Paul Manafort

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Re: Paul Manafort

Postby seemslikeadream » Tue Oct 31, 2017 11:54 pm

The Real Promise of the Manafort Indictment

Investigators can serve a more useful purpose by following dirty post-Soviet money than by chasing collusion.
By Leonid Bershidsky
72
October 31, 2017, 11:44 AM CDT

Follow his money, find the real problem. Photographer: Keith Lane/Getty Images
The indictment of Paul Manafort will be an enormous source of speculation for weeks and months to come. But Special Counsel Robert Mueller has already achieved something significant, if underappreciated so far: He opened a far more promising line of inquiry into the reasons why the U.S. political establishment is broken -- on both the Republican and the Democratic side. It would take substantial courage and political will to pursue it further.

Manafort and his partner Richard Gates have been indicted for hiding from U.S. authorities their work for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and the money they received for this work. That money is part of an avalanche of post-Soviet cash that hit Washington in the last two decades. The Foreign Agent Registration Act database lists a total of 211 "foreign principals" from Russia that have hired U.S. lobbying, public relations and law firms to represent them, 78 "foreign principals" from Ukraine, 54 from Georgia, 44 from Azerbaijan, 34 from Kazakhstan, and 19 from Uzbekistan. That is probably far from the full list. One of the counts of the Manafort indictment is failure to register as a foreign agent under FARA.

The countries that hired the high-powered Washington firms and paid them top dollar are well-known for their high levels of corruption. Azerbaijan ranks 123rd on Transparency International's 2016 Corruption Perception Index; Russia and Kazakhstan rank 131st; Uzbekistan 156th. Both government and private entities with government connections in these countries have things to spin and things to cover up. They pay extremely generously for the work, as the indictment shows. It says Manafort and Gates made more than $75 million working for Yanukovych and his Party of Regions between "at least 2006 and 2015."

Yanukovych is often called a pro-Russian leader, and while he tried to steer a middle course for Ukraine between ties to Russia and the European Union, his personal sympathies were with the like-minded regime of Vladimir Putin in Moscow. When it came to political technology, though, Yanukovych was firmly pro-American. After a team of Russian consultants led by Kremlin veteran Gleb Pavlovsky led his disastrous 2004 presidential campaign -- which ended in riots over vote-rigging; a recount; and a win for his rival, Viktor Yushchenko -- Yanukovych wanted as little to do with Russian "experts" as possible. When Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, a longtime backer and major donor, led him to Manafort in 2005, Yanukovych grabbed on with both hands and wouldn't let go even after his longtime campaign manager resigned because he didn't trust Americans. The U.S. experts trained Yanukovych -- even up to his gesticulations and mannerisms -- and fine-tuned his campaign machinery so that when he won the presidency in 2010, there was no repeat of the 2004 events.

Soon, Yanukovych and his allies found out that U.S. expertise available to them knew no party boundaries. Both Republicans and Democrats were happy to take their money. After the Manafort indictment was released on Tuesday, Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta resigned from his company, the Podesta Group, because the firm is reportedly the "Company B" referred to in the indictment as a recipient of funds for lobbying "multiple Members of Congress and their staffs about Ukraine sanctions, the validity of Ukraine elections, and the propriety of Yanukovych's imprisoning his presidential rival Yulia Tymoshenko."

Yanukovych paid generously, but the provenance of the money was always murky. In February 2014, days after Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, journalist Oleksandr Akymenko, then a colleague in Kiev, showed me the spot on the grounds of Yanukovych's abandoned country residence, Mezhihirye, where a team of investigative journalists had fished out of a reservoir the deposed president's "black ledgers." The reporters used a sauna on the grounds to dry out the books, dumped by Yanukovych's fleeing staff, in which contributions and payouts were entered by hand; they were published on a Ukrainian website and now sit with the public prosecutor. Some names next to the entries were well-known, others less so. Manafort's name appeared in a similar ledger next to records of a total of $12.7 million in payouts. In June 2017, Ukraine's special anti-corruption prosecutor Nazar Kholodnitsky declared there was no proof Manafort had ever received the money.

The U.S. and European Union later imposed sanctions against Yanukovych and his inner circle for corruption. But his successors showed little interest in recovering the fortunes they were accused of pumping out of the country -- one major obstacle to any Western efforts to find and freeze these assets, required by the sanctions. Their money is still assumed to be parked in Western banks through a network of offshore companies, though the ex-president and many of his friends now live in Russia.

But the Mueller investigation has showed that where there's a will, there's a way. Mueller didn't need Manafort's signature in the Yanukovych ledgers to track the money that was, according to the indictment, paid to the political consultant for work in Ukraine. It's only a step from there to finding the sources of the payments, and from there to locating the Yanukovych team's Western assets. Serhiy Leschenko, the Ukrainian legislator and former investigative journalist who broke the story of the ledger with the Manafort payouts, celebrated the indictment because it traced "money stolen from Ukrainian taxpayers."

Should U.S. taxpayers care about it, though? The answer is yes. The Manafort case promises to lead a diligent investigator to stashes of dirty post-Soviet money that represent a bigger threat to U.S. democracy than any leaked emails or Russian-bought Facebook ads. It would be naive to imagine that, after working for years for Yanukovych and taking his tainted cash, the consultants didn't bring any of the cynicism and rule-bending prowess to U.S. politics. This is not the kind of baggage one can leave outside the door. The political operatives, spin doctors, lobbyists, and lawyers who have taken the Russian, Ukrainian, Kazakh, Azerbaijani money have contributed to the poisoning of the U.S. political scene. Trump won the election last year on the promise to clean up the swamp they helped create -- but he himself is a creature of that swamp.


An investigation into the origins of the money that fed this toxic culture, and efforts to recover it and cut off its circulation, would do the U.S. a world of good by helping to clean up both major parties. Mueller’s mandate is by no means that broad. And it's hard to imagine a real estate billionaire who keeps his taxes secret and his business private leading the charge. It would be left to U.S. law enforcement agencies to take the lead. American voters and the U.S. political elite need to realize where the real "Russian threat" -- or, more broadly, post-Soviet threat -- lies, and start fighting it. It won’t be easy. But it'll be more productive than going after Russian propaganda and disinformation.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles ... indictment
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Paul Manafort

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Nov 01, 2017 8:12 am

Manafort has 3 passports, traveled to China with phone registered under fake name

Paul Manafort, advisor to Donald Trump, is seen on the floor of the Quicken Loans Arena at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, July 19, 2016.
Washington (CNN)How rich are Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, and where did they travel?

That question lingered over the pair's court hearing on Monday after both faced the first indictments from Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Trump rejecting Bannon's hard line against Mueller -- for now
Because both men appeared to be globe-trotting multi-millionaires and faced charges for serious crimes related to their work abroad, the government said they should be held under house arrest. A judge agreed Monday.
A new court filing Tuesday showed exactly what Manafort and Gates told banks and investigators about their net worths and travel histories over the past few years.
Among the highlights:

* Manafort currently has three US passports, each under a different number. He has submitted 10 passport applications in roughly as many years, prosecutors said.

* This year, Manafort traveled to Mexico, China and Ecuador with a phone and email account registered under a fake name. (The name was not disclosed in the filings.)

* Over the past year, Manafort traveled to Dubai, Cancun, Panama City, Havana, Shanghai, Madrid, Tokyo and Grand Cayman Island.

* Both Manafort and Gates were frequent travelers to Cyprus. "Extensive travel of this nature further evidences a risk of flight," the prosecutor's filing said.

* Manafort wrote on loan applications and other financial documents that his assets were worth between $19 million in April 2012 and $136 million in May 2016.

* In some months, like while he served as Trump's national campaign chairman in August 2016, Manafort's assessment of his total worth fluctuated. In August 2016 he said his assets were worth $28 million, then wrote he had $63 million in assets on a different application.

* Gates "frequently changed banks and opened and closed bank accounts," prosecutors said. In all, Gates opened 55 accounts with 13 financial institutions, the prosecutors' court filing said. Some of his bank accounts were in England and Cyprus, where he held more than $10 million from 2010 to 2013.

Manafort's and Gates' attorneys have asked the judge to release them from house arrest.
Why Robert Mueller is the most powerful man in Washington
Currently, Manafort and Gates' house arrest conditions mean they can only leave their homes to meet with lawyers or appear in court, or for medical and religious reasons, and they must check in with authorities daily.

Their next court appearance is scheduled for Thursday afternoon. They face sentences of more than 10 years if convicted on all charges. Both say they're not guilty.
Manafort has 3 passports, traveled to China with phone registered under fake name

Paul Manafort, advisor to Donald Trump, is seen on the floor of the Quicken Loans Arena at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, July 19, 2016.
Washington (CNN)How rich are Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, and where did they travel?

That question lingered over the pair's court hearing on Monday after both faced the first indictments from Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Trump rejecting Bannon's hard line against Mueller -- for now
Because both men appeared to be globe-trotting multi-millionaires and faced charges for serious crimes related to their work abroad, the government said they should be held under house arrest. A judge agreed Monday.
A new court filing Tuesday showed exactly what Manafort and Gates told banks and investigators about their net worths and travel histories over the past few years.
Among the highlights:

* Manafort currently has three US passports, each under a different number. He has submitted 10 passport applications in roughly as many years, prosecutors said.

* This year, Manafort traveled to Mexico, China and Ecuador with a phone and email account registered under a fake name. (The name was not disclosed in the filings.)

* Over the past year, Manafort traveled to Dubai, Cancun, Panama City, Havana, Shanghai, Madrid, Tokyo and Grand Cayman Island.

* Both Manafort and Gates were frequent travelers to Cyprus. "Extensive travel of this nature further evidences a risk of flight," the prosecutor's filing said.

* Manafort wrote on loan applications and other financial documents that his assets were worth between $19 million in April 2012 and $136 million in May 2016.

* In some months, like while he served as Trump's national campaign chairman in August 2016, Manafort's assessment of his total worth fluctuated. In August 2016 he said his assets were worth $28 million, then wrote he had $63 million in assets on a different application.

* Gates "frequently changed banks and opened and closed bank accounts," prosecutors said. In all, Gates opened 55 accounts with 13 financial institutions, the prosecutors' court filing said. Some of his bank accounts were in England and Cyprus, where he held more than $10 million from 2010 to 2013.

Manafort's and Gates' attorneys have asked the judge to release them from house arrest.
Why Robert Mueller is the most powerful man in Washington
Currently, Manafort and Gates' house arrest conditions mean they can only leave their homes to meet with lawyers or appear in court, or for medical and religious reasons, and they must check in with authorities daily.

Their next court appearance is scheduled for Thursday afternoon. They face sentences of more than 10 years if convicted on all charges. Both say they're not guilty.


