at Trump properties -- quite a coincidence. /10
The real issue is how Mogilevich made the Trump Org one of his overseas subsidiaries, de facto, back in the 1990s. FBI knows this too. /11
Also, Mogilevich has a very cozy relationship with Putin & his special services, going back to KGB days. They help each other non-stop. /12
Not long after Sasha Litvinenko told reporters about Putin's close links to Mogilevich, FSB gave him atomic tea. Another coincidence. /13
There's an old IC joke about Russian organized crime:
"Who do you think organized them?"
Trump being in bed with ROC = in bed with FSB /14
End of Tweetstorm -- for now. Would be nice if Congress took a look at the evidence here, it's overwhelming. Very, very soon would help. /15
BSdetect
(8,998 posts)This is just getting absurd.
The FBI knows but does not take real action?
How much do they need before doing something about this?
TNLib
(1,819 posts)Auntie Bush
(17,528 posts)creoledna
(40 posts)How to move the money and buy something with it is the tricky part. Real estate is a great way to launder ill gotten cash. This is better than an offshore gambling ruse, a la Jack Abramoff (remember him) or "Hot Tub" Tom Delay and the Marinianna Islands.
I have thought all along that it was laundered money that fueled the rise of "the gifted one". When there is a public statement as to where the investments are coming from
that is conveniently omitted from DT's declaration
that "I own nothing in Russia, etc." it appears obvious this is the case. The easiest part is settling DT's cut through the pricing of a property. Sell the crook a property only worth $2.5 million for $3.2 million and
then sell the property for $2.5 million and you now have clean money owned by some LLC hiding the real ownership. Of course, if the property appreciates in value then the crook will have investment income he would not have had if he just hid the cash in his mattress.
South Florida is a great example of dirty drug money going back into buildings.
TNLib
(1,819 posts)I also thought there was a Russian Mafia tie to Trump after reading this story.
Bill Moyer
dalton99a
(81,485 posts)Nitram
(22,800 posts)And visa versa. Like hand in glove.
TrekLuver
(2,573 posts)highplainsdem
(48,975 posts)Bobbie Vinton
(4 posts)Trump, Russia and Money Laundering FBI is actively investigating.
Last week I read that Trump owes Deutsche Bank $300 million; that in January Deutsche Bank paid regulators from the US and UK government a total of $588 million in fines for laundering $10 billion out Russia. And moreover, earlier this month Trumps Taj Mahal Associates LLC settled to pay the Treasury Department a $10 million civil penalty for violating anti-money-laundering program requirements.
Well, yesterday it was revealed that the FBI is probing front-companies which Trump and Russia have been allegedly using to secretly do business with each other.
In addition to the FBI probe, Democratic congressman Bill Pascrell Jr, a member of the House Ways and Means committee, said the bank was under federal investigation for aiding Russian money-laundering - a troubling potential conflict.
In looking into the issue further I have found that: Three detailed reports by the Financial Times based on title deeds, bank records and correspondence, found that Trump and the Russian mob has laundered money through the use of anonymous LLCs on both sides; the Trump side and the Russian crime bosses side.
It goes something like this: One anonymous LLC (Russian mobsters) forks over a monumentally bloated wad of millions for another anonymous LLC (Trumps) property like an apartment worth considerably less than the selling price.
Trumps organization is an ideal means of laundering Russian criminals dirty money because:
Real estate has an arbitrary value. Is that apartment worth $1 million? Two million? Why not $3 million for a buyer who really wants it? When the whole transaction is just one LLC with undisclosed ownership paying another LLC with undisclosed ownership, its even neater than hiding the money in an offshore account. And while some businesses require due diligence in looking at the source of funds, real estate is a bit more
flexible.
American laws regulating real estate deals are nearly non-existent.
Criminals from Russia, like all money launderers, pay in dirty cash; it is precisely how Trump and the Russian criminals easily avoided prying eyes of regulators.
The idea of converting the Russian mobsters stolen cash from overseas into Trumps properties in the U.S., and Russian cash deposited into an account of a Trump LLC listed as anonymous, was a dirty win for both the criminal oligarchs and the criminal Trump. The only thing Trump was required to do was just ignore deal and never pay any attention whatsoever to its particulars; something he has brought to the Oval Office for all to see.
