The American real estate development company Bayrock, through which Donald Trump constructed hotels and apartment complexes, used Dutch letter box companies in a network suspected of being involved in money laundering. A ZEMBLA investigation suggests that Bayrock siphoned off $1.5 million dollars by setting up a corporate structure in the Netherlands in 2007. In New York, Bayrock also stands accused of large-scale tax fraud. This incriminating information could place Donald Trump in an extremely difficult position, claims attorney F. Oberlander, who is prosecuting Bayrock on behalf of the State of New York: “The maximum jail term would be 30 years. So you’re in really serious trouble.”

In 2005, Donald Trump became 18% owner of an hotel-condominium known as Trump SoHo. Bayrock, the other owner, is accused of perpetrating fraud on a grand scale through, among other things, Trump SoHo. According to US law, this means that Trump is jointly liable for Bayrock’s criminal activities. Oberlander concludes:
“Anybody running a business through a pattern of crime is guilty of racketeering. Anybody knowing what they’re doing and are helping is guilty of racketeering conspiracy. They go to jail.”

All Bayrock wants is to make clear to ZEMBLA that the Dutch corporate construction was established on the advice of an external legal counsel. ZEMBLA discovers that the firm in question is Bracewell & Giuliani.

Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, and part owner of the law firm at the time, is also a Trump confidante. ZEMBLA has access to correspondence between the law firm and the Dutch director of a trust company in Amsterdam, which leaves no doubt as to the ultimate beneficiary owners of the Dutch business construction: the director of Bayrock and the Khrapunov family from Kazakhstan.

Viktor Khrapunov is a fugitive ex-mayor and governor from Kazakhstan. The Kazakhstan government accuses Khrapunov of embezzling hundreds of millions of state assets. In 2007, Bayrock and the Khrapunov family founded the Dutch joint venture KazBay B.V. ZEMBLA has copies of the act of incorporation, bank statements and internal communications showing how the suspected money laundering scheme was set up. “It was designed to get millions of dollars out of New York into Europe. Through KazBay. KazBay was just a conduit”, asserts attorney Oberlander.

President Trump hosted a victory parade today in the White House rose garden to praise House Republicans for passing their ObamaCare repeal legislation on the third try. Senate Republicans, meanwhile, provided the rain.

At about the time the cases of beer were being distributed to giddy members of congress, GOP senators sent a warning shot across their bow, letting it be known that they have no interest in taking up the highly flawed House bill.

Senate Republicans said Thursday they won’t vote on the House-passed bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, but will write their own legislation instead.

The Republican plan, remember, is not to pass health care as a normal bill, but to pass it as a budget reconciliation bill. This gives them the ability to evade a filibuster in the Senate, but it also means that bills can only include budgetary measures. A repeal of regulations on health insurance are not a budgetary measure. Republican sources tell Politico, “When Republicans wrote the blueprint for the repeal bill in 2015, the parliamentarian made clear that insurance regulations would not comply and the issue wasn’t put under significant scrutiny.”

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus tried to brag about Trump’s prowess today with a metaphor that shows he both has no idea what he’s talking about and inadvertently revealed the truth.

“The president stepped up and helped punt the ball into the end zone,” Priebus said. “We are lucky to have President Trump in charge.”

For those unfamiliar with American football, punting is what a team does when it gives up trying to score on a possession and forfeits the ball to the other team. Punting into the end zone gives the opponent the option to run the ball or take 20-yards uncontested (a touchback).

In other words, Priebus is praising Trump for helping Republicans give the ball to Democrats for a chance to score. This is not creative interpretation. The punting metaphor has been used in business and politics for years.