WORLD UKRAINE
How Paul Manafort Helped Elect Russia's Man in Ukraine


By Simon Shuster / Kiev, Ukraine October 31, 2017
By the account of his lawyer, Paul Manafort went to work in Ukraine in 2005 with the most spotless of intentions. “[He] represented pro-European Union campaigns for the Ukrainians,” the attorney, Kevin Downing, said in a statement. “And in the course of that representation he was seeking to further democracy and to help the Ukrainians come closer to the United States and to the E.U.”

But that’s not how U.S. diplomats saw it at the time. A U.S. embassy cable sent from Kiev to Washington in 2006 described Manafort’s job as giving an “extreme makeover” to a presidential hopeful named Viktor Yanukovych, who had the backing of the Kremlin and most of Ukraine’s wealthiest tycoons. His Party of Regions, the cable said, was “a haven” for “mobsters and oligarchs.”

Making things harder for Manafort were the candidate’s rough manners and criminal past, which had dimmed his chances of winning elections. Oafish and inarticulate, Yanukovych had served jail time in his youth for theft and battery. He also had a hard time speaking Ukrainian – the national language – as he had grown up in the Russian-speaking province of Donetsk. Yet Manafort accepted the challenge of trying to make Yanukovych electable. The man paying the exorbitant bills for these efforts was an early backer of the Party of Regions, the coal and metals magnate Rinat Akhmetov, who soon began calling Manafort his friend.

Such relationships were nothing new to the American political consultant, who on Monday pleaded not guilty to charges of tax fraud and money laundering brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The indictment was among the first brought down as part of Mueller’s investigation into alleged collusion between Russia and President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Though the charges were not tied directly to Manafort’s work as the chairman of that campaign in the summer of 2016, they showed that his work as a political gun for hire is very much in the spotlight.

Ukraine was by no means the roughest place Manafort ever worked. His roster of clients going back to the 1980s has included Congolese and Filipino dictators, along with a guerilla leader in Angola. But even this range of experience did not make the Party of Regions an easy customer for Manafort. The reputation of its leaders had been stained with blood since at least 2000, when some of Yanukovych’s political patrons were implicated in the murder of Georgy Gongadze, an investigative journalist who was abducted and beheaded that year.

Manafort arrived in Ukraine in the wake of the Orange Revolution, a popular uprising that blocked the pro-Russian Yanukovych from taking power in 2004. One of the leaders of that revolt, an economist named Viktor Yushchenko, fell suddenly ill as his movement for European integration was gaining momentum that fall; doctors determined that he had been poisoned with dioxin, a substance that turned his telegenic face into a mask of green and yellow scars.

Despite the poisoning, Yushchenko’s supporters carried him to victory in the 2004 presidential race, and the reformer put the country on a path to joining the European Union and the NATO military alliance. But these efforts were soon reversed.

With guidance from Manafort and backing from Moscow, the Party of Regions made an astonishing comeback over the next five years, culminating in Yanukovych’s successful bid for the presidency in 2010. Among the first official acts of his tenure was to legally bar Ukraine from seeking NATO membership – a move that effectively granted Russia one of its core geopolitical demands.

For his mastery of political campaigning, Manafort was dubbed a “mythical figure” in the Ukrainian press, and the country’s powerbrokers still give him much of the credit for turning the pro-Russian party around. “I can tell you he’s a real specialist,” says Manafort’s friend Dmitry Firtash, the Ukrainian billionaire and former partner to the Kremlin in the European gas trade. “He won three elections in Ukraine. He knew what he was doing.”

The alleged corruption of Manafort’s employers never made him abandon that job. Once installed in the presidency, Yanukovych began to amass an enormous fortune, easing cronies from his home region of Donetsk into key posts around the country. The President also built an opulent palace for himself outside Kiev, complete with a private zoo, a golf course and a restaurant in the shape of a pirate ship docked in his backyard.

Yanukovych’s political rivals quickly found themselves under arrest. Chief among them was the former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, the gold-braided heroine of the Orange Revolution, who was charged with abuse of office and sentenced to seven years in prison in 2011. “It’s normal practice,” Yanukovych told TIME the following summer, in reference to his jailing of the opposition leader. “The party is powerful. The voters support it. Today the President of Ukraine has the highest ratings of any politician.”

He owed those ratings at least in part to Manafort’s political coaching, which included a new wardrobe for the President, as well as a coiffed hairdo and elocution lessons. But the jailing of Tymoshenko, which U.S. and European leaders denounced as part of a political vendetta, still dealt a severe blow to Ukraine’s reputation in the West. It was Manafort’s job to fix that, too. With money from the Party of Regions and its financial backers, he hired lobbyists in Washington to spin the imprisonment of Tymoshenko as an example of Ukraine’s commitment to the rule of law. “Their job is to say that white is black and black is white,” Tymoshenko’s daughter Eugenia told TIME in 2012.

Such services did not come cheap. After another revolution in Ukraine forced Yanukovych from power in 2014, the national anti-corruption bureau discovered a secret ledger of off-the-books payments from the Party of Regions; Manafort’s name appears in the document 22 times, with payments worth $12.7 million designated for him between 2007 and 2012. The indictment released on Monday in the U.S. claims Manafort and an associate laundered the proceeds of his work in Ukraine through offshore accounts, and failed to pay U.S. taxes on the income.

Through lawyers and in televised interviews, Manafort has denied receiving any illegal payments for his work in Ukraine. His attorneys also denied on Monday that Manafort’s work had advanced Russia’s interests in any way.

But Manafort and his associates have not denied the lucrative side projects that he pursued while working for the Party of Regions. The biggest was an ultimately fruitless plan to purchase the Drake Hotel in Manhattan in 2008. One of the investors he approached for that project was Firtash, an early supporter of the Party of Regions, who says he was promised returns of as much as 50% as part of that deal. “It was partly our money, partly bank loans. That was the scheme,” he tells TIME. “But the deal didn’t go through.”

Details of the Drake Hotel negotiations remained secret until 2011, when Tymoshenko filed a lawsuit in Manhattan claiming that the project was in fact a money-laundering scheme cooked up by Firtash, Manafort and their associates. A judge in New York threw out that case on the grounds that it fell outside the court’s jurisdiction. Firtash, for his part, insists it was part of an effort by Tymoshenko to slander him and his allies in the Party of Regions. “By hitting me and Manafort, she wanted to hit Yanukovych and his electorate,” he says.

What the lawsuit revealed, at a minimum, is how deeply enmeshed Manafort became in Ukrainian business and politics during the decade he spent working for the Party of Regions. Even after the revolution of 2014 turned violent – with police shooting down dozens of protestors in the streets of Kiev that February – the American consultant continued to assist his Ukrainian patrons. He helped the party rebrand itself after it was blamed for the revolutionary bloodshed, which ultimately took more than a hundred lives. After the Party of Regions effectively broke apart that fall, Manafort advised some of its former members on how to win seats in the post-revolutionary parliament.

By that point, there was no longer any question over the party’s allegiance to Moscow. Yanukovych and his closest allies had fled to Russia as the uprising against them intensified, and President Putin guaranteed their security even as he moved to punish Ukraine’s new leaders for turning their backs on the Kremlin. In the spring of 2014, Russia sent troops to occupy and annex Ukraine’s Crimea region. It also sent weapons and fighters to spark a separatist rebellion in Donetsk and other parts of eastern Ukraine, fueling a conflict that killed thousands of people between 2014 and 2016.

Throughout this period, Manafort continued to get regular updates on the crisis from his close associate in Kiev, Konstantin Kilimnik, a dapper and eloquent English-speaker who studied at a Russian military institute. In an interview with Radio Free Europe in February, Kilimnik said that Manafort was open to returning to Ukraine “if there is a serious project that is pro-Ukrainian and can bring peace to this country.”

But as his legal troubles in the U.S. have mounted this year, Manafort’s connections in Ukraine have broken down. Even Firtash, the oligarch who worked alongside Manafort to secure power for the Party of Regions, says he no longer calls his American friend for advice. “If I were to call him now, I’m sure he’d come visit me and we’d sit down and talk,” he says. “But why would I do that? I know what’s going on. I can’t get any help from him now. He can’t help me.”
http://time.com/5003623/paul-manafort-m ... ne-russia/


Here’s why Ukraine paid Manafort insane amounts of money

Just as he had done for dictators in the Philippines and Zaire, Paul Manafort found himself in Ukraine in the fall of 2005 to help reshape the public perception of an unpopular, pro-Kremlin political party associated with “oligarchs and mobsters.”

For Manafort, the rewards were obvious. According to the federal grand jury indictment unsealed Monday, some $75 million flowed through offshore accounts linked to Manafort and his consulting company’s work with individuals, businesses, and political parties in Ukraine over the course of nine years.

For pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politicians who had found themselves on the wrong side of a revolution, Manafort promised to be their best shot at a return to power — and an influential go-between with the United States.

A revolution and a strongman

At the time, Viktor Yanukovych looked like a spent force in Ukrainian politics. The Orange Revolution that swept through Ukraine that winter had crushed Yanukovych’s hopes of assuming the presidency and marred his reputation in the West.

“Yanukovych was ruled politically dead by late January 2005.”
In the eyes of many young Ukrainians, especially those in the capital and the western parts of the country, Yanukovych stood for everything that was backwards, corrupt, anti-democratic about their own country. In Western diplomatic circles, he was seen as a hapless tool of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had sought to install Yanukovych in the presidency to keep Ukraine from moving toward Europe.

After his victory in the November 2004 election was declared fraudulent by the country’s Supreme Court, Yanukovych went on to lose the re-run election months later to his opponent, Orange Revolution leader Viktor Yushchenko.

“Yanukovych was ruled politically dead by late January 2005,” said John E. Herbst, United States ambassador to Ukraine from 2003 to 2006.

But the disgraced leader didn’t slink off into obscurity. Instead, he staged one of the greatest political comebacks in modern political history. And to do it, he hired Paul Manafort.


FILE - In this Tuesday Dec. 17, 2013 file photo, Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych talk during a news conference in Moscow.(AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, file)
Though the sums Yanukovych and his friends paid Manafort may seem astronomical, they may also have been only a small portion of what the notoriously corrupt administration of Viktor Yanukovych had to offer.

“It sounds like a lot of money, but by the standards of the overall graft of the Yanukovych administration, reportedly in the range of $40 billion, it’s a drop in the ocean,” Josh Kovensky, a reporter for the Kyiv Post, told VICE News.

“He realized that his Russian advisers had failed him, and Manafort became his guy,” Herbst said.

The quiet Americans

Manafort was working for a Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov when he was introduced to Yanukovych.

Manafort’s firm, Davis Manafort, had produced an analysis of the Orange Revolution that Yanukovych found instructive, according to one report. Manafort also offered another key asset: deep contacts in Washington.

Before turning his attention to controversial world leaders, Manafort had served briefly in the Reagan administration and consulted for George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole, and his connections throughout K Street were legend.

But it was his reputation as an international fixer that proved most applicable to Yanukovych. Manafort had a track record of improving the public reputations of corrupt dictators, like Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and Zaire’s military strongman Mobutu Sese Seko.

