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Detail missing from stories on Sater - his dad is a top underboss 4 world's leading mafia don
This detail was pointed out by John Schindler yesterday:
Link to tweet
Sater's dad is a top underboss 4 Semyon Mogilevich, the world's leading mafia don. Just another Trump coincidence.
That oversight might be at least partly due to Sater's dad using two names, as noted in this US District Court filing when Loretta Lynch indicted Michael Sheferofsky aka Mikhail Sater for extortion:
Link to tweet
More on that from an article in the Daily Beast last year, in a section about Felix Sater:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/11/06/trump-s-russia-towers-he-just-can-t-get-them-up.html
Sater went on to serve as a consultant to the Trump Organization, the parent company that oversees the candidate’s multifarious empire, with a business card identifying his relationship and even an office in the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. Lauria, meanwhile, who brokered the Trump SoHo deal, also got Bayrock to do business with FL Group, an Icelandic company that Putin-friendly businessmen are said to favor.
The Washington Post disclosed in May that Sater has also been accused of threatening his erstwhile Bayrock associates. A project manager, Ernest Mennes, alleged in a lawsuit filed in 2007 that a year earlier Sater had warned him that he “would electrically shock Mr. Mennes’ testicles, cut off Mr. Mennes’ legs, and leave Mr. Mennes dead in the trunk of his car,” as the lawsuit documents stated. Sater's attorney called these and other claims that Sater has used violence to silence people an "outright fabrication."
Trump later claimed to have “forgotten” Sater, although Politico reported that the latter visited Trump Tower on undisclosed business as recently as July 2016. (Emails and documents obtained by Forbes also show Donald Trump, Jr. corresponding with Sater, identified as the "managing director" of Bayrock.) The conman-turned-FBI-mole also made a contribution of $5,400 — the maximum legal amount — to Trump’s presidential campaign. Records even indicate that the campaign refunded him $120 owing to his initial overpayment of the legal limit.
As it happens, Sater’s father, Mikhail (or Michael Sheferofsky), was indicted in 2000 on two counts by Loretta Lynch, then still a U.S. Attorney for the Easter District of New York: extortion and conspiracy to commit extortion, ranging from 1990 to 1999. Mikhail’s accomplice was none other than Ernest Montevecchi, the same Genovese gangster to whom Felix had turned for help with the Gambinos. Sater used intimidation and the threat physical violence to take over “restaurants, food stores, and a medical clinic” in Brighton Beach, according to the Lynch indictment. He pleaded guilty and got three years probation. This case, too, was sealed until 2006.
The Washington Post disclosed in May that Sater has also been accused of threatening his erstwhile Bayrock associates. A project manager, Ernest Mennes, alleged in a lawsuit filed in 2007 that a year earlier Sater had warned him that he “would electrically shock Mr. Mennes’ testicles, cut off Mr. Mennes’ legs, and leave Mr. Mennes dead in the trunk of his car,” as the lawsuit documents stated. Sater's attorney called these and other claims that Sater has used violence to silence people an "outright fabrication."
Trump later claimed to have “forgotten” Sater, although Politico reported that the latter visited Trump Tower on undisclosed business as recently as July 2016. (Emails and documents obtained by Forbes also show Donald Trump, Jr. corresponding with Sater, identified as the "managing director" of Bayrock.) The conman-turned-FBI-mole also made a contribution of $5,400 — the maximum legal amount — to Trump’s presidential campaign. Records even indicate that the campaign refunded him $120 owing to his initial overpayment of the legal limit.
As it happens, Sater’s father, Mikhail (or Michael Sheferofsky), was indicted in 2000 on two counts by Loretta Lynch, then still a U.S. Attorney for the Easter District of New York: extortion and conspiracy to commit extortion, ranging from 1990 to 1999. Mikhail’s accomplice was none other than Ernest Montevecchi, the same Genovese gangster to whom Felix had turned for help with the Gambinos. Sater used intimidation and the threat physical violence to take over “restaurants, food stores, and a medical clinic” in Brighton Beach, according to the Lynch indictment. He pleaded guilty and got three years probation. This case, too, was sealed until 2006.
Emphasis added.
All this information about Trump and his associates was out there, for the media to focus on. But instead we heard about Hillary's email server, John Podesta's emails, and the Clinton Foundation..
The corruption around Trump was too vast, too intricate -- and maybe in some cases too frightening -- for the media to really focus on.
Especially with Trump providing new distractions every day that used up all the air in the media room, leaving little time/energy to investigate his background and connections thoroughly.
More on Russian crime boss Mogilevich, from the Village Voice in 1998:
The Most Dangerous Mobster in the World
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/the-most-dangerous-mobster-in-the-world-6419460
Business Insider, 2014:
The Worst Gangster Most People Have Never Heard Of
http://www.businessinsider.com/semion-mogilevich-2014-11
4 replies
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Found on Twitter @TheViewFromLL2