Trump Lie Exposed With Proof He Is Indebted To Russian Mobsters
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/02/18/trump-lie-exposed-proof-indebted-russian-mobsters.html
In which the author states his opinion:
As calls for a comprehensive investigation into Trumps conspiring with Putin to award him the White House become deafening and lead to an all-inclusive independent investigation, all of this illegal money laundering for Russian criminals will become common knowledge. It is why Trump is attempting to sully the media as dishonest and that any reporting on his deep ties to the Russians is fake news in hopes the public will ignore the truth in reporting as it develops going forward; and it is going to develop going forward. The IC will see to that and a fed up at being labeled dishonest media will do its part.
Trumps terror at being exposed as a Russian collaborator is also why Trump continues to demean the intelligence community. He knows for a fact that the IC has mountains of devastatingly incriminating documentation that he does, in fact, have very deep ties to the Russians and is heavily indebted to them. The good news is that Trump has made very public claims, including on Thursday at his bizarre press conference, that in no possible way does he have now, or has ever had, any business relationships or ties to the Russians.
That latest rash of lies will be a damning piece of evidence that Trump lied on national television about something that is becoming such common knowledge that even congressional Republicans will have difficulty pretending there is no impeachable offense. They cant cover up Trumps lies any more without implicating themselves in a conspiracy involving the criminal in the White House and crime bosses and oligarchs in Russia. Those Russian mobsters saved Trumps businesses with dirty money he gladly aided them in laundering because like every common criminal on the planet, Trump will do anything for money; including jeopardize the security of the United States of America for the nation that earned his devotion and allegiance with dirty money, Russia.
This is a very conclusive report from the Financial Times.
Dirty money: Trump and the Kazakh connection
https://www.ft.com/content/33285dfa-9231-11e6-8df8-d3778b55a923
A Financial Times investigation has found evidence that one Trump venture has multiple ties to an alleged international money-laundering network. Title deeds, bank records and correspondence show that a Kazakh family accused of laundering hundreds of millions of stolen dollars bought luxury apartments in a Manhattan tower part-owned by Mr. Trump and embarked on major business ventures with one of the tycoons partners
The revelations raise questions about what steps his business takes to ensure that the funds that pour through it are clean.
Jennifer Shasky Calvery, then director of the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, warned in January corrupt foreign officials, or transnational criminals, may be using premium US real estate to secretly invest millions in dirty money.
FBI probes Trump-Russia front companies, after Trumps bank caught laundering Russian money.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-cyber-idUSKBN15X0OE
Two parallel investigations on two different continents into illegal financial activities by Russia, both connected to Donald Trump, may turn out to be the same investigation. Three weeks ago Deutsche Bank in Germany, which has been almost single handedly keeping Trump afloat with loans in recent years, was caught in a massive Russian money-laundering scheme. And yesterday it was revealed that the FBI is probing front-companies which Trump and Russia have been allegedly using do secretly to business with each other.
So heres the billion dollar question: is this FBI investigation into Trumps clandestine Russian financial connections based on what was exposed in the Russian money laundering probe into Deutsche Bank? More will inevitably leak out from the intel community one way or the other.
https://www.palmerreport.com/politics/fbi-probes-trump-russia-laundering-bank/1599/
U.S. inquiries into Russian election hacking include three FBI probes
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-cyber-idUSKBN15X0OE
in which the reporter states: [The] counterintelligence inquiry includes but is not limited to examination of financial transactions by Russian individuals and companies who are believed to have links to Trump associates. The transactions under scrutiny involve investments by Russians in overseas entities that appear to have been undertaken through middlemen and front companies, two people briefed on the probe said.
And last here are the posts that I put on Facebook last Wednesday when I stumbled upon the article in the Wall Street Journal that reported on the Taj Mahals settlement.
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Robert%20Veltkamp%20money%20laundering
I can only imagine what it means if the FBI comes to the same conclusions as the Financial Times. Trump will be indicted for money laundering and obviously impeached.