In the fall of 2005, Manafort and Gates quietly opened an office in downtown Kiev, and they quickly went to work.

A 2006 cable to the State Department from U.S. diplomats reported that Yanukovych’s Party of Regions was in the midst of an “extreme makeover,” aided by Manafort and his colleagues.

“Ex-PM Yanukovych’s Party of Regions is working to change its image from that of a haven for mobsters into that of a legitimate political party,” the cable said. Manafort and his team were busy “nipping and tucking” with a goal of ridding the party of its gangster image.

The Manafort-led makeover was profound, even down to Yanukovych’s physical appearance.

“There’s no question that Manafort realized that Yanukovych needed to be presentable to the West.”
Yanukovych tidied up his Soviet-style bouffant hairdo, and began speaking Ukrainian rather than Russian. He pledged to take the country into the European Union. He spoke out about corruption, and began painting himself as a reformed politician who’d left his vote-rigging days behind him.

“Here’s the guy whose team tried to steal the election, and they failed,” Herbst said. “So then Manafort appeared and presented himself to me, saying he was going to help Yanukovych win the old-fashioned way, by out-organizing the opposition.”

Taras Chornovil, Yanukovych’s campaign director, who stalked the halls of their Kiev headquarters during the last days of the Orange Revolution looking pale and distraught, later said that Manafort told Yanukovych’s surrogates to wear makeup and Hugo Boss suits during their television appearances.

When Chornovil complained about Manafort to a close associate of Yanukovych, Chornovil said the man told him Manafort was untouchable — “a big cheese here, in charge of everything,” according to NBC News.

Although he doesn’t speak Ukrainian, Manafort even reportedly penned Yanukovych’s campaign slogan for the 2006 election: “A better life today.”

Manafort helped Yanukovych craft messages that appealed to both Western governments and his own party’s anti-Western base in the country’s eastern regions, Herbst said.

“There’s no question Manafort realized that Yanukovych needed to be presentable to the West, especially after his misbehavior, and the misbehavior of his team, during the revolution,” Herbst said. “But they played on wedge issues to their core voters in the east and south of the country by portraying the United States in a nasty way.”

Manafort’s intervention paid off. By 2006, Yanukovych had risen to become prime minister of Ukraine, while leaders of the Orange Revolution fought with each other.

“He was their face to the West.”
And in 2010, Yanukovych finally achieved what had once seemed impossible: He was elected president of Ukraine in an election deemed free from serious fraud. A team of international observers led by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe declared the vote an “impressive display” of democracy in action, and his main opponent, Orange Revolution stalwart Yulia Tymoshenko, later withdrew her legal challenge to the result.

Observers say Manafort played a central role in Yanukovych’s six-year journey from reject to president as both a top domestic political adviser and a key diplomatic conduit to the Western centers of power.

Yet while Yanukovych’s grand return used many of the traditional tools of Western political stagecraft, as president, he would be accused of returning to his old tendencies.

“Once he won, first slowly, then more quickly, he began to act as an authoritarian,” said Herbst.

Manafort again flexed his muscles on Yanukovych’s behalf, helping to arrange for a prestigious New York law firm to produce a report justifying the jailing of his top political rival, Tymoshenko, on charges her supporters claimed were politically motivated, according to a report in the New York Times — a move Ambassador Herbst called “outrageous.”

“He was the Yanukovych administration’s contact to the West,” Kovensky said. “He was their face to the West.”
https://news.vice.com/story/heres-why-u ... s-of-money


Paul Manafort is a glossy, glossy man
By Robin Givhan November 1 at 7:00 AM

Paul Manafort leaves Federal District Court in Washington after pleading not guilty to felony charges of conspiracy against the United States and other counts. (Alex Brandon/AP)
The recently indicted clotheshorse and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort came into his professional glory in the 1980s, which tells you everything you need to know about his aesthetic sensibility. The ’80s were when Manafort opened his lobbying firm, when he slipped into the world of global influence and the trajectory of his career was set. It was also the decade of slick excess, when an Armani suit oozed power and savoir-faire, a power tie held cultural significance, and men took pride in the dull glint of their blow-dried hair.

Manafort, 68, pleaded not guilty on Monday in Washington to multiple charges, the most ominous of which was conspiracy against the United States, appearing in federal district court in a navy pinstriped suit with a silk tie and a starched spread collar shirt. As he navigated television cameras and still photographers, Manafort looked polished and well-tailored. His clothes declared him someone to know, to be admired, to be respected.

Play Video 2:07
What we know about the special counsel's first charges

President Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Manafort's former business associate Rick Gates and Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos have all been charged in the special counsel's investigation into Russian election interference. (Video: Jenny Starrs/Photo: Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
Under the circumstances, it’s reasonable to notice Manafort’s clothes. When the FBI raided his home in July, agents took pictures of his suits. Back when his firm was working with former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, for example, consultants prescribed a fashion makeover, suggesting that Yanukovych replace his undertaker black suits with navy ones. And then there were the revelations in the unsealed indictment from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, detailing how Manafort allegedly spent his ill-gotten and unreported gains.

From 2008 to 2014, Manafort apparently spent millions of dollars on art, antique rugs and various home improvement projects — and nearly $1.4 million on clothes.

This is a sum that is challenging for some people to digest. Those people have clearly not spent an afternoon at Barneys New York or any large designer boutique. They have not browsed the $5,000 suits at Brioni. They have not felt the call of John Lobb’s $1,500 cap-toe dress shoes. They have not been lured by an $8,500 Kiton cashmere sportcoat. (Barneys New York, by the way, says that it was not the beneficiary of Manafort’s bi-coastal shopping sprees.)

It would require a bit of energy and an unabashed willingness to indulge, but spending that much money on clothes and various accessories can be done. It’s even easier if one’s preferences tilt toward bespoke. It can also be accomplished with subtlety. There is a misguided assumption that if a man is spending that much on clothing, he must be dressing like a bedazzled rock star with a penchant for fur throws. It must surely be obvious. But no. Obvious isn’t the point.

Manafort was not dressing like a man who needs your applause. He was dressing like a man who didn’t think he needed anything at all. At least from you. He looked like someone who considered himself above everything. A man who makes things happen. A man who glides through life.


A well-tailored Manafort. (Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post)
While the 1980s were known for wretched excess, there were important sartorial lessons from that time as well. First, there was the idea that image matters — the notion that there was an art to being successful and it began with looking the part. Casual Friday was far off in the distance; athleisure wear did not exist; and trophy sneakers basically meant a pair of Air Jordans. A man’s status was measured in working buttonholes and pick stitching. There was no glory in nerdy dishevelment, in tweedy absent-mindedness. There were no young tech gods wearing hoodies.

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Manafort in July 2016 looking very spit-shined in pin-stripes and peak-lapels. (Evan Vucci/AP)
Gloss was king. And Manafort is a glossy, glossy man — one who, according to the Associated Press, has favored custom suits and the clothing from Bijan, a ridiculously expensive Beverly Hills boutique known mostly for being . . . ridiculously expensive.

What makes Manafort stand out in a lineup is not the lavishness of his clothes; he’s not exactly walking around draped in Balmain. It is the patina of bright, shiny success that they exude. The kind of success that was not defined by intellectualism, artful inventiveness or blue-collar scrappiness, but the kind born out of smooth talk and slippery ideas. He personifies that old notion of “the suits” being all-knowing and all-powerful. Just a little bit untouchable. They are the kings of the world.

And even when their world is under assault, the gloss doesn’t crack.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/art ... a14270d38d


From court filing today it says Manafort & Gates had staff in Moscow, Russia—it also says Russian & Ukrainian oligarchs gave them millions.

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From court filing today it says Mueller’s team will be producing hundreds of thousands of documents against Manafort from the US & abroad.
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It says in this court doc Trump Advisor George Papadopolous “met with the Gov’t on numerous occasions TO PROVIDE INFO & answer questions.”
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Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Paul Manafort

Postby wetland » Wed Nov 01, 2017 1:58 pm

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pa ... mg00000009

Paul Manafort's Daughter Texted Friends About How Tight Her Dad Was With Trump

11-14 minutes

Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman who was indicted on federal conspiracy and money laundering charges Monday, has a long history of ties to pro-Putin groups in Ukraine. He also has a long history of connections to Donald Trump. According to leaked texts sent and received by his daughter, Andrea Manafort Shand, the two pals were “perfect allies.”

The Trump administration has been working overtime to downplay Manafort’s role in last year’s campaign.

“Paul Manafort was brought in to lead the delegate process, which he did, and was dismissed not too long after that,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday. “Paul was brought on sometime in June, and by the middle of August he was no longer with the campaign,” then-press secretary Sean Spicer said in March.

Spicer’s statement was untrue, and Sanders’ claim was misleading.

The public record shows that Manafort, who had known Trump for decades, joined his campaign toward the end of March 2016. And Manafort’s eventual resignation didn’t necessarily indicate he was leaving Trump’s orbit, according to his daughter’s texts. Manafort Shand may have wanted to inflate her father’s role to impress her friends. But even after her father stepped down from the campaign last August, Manafort Shand was under the impression that he had continuing influence within the Trump campaign and beyond.

The following texts, sent by Manafort Shand to her sister, Jessica Manafort, and to friends and discovered by the website Krypt3ia earlier this year, offer a markedly different understanding of the Trump/Manafort relationship than the president and his allies are attempting to sell. (Manafort previously confirmed the authenticity of several of the texts to Politico.)

The texts have been lightly edited for grammar and clarity.

March 17, 2016: The Manafort daughters claim Trump asked their father to run his campaign.

Jessica Manafort: Guess who called Dad last night and asked him to run his convention.

Andrea Manafort Shand: Mom told me he was going to call dad. She told me to get ready for Trump to be president and pick the position in the White House I want.

JM: Dad gave him his list of requirements and so long as he can fulfill the list, Dad accepted.

March 29: Even before he was announced as campaign chairman, her father’s role was much larger than the public knew, Manafort Shand claims.

Friend: I’m not paying enough attention to really form an opinion. But yea I think economy makes sense, just hate what an asshole [Trump] is in the process.

AMS: Well hopefully my dad will help scale that back. That’s part of the reason he was brought on. He is refusing payment. Bc he doesn’t want to be viewed as Trump’s employee. Only having his expenses covered. He is involved purely because he wants to help the country and he thinks trump is best, so long as trump gets trained a bit. PS this is all top secret, so please do not repeat.

AMS: Dude he is second in command. Perhaps arguably running it. The campaign manager is all for show. [Corey Lewandowski] doesn’t do shit. Trump has been managing his own campaign

April 7: Manafort Shand paints her father as a master manipulator who is a close ally of Trump’s.

[After sending her friend a CNN article hinting at Manafort’s expanded role within the campaign.]

Friend: Is Paul getting a bigger role?! Seems like it ...

AMS: You’re surprised?? I told you this was the game. You think Paul does anything in moderation?

Friend: And like, if Trump gets elected, guess who’s gonna be chief of staff ...

AMS: Phffff. He would never accept.

Friend: Too many skeletons in his closet?

AMS: Too constrictive. Paul is a lone wolf. Has to go his own way. Do what he wants when he wants how he wants. He doesn’t have room for other people and their needs/wants.

Friend: Yea that sounds about right

AMS: He likes the challenge. That’s why he’s doing this. It’s a game for him. He isn’t being paid.

Friend: Man I bet he’s loving it.

AMS: This is pure sport. He is a power hungry egomaniac. Yes. He is loving it. Conclusively. Him and trump are perfect allies for this agenda. It’s so weird he is my dad.

[Later]

AMS: It’s just weird. Like [my dad] doesn’t seem that smart. Like he is smart. But I know I’m smarter than him.

Friend: I don’t doubt that, he’s a master manipulator. Which seems pretty key.

AMS: He is very manipulative. I did inherit that ability. But I don’t exploit it like he does. I know all his tactics. They aren’t that brilliant but they do work.

Friend: But yes you’re right, you have a moral conscious [sic].

AMS: Like he just tells you the sky is green over and over. And eventually you are like is it? I don’t possess the ability to just lie like he does.

Friend: Yea he works his charm.

AMS: It’s confidence. When you say something unwaveringly, people start to believe it.

Friend: I mean yea that got Trump where he is today.

AMS: Yup. Perfect allies. Trump probably has more morals than my dad. Which is really just saying something about my dad. My dad is a psycho!!! At least trump let his wives leave him. Plus, Trump has been a good father.

AMS: Trump waited a little too long in my opinion, but I can attest to the fact that he has now hired one of the world’s greatest manipulators. I hope my dad pulls it off. Then I can sell my memoir with all his dirty secrets for a pretty penny.

[Later, Manafort Shand talks to another friend about her feelings regarding the campaign.]

AMS: He was brought on to be convention manager, but really it was always to run shit. And now that’s being publicly known. Or acknowledged I guess.

[Later]

JM: Dad and Trump are literally living in the same building and mom says they go up and down all day long hanging and plotting together

April 12: Manafort Shand offers campaign-related favors from her father to a friend.

Subscribe to the Politics email.

How will Trump's administration impact you?

AMS: By the way, if you want to exploit my dad to better your career, please let me know.

Friend: Are you serious?

AMS: Completely.

Friend: I wouldn’t be opposed to exploiting him.

AMS: I am on a business email basis with my dad.

[Later]

AMS: My dad is Trump’s right-hand man right now and will be through November. But he won’t accept any position in the White House, so his leverage will diminish at that point (assuming Trump wins).

April 13: Manafort refused payment as a power play, his daughter claims.

AMS: Yup. That’s a match made in heaven. Egomaniacs galore.

AMS: But yea [my dad is] super tight with the Trumps. All the kids call him all the time. And him and Trump both live in Trump Tower in NYC. So it’s like a sitcom. Although — top top secret. Can’t repeat, promise? My dad isn’t getting paid for trump.

Friend: WHAT, really?

AMS: He refused payment. Trump is only covering expenses.

Friend: Political favors later?

AMS: Eh maybe but the truth of it is, I think there are rules for how much you can pay campaign personnel, so it isn’t much to start with — not to my dad anyway. And my dad wants Trump to listen to him and respect him. View him as an equal, not as staff. So refusing payment makes it so. And makes it clear to Trump why my dad is doing it — because he wants to.

AMS: And my dad won’t take an appointment either. Trump knows that, too. So this isn’t for personal gain for my dad, and that’s true — not a game. So why is my dad doing it? Sport.

AMS: This is his wheelhouse. And he gets off on power too. My dad loves challenges and this is like a chess game. He got a mistress because he was bored. Trump is his new mistress.

May 19: Although her father was never officially co-manager with Lewandowski, Manafort Shand claims that was effectively the case.

[After sending her friend a link to an ABC article about Manafort moving up yet again within the campaign.]

AMS: My mom told me they were gonna call them co-managers, and then Corey went to Trump’s son-in-law, Ivanka’s husband, and burst into tears about how that would ruin him. So since my dad doesn’t care about titles, this was the compromise.

May 26: Manafort Shand offers campaign-related favors from her father to Lockheed Martin.

Friend: Helleeew! I have an awkward favor/question to ask, so if you’re not down, I totally understand. I’m not sure how you and your dad are these days, and I’m gonna guess you’re overloaded with requests to get in touch, but if it’s do-able, could you help me get in touch with or pass on an email to someone in your dads office?

AMS: Sure, what’s your end goal?

Friend: It’s not an effort to help the campaign. My dad works for Lockheed Martin, and they want to essentially let Trump’s transition team know that they’re ready, available, and happy to provide info about defense acquisition and sustainment. So to discuss policy. But they can’t reach out to Trump’s team — the team would have to reach out to them. So I’ve got an email with info that would be amazing if passed on to the right people. Again — if this is not your cup of tea, totally forget I asked. I’m only asking bc it’s my dad.

AMS: I hear ya — it’s not a problem, I just think it’s probably a bit early. But I can ask my mom who the right person would be to receive the email. I would imagine Rick Davis or Rick Gates. But I’ll find out and let you/them know.

Friend: Thank you!! I really appreciate it. I think they want to get in front ahead of time instead of play catch up. I feel weird asking for a favor like this haha.

AMS: You’re not the first. It’s no bother. I am happy to be a conduit. I just can’t promise anything other than initial access.

Friend: Just being a conduit is amazing! Zero expectations, just doin what I can for my dad so anything at all is fucking great.

AMS: Totally get it. Not every day you know the man behind the man. Gotta exploit it. Which is why I am happy to help. Cuz fuck it, hopefully someone can benefit by my relation to the count of Monte Cristo.

June 20: Manafort had enough sway to pick Trump’s vice president, his daughter claims.

AMS: My dad is picking VP. So there’s that.
Aug. 17: Trump hires Steve Bannon and promotes Kellyanne Conway. Manafort Shand claims that her father was really the one who hired them and that public perception of his being sidelined is incorrect.

AMS: [My dad] hasn’t been demoted. That’s total bullshit. No surprise that the media is wrong. Again. My dad hired those 2 people. Interviewed them in trump towers

Aug. 19: Manafort Shand claims that her father’s resignation was merely to appease the public, but that he’s still very much involved.

AMS: So I got to the bottom of it. As I suspected, my dad resigned from being the public face of the campaign but is still very much involved behind the scenes. He felt he was becoming a distraction and that would ultimately take a toll on the campaign.

Friend: Wow. Well, I’m really glad he’s still part of it. Seriously, who knows what would have happened at the convention if he wasn’t running the show.

AMS: Yes for sure. He said that, in the next few weeks, we should hopefully be seeing a new Trump, so to speak. Last night’s speech was a speech my dad had been pushing him to make for several weeks, and since it was so well-received, he thinks Trump will be more responsive to doing things a bit differently.

[Later]

Friend: Thoughts go out to your pops — I can only imagine that he’s relieved, angry, hurting, a combination of a lot of emotions. Wishing you and your fam the best

AMS: Hahaha, you’re so silly. It’s all just PR.

Paul Manafort, Andrea Manafort Shand and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.
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Re: Paul Manafort

Postby stillrobertpaulsen » Wed Nov 01, 2017 4:36 pm

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Thanks for that, wetland. It's good to see that Huffington Post is getting on top of that story that seemslikeadream first linked to in February. I hope they look even deeper at some of what Krypt3ia was digging into. For Trumpkins to try to claim that Manafort had a "limited role" in the campaign is preposterous.
"Huey Long once said, “Fascism will come to America in the name of anti-fascism.” I'm afraid, based on my own experience, that fascism will come to America in the name of national security."
-Jim Garrison 1967
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Re: Paul Manafort

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Nov 01, 2017 5:55 pm

NY publicist says Manafort wanted to pay him for Ukraine work via offshore accounts — to make 'way more money'
Natasha Bertrand Nov 1, 2017, 2:31 PM ET
Paul Manafort, a former campaign manager for Donald Trump, on October 17, 2017, in New York City.
A prominent New York publicist says Paul Manafort and Rick Gates approached him in 2012 and asked whether they could pay him for Ukraine lobbying work via offshore accounts and avoid registering as foreign agents with the DOJ.
The publicist's experience mirrored the accusations laid out in a newly unsealed indictment against Manafort and Gates issued by special counsel Robert Mueller's team last week.

A New York publicist who has represented clients including former Trump Organization adviser Felix Sater and Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov says he was asked by Paul Manafort and Rick Gates if he could avoid registering with the Justice Department as a foreign agent while he worked for them - and whether he would agree to be paid from offshore accounts.

The claim mirrors some of the details laid out in an indictment of Manafort and Gates as part of an investigation by the office of special counsel Robert Mueller. The two men have pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include money laundering, failure to file reports of foreign bank accounts, and filing false or misleading statements about their foreign lobbying work.

Ronn Torossian, the CEO of 5WPR, told Business Insider he was approached by Manafort and Gates in 2012.

Emails reviewed by Business Insider show that, on February 22, 2012, Gates reached out to Torossian with a request:

"I would like to speak with you regarding an opportunity to support a foreign government client that I represent. I would like to walk you through some of the details via phone and then schedule a meeting with you and others on your team that you might want to bring in."
Two days later, Gates wrote again: "Ronn- Great to speak with you yesterday. I appreciate the candid discussion. I have everything I need. I am speaking with Paul today when he returns from Kyiv."

Torossian said that he met and/or spoke with Manafort and Gates "on multiple occasions in February and March 2012" to discuss a prospective PR campaign "for billionaires and the Ukrainian government."


It was around that time that Manafort and Gates "solicited two Washington, DC, firms (Company A and Company B) to lobby in the United States on behalf of" the Ukrainian government, according to the newly unsealed indictment. NBC News reported on Monday that Company A and B was Mercury Public Affairs and The Podesta Group, respectively.

"They acted like they controlled the government of Ukraine," said Torossian, who did crisis work for the Eric Trump Foundation as recently as last month.

Neither Manafort nor Gates, who are currently on house arrest, responded to requests for comment. Manafort's attorney has called charges against them "ridiculous."

The work would have been fairly standard for Torossian, who has worked for the current mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, and Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov.

But things went south, Torossian said, when Gates and Manafort asked him whether he could avoid registering with the Justice Department as a foreign agent in accordance with the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

"We discussed how to get around filing FARA and I was uncomfortable at that point," recalled Torossian, who has advocated more uniform foreign-lobbying disclosure requirements.


As longtime foreign-lobbying reporter Ken Silverstein wrote on Monday: "Manafort is hardly the only Washington lobbyist who appears to have flouted the FARA rules. Evading registration is child's play for Washington pros."

But the desire to flout FARA wasn't the only thing that irked Torossian about their meetings. "They also asked if I had a problem being paid from offshore accounts," he added. "They said they made way more money offshore than in the US."

Torossian said on Monday that the allegations in paragraphs 22 and 23 of Mueller's indictment against Manafort and Gates "are exactly what they told me and wanted me to do."

Paragraph 22 outlined how Mercury Public Affairs and The Podesta Group "lobbied multiple members of Congress and their staffs about Ukraine sanctions, the validity of Ukraine elections, and the propriety of Yanukovych's imprisoning his presidential rival, Yulia Tymoshenko."

Paragraph 23 alleged that both firms "were paid for their services...solely through off-shore accounts associated with the Manafort-Gates entities, namely Bletilla Ventures Limited (in Cyprus) and Jeunet Ltd. and Global Endeavour Inc. (in Grenadines)." The firms were paid "over $2 million" from the offshore accounts, according to the indictment.

There are also indications that the companies knew they were effectively working for the Ukrainian government but only registered as foreign agents retroactively. According to the indictment, Gates told Mercury in February 2012 that the firm would be "representing the Government of Ukraine in [Washington] DC."

Months later, the filings say, Gates wrote to both Mercury and The Podesta Group telling them Manafort would be briefing the Ukrainian president on their work.

"Manafort, like dozens of other influence peddlers, has been operating in plain sight for years," wrote Silverstein, the long-time foreign-lobbying reporter. "But if you're going to indict and prosecute lobbyists for failing to disclose their activities, roughly half of Washington would be under arrest."
https://amp.businessinsider.com/manafor ... rk-2017-10
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Paul Manafort

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Nov 02, 2017 9:37 am

Mogilevich ➡️ Fursin ➡️ Manafort ➡️ Trump

Is it too much to ask that our president not be a mobster?


Buried deep in Robert Mueller’s indictment of Paul Manafort is a new link between Donald Trump’s former campaign and Russian organized crime.

CURDLED CREAM

Mueller Reveals New Manafort Link to Organized Crime

Trump’s former campaign manager didn’t just do business with accused gangsters. One of them transferred millions into a Manafort account, allegedly used for money laundering.

BETSY WOODRUFF
11.02.17 5:00 AM ET
Buried deep in Robert Mueller’s indictment of Paul Manafort is a new link between Donald Trump’s former campaign and Russian organized crime.
The indictment (PDF), unsealed on Monday, includes an extensive look into Paul Manafort’s byzantine financial dealings. In particular, it details how he used a company called Lucicle Consultants Limited to wire millions of dollars into the United States.

The Cyprus-based Lucicle Consultants Limited, in turn, reportedly received millions of dollars from a businessman and Ukrainian parliamentarian named Ivan Fursin, who is closely linked to one of Russia’s most notorious criminals: Semion Mogilevich.
Mogilevich is frequently described as “the most dangerous mobster in the world.” Currently believed to be safe in Moscow, he is, according to the FBI, responsible for weapons trafficking, contract killings, and international prostitution. In 2009, he made the bureau’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.


“Ivan Fursin was a senior figure in the Mogilevich criminal organization,” Taras Kuzio, a non-resident fellow at Johns Hopkins-SAIS’ Center for Transatlantic Relations and a specialist on the region told The Daily Beast. Fursin, he added, was a “senior figure” in Mogilevich’s criminal group.
Martin Sheil, a retired criminal investigator for the IRS, said the indictment, with its connections to Fursin, helps illuminate the murky world Manafort operated in before taking the reins of Trump’s presidential bid.
“This indictment strongly indicates the existence of a previously unknown relationship between an alleged Russian organized crime leader and Mr. Manafort,” Sheil told The Daily Beast.

According to the indictment, Manafort and his former business partner, Rick Gates, used Lucicle to avoid paying taxes on money which they then spent on a variety of pricey items: clothes, antiques, and at least one Mercedes-Benz.
Paul Manafort’s attorney, Kevin Downing, told reporters on Monday that the idea that anyone would engage in such a scheme is laughable.
“The second thing about this indictment that I, myself, find most ridiculous is a claim that maintaining offshore accounts to bring all your funds into the United States, as a scheme to conceal from the United States government, is ridiculous,” he told a scrum of reporters on the steps of a D.C. courthouse.
But the indictment alleges otherwise. According to Mueller’s team, from April 2012 to March 2013, Lucicle transferred more than $1.3 million to a home improvement company in the Hamptons, where Manafort owns property.
Lucicle also sent more than $200,000 to a New York men’s clothing store from March 2012 to February 2013. In that same window of time, it also sent more than $100,000 to a New York antique dealer, more than $340,000 to a Florida contractor, $88,000 to a landscaper in the Hamptons, and a comparatively paltry payment of $7,500 to a clothing store in Beverly Hills.

On Oct. 5, 2012, Lucicle wired in $62,750 to pay for a Mercedes-Benz. And on Valentine’s Day of 2013, it sent $14,000 to a Florida art gallery. In total, according to Mueller’s indictment, Lucicle wired more than $5 million into the U.S. for Gates and Manafort.
At least some of the money Manafort and Gates used to pay for all those goodies appears to have come from Fursin. The New York Times reported in July that Lucicle and Fursin are tied to an “offshore entity, Mistaro Ventures, which is registered in St. Kitts and Nevis and listed on a government financial disclosure form that Mr. Fursin filed in Ukraine.”
According to the Times, “Mistaro transferred millions to Lucicle in February 2012 shortly before Lucicle made the $9.9 million loan to Jesand L.L.C., a Delaware company that Mr. Manafort previously used to buy real estate in New York.” It was one month after that transfer that Lucicle started shelling out millions to pay for cars, clothes, and real estate, according to the indictment.
That isn’t Fursin’s only connection to Manafort. He is also a lawmaker for the Party of Regions, which paid at least $17 million to Manafort’s firm.
In addition, Fursin’s longtime business associate, Ukrainian billionaire Dmitry Firtash, has an off-again, on-again partnership with Manafort. Together, they tried to buy the Drake Hotel in Manhattan for a cool $850 million. Firtash also bankrolled Ukraine’s Party of Regions.
Firtash has his own legal complications. He is currently under indictment in U.S. federal court for allegedly orchestrating an international titanium mining racket. The acting U.S. attorney in Chicago recently dubbed him an “organized-crime member” and an “upper-echelon associat[e] of Russian organized crime.” His attorneys say those charges are mere “innuendo,” according to the Chicago Tribune.

A December 2005 report from the Austrian Federal Criminal Investigation Agency said the FBI described Fursin and Firtash as senior members of the Semion Mogilevich Organization.

Ken McCallion, a former federal prosecutor who represented Yulia Tymoshenko in a civil case against Manafort and Firtash, told The Daily Beast that Fursin and Firtash are close.
“It was very similar to the relationship between Manafort and Gates,” he said. “Gates was a significant player in the criminal activities that Manafort engaged in... He played a major role, he was a major lieutenant in Manafort’s organization. By the same token, Fursin was one of the chief lieutenants of Firtash.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/mueller-r ... ized-crime


Yulia Tymoshenko Warned Us About Paul Manafort Years Ago
Why didn't the Obama administration do anything?
Elizabeth Nolan Brown|Oct. 31, 2017 6:48 am

Yulia Tymoshenko warned us about Paul Manafort years ago.

In a civil complaint, the former Ukrainian prime minister accused Manafort—who would go on to chair Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign—of conspiring with Ukrainian and Russian partners to launder dirty money through "a labyrinth of shell companies" in the U.S.

These companies, it claims, "were solely used for purposes of furthering the unlawful objectives" of people like Dmytro Firtash, a Ukrainian businessman indicted in 2009 for U.S. racketeering and money laundering, and Russian crime boss Semyon Mogilevich, who made the FBI's "Most Wanted" list for suspected fraud, racketeering, and money laundering.

Documents filed in the civil action reveal many similar allegations to those Manafort and Gates are now facing at the hands of U.S. Department of Justice special prosecutor Robert Mueller.

On Monday, a federal grand jury indicted the former Trump-campaign chairman and Rick Gates, a Manafort business associate, for conspiracy to launder money, making false statements, failing to register as an agent of foreign principal, and failing to file reports on foreign bank accounts. (For a detailed breakdown of the charges, see Popehat.) They pleaded not guilty Monday afternoon.

The DOJ indictment accuses Manafort and Gates of "extensive lobbying" in the U.S. on behalf of Ukrainian interests and "in connection with the roll out of a report concerning the Tymoshenko trial commissioned by the Government of Ukraine."

Manafort and Gates paid $4 million to law firm Skadden Arps to monitor and report on the Tymoshenko proceedings, ostensibly on behalf of an "independent" European Centre for a Modern Ukraine (which they had helped set up), the indictment says. And it claims that "between at least 2006 and 2015, Manafort and Gates acted as unregistered agents of the Government of Ukraine, the Party of Regions (a Ukrainian political party whose leader Victor Yanukovych was President from 2010 to 2014), Yanukovych, and the Opposition Bloc (a successor to the Party of Regions that formed in 2014 when Yanukovych fled to Russia), generating "tens of millions of dollars in income as a result" and "launder[ing] the money through scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships, and bank accounts."

The work was done through Davis Manafort Partners (DMP), which Manafort co-founded in 2005, and DMP International (DMI), founded in Manafort and his wife Kathleen in 2011. Rick Gates worked for both entities Through these agencies, Manafort and Gates helped propel Viktor Yanukovych to the Ukrainian presidency and oversaw a "watchdog" report on the prosecution of his opposition.

Tymoshenko, who served as prime minster from 2007 through 2010, was not just an enemy of Tanukovych's but also of Firtash and Mogilevich. In an agreement with Russia, she helped cut Firtash's company out as a profitable middleman in natural-gas deals between the two countries.

Tymoshenko's suit against Firtash and unnamed Yanukovych officials was first filed in U.S. court in April 2011, when Yanukovych was still president. Later amended complaints were eventually filed—the second in November 2014, after Yanukovych had been forced to flee Ukraine amid protests over his administration's corruption and thuggery—and also named Manafort and his partners at CMZ Ventures.

The suit accused Manafort, Firtash, and the other defendants of financing politically motivated and "unlawful investigations and prosecutions of Tymoshenko" and her associates through secret payments to Yanukovich and others in his administration or control. Their money-laundering and shell-company scheme "was the proximate cause of Tymoshenko's damages, since it provided the necessary funds to make the unlawful payments to the Ukraine prosecutors and other corrupt administration officials," the complaint alleges.

Documents show that in December 2008, Manafort met with Firtash in the Ukraine, where Firtash agreed to an initial capital investment of $100 million in a global fund managed—for an initial fee of $1.5 million—by CMZ Ventures. An email sent by Gates in January 2009 summarizes the meeting, noting that Firtash's company "is still totally on board and a wire will be forthcoming either the end of this week or next week as a partial payment on the 1.5 [million]."

CMZ Ventures was jointly controlled by Manafort, Zackson, and Arthur and Karen Cohen. The suit claims this crew "defraud[ed] innocent third party real estate owners, investors and businesses... through sham real estate development and sales proposals that lured said third parties into thinking that defendants were making legitimate investments."

CMZ expressed interest in and made bids on flashy New York development projects like the Drake Hotel and St. Johns Terminal. But none of these deals went through—and they were never supposed to, claims Tymoshenko. The bids were merely a ploy to confer legitimacy on CMZ Ventures and attract more investors, whose money could be funneled into one of myriad U.S. and Panamanian accounts.

Former CMZ employees filed a New York labor-practices complaint against the company in 2009, accusing leaders of failing to pay them, not withholding payroll taxes or keeping proper records, not reimbursing them for travel costs, and "frequent creation of new Limited Liability Companies which serve as shell companies."

Scott Snizek, who would eventually join Tymoshenko's lawsuit, even sent Sens. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) a letter begging them to look into "corporate wrongdoings in our own backyard" committed by Manafort and company, whom he described as figures "well-known and falsely respected by the public." His warning went unheeded.

And, in September 2015, Tymoshenko's suit was dismissed by a U.S. District Judge for lack of jurisdiction.

But in that suit lie the seeds of the current DOJ complaint against Manafort. The conspiracy Tymoshenko alleged may be worth revisiting.

Like the DOJ indictment, Tymoshenko's suit raised questions about law firm Skadden Arms and one of its partners, Gregory B. Craig, former White House counsel to Barack Obama. Documents seized from a former Yunukovych prosecutor's home included an August 2012 email from Craig to Manafort about the report, and an early draft of the Skadden report that had been annotated by Ukrainian government officials.

Tymoshenko theorized that Manafort and Gates had been commissioned to steer the investigation "away from certain sensitive areas (such as the massive, politically-motivated violations of human rights and suppression of political dissent) and towards less dangerous subjects (relatively minor procedural irregularities in the Tymoshenko investigations and prosecutions)."

Emails included Tymoshenko's case also show Gates and Manafort doing business with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who was denied entry to the U.S. in 2006 because of his alleged ties to organized Russian crime. The meeting between Deripaska and Manafort "is significant in that it confirms that Manafort had direct contacts with high-level Russian figures who were... under investigation by the FBI and [DOJ] for alleged money laundering and other criminal activities," it notes.

And according to Tymoshenko and co-defendants, there's no way Manafort didn't know what he was doing. As "a key advisor to former-President Yanukovych and other Ukraine political figures since 2003, he knew exactly how Firtash and his affiliated companies and co-conspirators were able to skim billions of dollars from the natural gas deals between Russia and Ukraine. He also knew that the monies were used to acquire ownership and control of various U.S.-based companies in furtherance of" racketeering, their suit states.

In doing so, "Manafort gave Firtash and his European-based co-conspirators the opportunity to participate with the U.S.-based defendants in a new Racketeering Enterprise focused on corporate acquisitions, money laundering and other racketeering activities in the United States, where it continues to operate," said the amended complaint in November 2014.

If only we had taken it seriously then.
http://reason.com/blog/2017/10/31/tymos ... l-manafort






seemslikeadream » Wed Jul 26, 2017 7:04 pm wrote:
NEWS JUL 26 2017, 3:21 PM ET
DOJ: Ex-Manafort Associate Firtash Is Top-Tier Comrade of Russian Mobsters
by TOM WINTER

The Department of Justice has identified a former business associate of ex-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort as an "upper-echelon [associate] of Russian organized crime."

The declaration came in a 115-page filing as part of the government's case against Dmytro Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch who was once involved in a failed multimillion-dollar deal to buy New York's Drake Hotel with Manafort, and an important player in the Ukrainian political party for which Manafort worked.

Firtash is being prosecuted for what federal prosecutors in Chicago say was his role in bribing Indian officials in order to get a lucrative mining deal to sell titanium to Boeing.

Dmytro Firtash
Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash waits for the start of his trial at the main court in Vienna, Austria, April 30, 2015. Ronald Zak / AP file
Related: Donald Trump Aide Paul Manafort Scrutinized for Russian Business Ties

The government says that prosecuting Firtash and his co-defendant in the alleged scheme, Andras Knopp, "will disrupt this organized crime group and prevent it from further criminal acts within the United States."

In 2008, according to court records, Manafort's firm was involved with Firtash in a plan to redevelop the Drake Hotel for $850 million. Firtash's company planned to invest more than $100 million, the records say.

One of the other partners working with Manafort on the deal was the former exclusive broker for Fred Trump's properties, Brad Zackson. Fred Trump is the now-deceased father of Donald Trump.

Eventually, documents show, Firtash's investment company transferred $25 million into escrow to further the project.

Also in 2008, according to a State Department cable posted by WikiLeaks, Firtash told U.S. Ambassador William Taylor that he got his start in business with the permission of one of Russia's most well-known organized crime bosses, Semion Mogilevich. But Firtash claimed to Taylor that he was forced to deal with such people.

Related: What Did Ex-Trump Aide Paul Manafort Really Do in Ukraine?

Firtash was a major backer of Ukraine's Party of Regions, the pro-Russian party for which Manafort worked for many years, according to the federal criminal complaint and another leaked State cable. Manafort's firm made more than $17 million in gross revenue from the party in just two years, according to his recent Foreign Agent Registration Act filing. Another leaked cable said that Manafort's job in 2006 was to give the Party of Regions an "extreme makeover" and "change its image from … a haven for mobsters into that of a legitimate political party."

In interviews and statements to NBC News, Manafort has said he "never had a business relationship" with Firtash. "There was one occasion where an opportunity was explored. ... Nothing transpired and no business relationship was ever implemented."

The government's 115-page filing came in response to a motion to dismiss by Firtash's lawyers, who say the government has failed to establish that any crime occurred in the U.S.

In a statement to NBC News, Firtash attorney Dan Webb said the government filing makes two accusations that are not part of the federal indictment — that Firtash is connected to Russian organized crime, and that he made bribe payments intended for individuals in the U.S. Webb said there is "no evidence" that Firtash is linked to organized crime, and the accusation that he made bribe payments "is also false, and that is why the government did not include it as well in its own indictment."

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois did not respond to a request for comment.


Married to the Ukrainian Mob

Meet Dmytro Firtash, the shady billionaire at the heart of Russia’s energy stranglehold over Kiev.
3 YEARS AGO
CATEGORIES: COLUMN
Michael Weiss
Featured image

Buried in the news of Russia’s invasion, and now annexation, of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea was the second most important event to affect the new Ukrainian government last week — and it happened in Austria. On the evening of March 12, one of the most notorious Ukrainian oligarchs, Dmytro Firtash, whose fortune has been estimated at anywhere from $673 million to the tens of billions, was arrested in Vienna, right outside of one of his offices in the Margareten district. Neither he nor his bodyguards put up a struggle, according to press reports, although Group DF, the massive international holding company Firtash owns, has said in a statement that the whole thing was a "misunderstanding" which would be "resolved in the very near term."

But the misunderstanding involved agents from Austria’s organized crime division and its elite counterterrorism special ops unit, which doesn’t bear the hallmarks of a short-term mix-up, even by European standards. Austrian authorities have said that Firtash was detained on suspicions of bribery and forming a criminal organization related to overseas business deals. On March 18, the oligarch himself claimed that his arrest was "without foundation" and that he believes "strongly that the motivation was purely political." Bail has been set at a record-breaking $174 million, which the Vienna criminal court expects Firtash to post shortly, though he won’t be able to leave Austria.

Relations between Washington and Moscow have deteriorated precipitously since November, when then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych backed out of an E.U. association agreement that he’d spent years lobbying for and opted for a $15 billion bribe from President Vladimir Putin instead. Now, almost a month after Yanukovych’s night-flight from Kiev and his formal ouster from power by the Ukrainian Rada, and three weeks after Russian forces invaded and occupied Crimea, the West has groped to find ways to punish politically keyed-in moneymen, from Moscow to Kiev. For the better part of a decade, Firtash wasn’t just one of Ukraine’s richest oligarchs, he was the principal conduit for the astonishingly profitable and legendarily crooked gas trade between Russia and Ukraine.

According to the New York Times, Firtash, who has stakes in the energy, media, real estate, banking, and chemical industries, was detained on bribery and other as-yet-unspecified charges at the request of the FBI, which had been investigating the Ukrainian business mogul since 2006. Eight years is certainly a long time to wait. And while it is true that Firtash had so far avoided landing himself on the European Union’s list of 18 sanctioned Ukrainians — most of them former officials in the Yanukovych government, as well as their relatives — few who are familiar with his background or are now closely monitoring an increasingly assertive U.S.-EU effort to counter Russian aggression believe that this high-profile collaring simply occurred out of the blue.

Firtash is simply too good of a political target and the timing, too suspicious. According to Standard Bank analyst Timothy Ash, Firtash "has close ties to Russia via the energy sector, and perhaps even to [President Vladimir] Putin." One of the oligarch’s chemical companies, Ash notes, got large discounts from Gazprom, Russia’s state-controlled gas giant, at a time when Naftohaz, Ukraine’s state gas company, was paying premium prices for imports. The ownership of the Swiss-registered gas trading company RosUkrEnergo is also almost evenly divided between Firtash and Gazprom, indicating that the Ukrainian oligarch was a close partner of the Kremlin.

"The arrest is not a coincidence," former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor, told Foreign Policy. "I suspect there are many Ukrainian businesspeople who are very nervous at this point. The United States has put sanctions and visa bans on a few individuals, and Firtash would be a leading candidate. He clearly supported President Yanukovych." The timing of the arrest might have been opportunistic, but the investigations of criminal activity were very real — and U.S. law enforcement agencies had been closing in for some time. Indeed, Taylor said he suspected that the Austrian operation had something to do with longstanding allegations that Firtash is tied to organized crime in the United States and Europe.

One degree of separation from the FBI’s "10 Most Wanted"

As it happens, Firtash has admitted to his mob connections — to Taylor, in fact. In December 2008, the Ukrainian personally requested a meeting with the ambassador to make "his case to the [U.S. government]." A State Department cable, subsequently published by WikiLeaks, stated: "Firtash’s bottom line was that he did not deny having links to those associated with organized crime. Instead, he argued that he was forced into dealing with organized crime members including [Semion] Mogilevich or he would never have been able to build a business."

The Ukrainian-born Mogilevich, thought to be more powerful than John Gotti or Whitey Bulger ever were, is currently on the FBI’s "10 Most Wanted" list. He was indicted by the U.S. Justice Department in 2003 on 45 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, securities fraud, money-laundering, and racketeering related to a multinational, publicly traded front company called YBM Magnex, Inc, which at its height was valued at $150 million. It claimed to manufacture magnets — except that it didn’t. Instead, YBM Magnex drove its share prices up on the Toronto Stock Exchange by convincing shareholders that the money Mogilevech and his conspirators were moving around banks globally was for the purchases of raw materials. But the end product never existed. In 2009, FBI agent Peter Kowenhoven told CNN that Mogilevich "has access to so much, including funding, including other criminal organizations, that he can, with a telephone call and order, affect the global economy."

The Mogilevich Organization, as the FBI refers to his criminal empire, keeps an especially diverse portfolio: In addition to murder, prostitution, money-laundering, and precious gems dealing, it also traffics in both weapons and nuclear materials. Based in Budapest, the syndicate has branches in Prague, Vienna, Moscow, Israel, France, and Slovakia. In fact, Mogilevich was himself briefly arrested in Moscow in 2008 on tax fraud charges, but was soon released on bail. Ignoring numerous U.S. extradition requests, the Kremlin now allows Mogilevich to reside comfortably on Russian soil, which may be still another reason that Firtash was grabbed while in Austria, which, unlike Russia, has an extradition treaty with the United States. (The FBI has said it hopes Mogilevich travels abroad so that it can have him arrested, too.)

There are plenty of third parties linked to both Mogilevich and Firtash, and even one company where both men were directors at the same time. They also shared the same Israeli attorney, Zeev Gordon. In 2006, Gordon admitted to the London-based corruption watchdog Global Witness that he had acted as a trustee in 2002, when Firtash set up Eural Trans Gas (ETG), a powerful gas trading company and joint venture between Naftohaz and Gazprom. A day after ETG was born, on Dec. 5, 2002, it won a contract to transport gas from Turkmenistan to Ukraine in exchange for gas worth as much as $1 billion on European markets. Not bad for a company founded in a Hungarian village with $12,000 in startup capital.

ETG has extraordinarily opaque origins. Gordon, for instance, was one of four original shareholders in the company. The other three were, as the watchdog Global Witness put it, "three hard-up Romanians with no connection to the gas industry, one of whom was an out-of-work actress who says she took part in order to pay her phone bill." The Israeli lawyer further claimed that Firtash’s role in ETG was as a strictly private investor, not as an agent of either Gazprom or the Ukrainian government, then headed by President Leonid Kuchma. Yet a decade ago, Firtash was a relatively unknown and smalltime businessman. Even in 2006, Global Witness could not account for why someone whose photograph was not yet publicly available was authorized to control such a lucrative enterprise with the blessings of both Kiev and Moscow, especially when the creation of a state-owned gas transport vehicle would have been the more logical joint venture between the two governments. To this day, no one can say with complete certainty how Firtash landed himself in such an elite position, or on whose behalf he was actually acting.

Humble origins

Dmytro Firtash’s own history is bathed in as much opacity as his many professional transactions. Much of what is known about him comes from what he himself has told interlocutors over the years, including Taylor, the former U.S. ambassador, who remains skeptical of many of the oligarch’s claims. Other sources include the Ukrainian newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, which reported that Firtash, although not terribly well-educated, was highly decorated as a soldier in the Ukrainian Army and, like many future oligarchs from the former Soviet Union, parlayed his Communist connections into capitalist riches.

Following Ukraine’s independence in 1991, Firtash started a business in Chernivtsi, western Ukraine, which delivered canned goods and dry milk to Uzbekistan. His first company, KMIL, which he co-owned with his first wife, Martiya Kalinvoska, is said to have incurred heavy losses toward the end of the 1990s. KMIL then involved itself in more profitable food-for-gas barter schemes with Turkmenistan, benefitting from Ukraine’s inability to buy gas imports with its diminished foreign exchange reserves. KMIL was eventually rolled into a preexisting Cyprus-registered entity called Highrock Holding, of which Firtash became the director in 2001. According to Ukrainian press reports, also cited in Taylor’s 2008 cable to Washington, Highrock’s financial director in the late 1990s was a man named Igor Fisherman — none other than the future president of YBM Magnex, Inc., the fake magnets manufacturer that defrauded U.S. and Canadian investors and made Mogilevich one of America’s top fugitives. (Fisherman was indicted by the Justice Department in that case, too.)

According to the FBI’s 1996 file on the Mogilevich Organization, Fisherman worked out of the Newtown, Pennsylvania, headquarters of YBM Magnex and acted as the coordinator of the kingpin’s "contacts and criminal activities in the Ukraine, Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, and Hungary."

Highrock’s connection to the Mogilevich Organization was clearly more than just tangential. In yet another U.S. State Department cable from Kiev, this one dated November 2008, William Klein, the acting economic counselor in the U.S. embassy, noted that "34 percent of Highrock was owned by a firm called Agatheas Trading Ltd," which Galina Telesh, Mogilevich’s ex-wife, reportedly directed from 2001 to 2003. The cable also noted that Firtash and his wife owned 33 percent of Highrock, and that the Ukrainian oligarch became the director of Agatheas Trading in 2003.

Firtash himself confirmed this ownership breakdown of Highrock to the Financial Times in 2006, although he denied that he had ever met or dealt with Telesh directly, insisting that another man — his alleged partner in the Cypriot company — was Telesh’s point-person. That man was Igor Makarov, the founder and president of Itera, the company that preceded ETG as the preferred intermediary in the Russian-Ukrainian gas trade.

By 2000, Makarov had grown Itera into the fourth-largest gas company in the world, thanks to its enormous reserves. In conversation with Taylor, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Firtash claimed he used Highrock to transfer food commodities to Itera, which were then used to purchase gas in kind from Turkmenistan — until they fell out in 2001 over Makarov’s alleged failure to pay Firtash the $50 million he was owed in gas proceeds. It was then, according to Taylor, that Firtash decided to embark on his own independent career and unseat Makarov as Ukraine’s top gas importer. He even told the U.S. ambassador about a Sopranos-style sit-down dinner he attended with Makarov in 2002. Mogilevich, he said, was present as Makarov’s bodyguard — and Firtash wasn’t sure he’d get through the meal alive.

To ensure his position as Ukraine’s most powerful gas titan, Firtash appointed former Hungarian Culture Minister Andreas Knopp as managing director of ETG. Knopp was a man he believed could facilitate deals with Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan — and it was Knopp who ended up signing all the contracts between Naftohaz and Gazprom. But it was also Knopp who brought the budding oligarch once more into the orbit of the mob boss Firtash says he could never have avoided. Knopp is mentioned in a 2005 Austrian Federal Criminal Investigation Agency report on the Mogilevich Organization, which Foreign Policy has obtained. The report states that Knopp was suspected by the FBI of being "a long-standing member of the [organization] and has been frequently involved in [its] operations."

The monopoly man

Firtash’s biggest break came on July 22, 2004, with the birth of RosUkrEnergo (RUE) in Zug, Switzerland. The registration of this company seems hardly a coincidence, as it occurred exactly four days before a meeting in Yalta between Vladimir Putin, then just finishing his first term as president, and Leonid Kuchma, who was just months away from the Orange Revolution that would prevent his chosen successor and then-prime minister, Viktor Yanukovych, from stealing a national election. The purpose of the meeting was to broker a new agreement between Naftohaz and Gazprom, and its principal yield was the establishment of a joint venture between Russia and Ukraine that would control the flow of gas from the former into the latter, and then into the rest of the European Union. RUE, as it would be known, was therefore put in charge of ensuring that approximately 50 million people on the continent had access to energy. Yet there was something odd about the ownership structure of this bilateral proposal.

While the Russian half of the joint venture was clearly owned by the Kremlin, no one quite seemed to know who the ultimate legal beneficiaries on the Ukrainian side were, other than that they were an obscure consortium of Ukrainian businessmen. The interests of the Ukrainian shareholders were managed by CentraGas Holding, a wholly owned subsidiary of Raisffeisen Zentralbank, the third-largest bank in Austria. But who were these lucky private investors? "I don’t know any more than you do and Gazprom does not know either," Putin told a Spanish journalist in 2006. "It was they [the Ukrainians] who proposed that RosUkrEnergo supply gas to Ukraine instead of Gazprom. We agreed."

It is, of course, highly unlikely that the Russian president was unaware of the identity of half of the shareholders of a gas transport monopoly which, at its height, made close to $800 million a year. But it was not until 2006 that Firtash disclosed his co-ownership of RUE alongside Gazprom. This may have been at least partly the result of a criminal investigation into both RUE and ETG, opened in June 2005 by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), then headed by Oleksandr Turchynov, a loyalist of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Recently released from prison following the Euromaidan protests and Yanukovych’s ouster last month, Tymoshenko has been repeatedly blamed by Firtash for not only sabotaging his commercial interests in Ukraine but for caving to Moscow. As the Ukrainian oligarch told Taylor in 2008, Tymoshenko was planning to "offer up the country to Russia on a silver platter."

Tymoshenko, who has not escaped corruption allegations herself, once referred to RUE as a "wart on the body of the Naftohaz company" on Ukrainian television. In 2005, SBU head Turchynov told the Financial Times that he suspected the real person behind RUE was not an oligarch, but Ukraine’s most notorious mob boss: "The surname Mogilevich isn’t in the [gas trade] agreements or in the ownership documents," he said, "but there are many indications that a group of people under his control could be involved."

There were other eyebrow-raising aspects to RUE’s governance. Its two co-directors were Konstantin Chuychenko and Oleg Palchykov. Chuychenko was an ex-KGB agent who ran Gazprom’s legal department and maintained close ties to Dmitry Medvedev, who was co-chairman of the board of Gazprom and later tapped by Putin to be a placeholder president of Russia. Palchykov, meanwhile, was the former head of ETG’s Moscow office and yet another link in the chain between Firtash and Mogilevich. As the late Jamestown Foundation scholar Roman Kupchinsky wrote in 2009, the address given for the ETG’s Moscow office was the same building where the mobster’s alleged right-hand man and former Highrock Holding financial director, Igor Fisherman, worked.

In September 2005, Tymoshenko was sacked, along with the rest of her cabinet, by President Viktor Yushchenko — her Orange Revolution ally turned political rival. As a result, Turchynov resigned from the SBU and was replaced by a former assistant who later denied that any investigation into Firtash’s ventures had ever taken place. Turchynov later told Global Witness that he had informed Yushchenko — a man whom Firtash called a friend and confidant — that RUE posed a serious danger to Ukraine’s energy security. These warnings went unheeded at the time, but when Tymoshenko was again appointed prime minister in 2007, Firtash seems to think she resumed her effort to dismantle his energy empire.

Firtash may have been right about that. From 2005 to 2006, Russia waged its first so-called "gas war" with Ukraine — a war seemingly settled on Jan. 4, 2006, when it was decided that Turkmenistan would sell RUE gas for an undisclosed but incredibly cheap price, while Gazprom would sell RUE Russian gas at $230 per 1,000 cubic meters. Ukraine would then pay $95 per 1,000 cubic meters for its imports, while also receiving a 47 percent boost in profits for transporting Russian gas to the European market. One investment analyst told the BBC at the time that the deal was "designed so that both sides can say they’re paying — and being paid — the price they wanted."

Firtash falls out

In order to undercut critics of the Russian side, who (rightly) alleged that this compromise was no less transparent than previous Russian-Ukrainian gas deals, Firtash’s ownership of RUE was outed — itself in the shadiest manner. A journalist named Vladimir Berezhnoi, writing in the then-Gazprom-owned Russian newspaper Izvestia, said that Firtash controlled 45 percent of RUE through CentraGas Holding. The article also claimed that Mogilevich was the owner of Highrock Holding, the company of which Firtash was then a director. The only problem? Inquiries made by the St. Petersburg Times revealed that "Vladimir Berezhnoi" was a concoction — the actual article had been written under a pseudonym by an Izvestia staff writer after a Gazprom representative had turned over an audit proving Firtash’s ownership.

In any event, the new Moscow-Kiev arrangement didn’t last long. In 2009, RUE lost its role as the exclusive importer of Gazprom gas as part of an agreement which Putin and Yushchenko struck to resolve yet another Russian-Ukrainian gas war. Firtash blamed Tymoshenko for eliminating RUE’s import monopoly, and there was evidence that Putin had cast his lot with the blonde-tressed Orange Revolutionary. "From our side, RosUkrEnergo is 50 percent-owned directly by Gazprom, but from the Ukrainian side, there are some individuals," Putin said in January 2009. "We don’t know them. But they again are showing us this Mr Firtash, with whom I have never met, never seen with my own eyes." As for whom Firtash worked, Putin demurred: "Don’t ask us." It was a sign that the Ukrainian oligarch had lost his patron in the Kremlin.

But by this point, Firtash had already begun expanding beyond the energy sector and into other enterprises. He announced plans to acquire Ukraine’s Nadra Bank in 2008-2009, around the time that it was headed into default, and closed the deal in 2011. In 2013, he purchased 100 percent of Inter Media Group back from former co-owner Valery Khoroshkovsky, who had bought out Firtash’s stake in the conglomerate in 2007. Through Inter Media Group, Firtash now owns seven television channels including K1, K2, and Megasport, plus the influential Kiev-based Ukrainian News Agency, outlets that were accused by Euromaidan activists of either censoring material or nakedly siding with Yanukovych’s crackdown.

In 2012, Interfax reported that Firtash planned to team up with another powerful and politically influential billionaire, Arkady Rotenberg, Putin’s childhood friend and judo partner. The two were said to be looking to build one of Russia’s largest chemical plants in Russia’s far east. But the Ukrainian was also looking to the West. In particular, he cultivated a special fondness for Britain.

The British connection

One man in particular has played a key role in endearing him to the London establishment: Robert Shetler-Jones, a British businessman who was one of three members of the coordination committee charged with making major decisions during the first year of RUE’s existence. (The other two members were Yuri Boiko, then the controversial chairman of Naftohaz, and Ilhor Voronin, Boiko’s deputy.)

Shetler-Jones has been indirectly tied to two Cypriot-registered companies, Dema Nominees and Dema Trustees, which by 2004 had assumed the controlling stake in ETG. One of these companies’ subsidiaries, Denby Holdings, also registered in Cyprus, listed Shetler-Jones as a director and operated out of the same office in central London as a company called Belgravia Business Services, an address at which Shetler-Jones also worked. In February 2004 — around six months before the Putin-Kuchma summit that established RUE’s monopoly on Russian gas imports — Shetler-Jones’s Hamburg-based company, RSJ Erste, purchased 89 percent of the shares in Kyrmsoda, Ukraine’s largest industrial soda manufacturer. The year 2004 was quite the annus mirabilis for the Briton, whose ties to Firtash seemed inexhaustible.

Take ACI Trading Ltd, a chemical trading company, owned by Dema Nominees and Dema Trustees, the parent companies of ETG. One of ACI Trading’s clients was Kyrmsoda. In 2004, Kuchma, the Ukrainian president, also enlisted RSJ Erste as a partner in a Ukrainian state property fund that included Crimean Titan, "one of Europe’s largest titanium dioxide producers that has distributors throughout the world, including Iran, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and the U.S.," to quote William Klein’s State Department cable, which also established that Crimean Titan was nearly half-owned by a subsidiary of Firtash’s Group DF.

In 2005, Shetler-Jones coyly explained to the Kyiv Post, "I have met Mr. Firtash on several occasions and we are acquainted," although he denied that Firtash held any stake in RSJ Erste. As to where, exactly, Shetler-Jones found the requisite startup capital to invest in so many profit-making and politically-connected continental enterprises, the Briton was cagey, telling the Kyiv Post that his funding came from "various European sources." Acquaintanceship only blossomed into direct financial kinship after Shetler-Jones went on to serve as the inaugural CEO of Group DF, from 2007 to 2012, and is now a member of the company’s supervisory council. Shetler-Jones has given tens of thousands of pounds via his own company Scythian Ltd. to the British Conservative Party, as the Independent newspaper reported last week, following Firtash’s arrest. Scythian Ltd. is described on the Group DF website as "a consultancy advising businesses on structuring of corporate acquisitions in the Former Soviet Union."

Shetler-Jones is quite clearly Firtash’s man in London. He’s currently the director of the British Ukrainian Society (BUS), which, according to its own website, "seeks to raise the profile of Ukraine in Great Britain and strengthen relations at all levels between the United Kingdom and Ukraine." The BUS has "received secretarial support from Group DF," according to the Independent, which certainly makes sense given that both the not-for-profit and the for-profit share the same office bloc in the tony Knightsbridge area of central London.

The chairman of BUS, meanwhile, is a British peer, Lord Risby; another director of the organization is Tory MP John Whittingdale, formerly also the "honorary vice president" of Conservative Friends of Russia, which was shuttered in disgrace in 2012 owing to its close ties to the Russian embassy in London and its transparently pro-Putin leanings. (It has since been reconstituted as the Westminster Russia Forum.) Whittingdale has apparently taken several trips to Ukraine in the past few years, all paid for by BUS. He claims to have met both with Yanukovych’s people and the opposition, and to have never received "any instruction" from Firtash as to what politics to espouse, though this probably was not necessary as Whittingdale is an open admirer of former Chilean strongman Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

Like many post-Soviet industrialists, Firtash owns property in London, including a mansion near the department store Harrods, complete with an underground swimming pool. He’s also gotten into charity and cultural works. His second wife Lada helps to run the Firtash Foundation, a registered British charity, which in 2012 gave $400,000 to the Ukrainian Catholic University to cover costs for a $12 million campus renovation project, and about $166,000 to the Cambridge Foundation, the fundraising arm of Cambridge University. The money, according to the Firtash Foundation’s Charity Commission filings, went to "the development of academic ideas in order to bring products to market" — whatever that means.

The Firtash Foundation is located in the same Knightsbridge office block as BUS and Group DF. In October, both it and Group DF funded "Days of Ukraine," a lavish cultural event in London launched in the House of Commons, attended by both Speaker of the House John Bercow and now former Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko. According to its own press materials, Days of Ukraine "received support at the highest level, including the patronage of President Viktor Yanukovych." For helping to organize this festival, Firtash was given the privilege of opening the London Stock Exchange.

The Magnitsky link

Since Putin invaded Crimea, and since Washington and Brussels have mulled ways to hit back at Moscow using "banks, not tanks," the ways in which state-indulged, if not state-sponsored, oligarchs from the East found their way into Western capitals and financial markets have come under more intense scrutiny. Non-transparency and plausible deniability are the principal rules of their economic activity, which is why these oligarchs almost never register their holdings in the West (they just spend their money there), but rather in few-questions-asked offshore jurisdictions. An excellent and in-depth investigation was published in April 2013 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), showing how a firm called Commonwealth Trust Limited, based in the British Virgin Islands — a jurisdiction known for its respect for corporate privacy and high tolerance for money-laundering — "served as a middleman for an extensive list of shady operators — setting up offshore companies for securities swindlers, Ponzi schemers and individuals linked to political corruption, arms trafficking and organized crime."

One of Commonwealth Trust’s clients was Dmytro Firtash, who registered Group DF in the British Virgin Islands in 2006. Other clients included a handful of shadowy intermediaries for men and women employed by both the Russian government and a major Russian organized crime syndicate known as the Klyuev Group. These intermediaries, ICIJ learned, set up at least 23 offshore companies that were used to transfer money and obscure the origin of a $230 million tax fraud perpetrated by the Klyuev Group on Christmas Eve, 2007.

That theft was uncovered and outlined in painstaking detail in 2008 by Sergei Magnitsky, a Moscow-based tax attorney, who was subsequently arrested for the crime himself by the very Interior Ministry policemen he had identified as conspirators. Magnitsky was tortured and killed in prison in 2009, and his corpse was put on trial in Russia last year, not so much to prove his guilt (which not even the prosecutors or judge in the case really believed) but to exonerate the Klyuev Group, several government agents of which were awarded promotions or state honors following what became known in Russia as the "Magnitsky affair."

A U.S. law was passed in 2012, named for Magnitsky and designed as a handy way to freeze the American assets of Russian officials credibly accused of gross human rights abuses. The European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee has on March 18 suggested that 32 names — most of them members or affiliates of the Klyuev Group — be sanctioned by the European Union. Washington and Brussels have finally awakened to the fact that money pouring into the West from the East isn’t just dirty. More often than not, it’s blood-soaked.

In 2010, Spanish magistrate Jose Grinda Gonzalez, an expert on organized crime, labeled Russia a "virtual mafia state," adding that Belarus, Chechnya, and Ukraine qualified for this dubious distinction as well.

And herein lies the significance of Dmytro Firtash’s arrest — the rush of anxiety and trepidation it has no doubt precipitated across those countries Putin wants to enlist in his protectionist Eurasian Union. Another revolution, one waged in protest of that neo-Soviet project, has just toppled a government in Kiev, of which Firtash was a major beneficiary. Now the oligarch is in the clink in Vienna and may soon be placed aboard a plane to the United States, where prosecutors and judges aren’t so easily bought and where tolerance for billionaires with dodgy dealings with the Putin and Yanukovych regimes are at all-time lows. Firtash lost his patrons in Moscow in 2009 and his patrons in Kiev three weeks ago. No wonder the law finally caught up with him.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/03/19/mar ... n-mob/amp/



Rovt is a Ukrainian émigré to the U.S. who earned more than $1 billion selling fertilizer in Ukraine and buying real estate in New York. In 2011, he sold all his overseas interests to Dmytro Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch who had been Manafort's business partner in a failed $850 million hotel redevelopment deal.

Firtash is under U.S. indictment in an unrelated case and facing extradition from Vienna, Austria.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man ... ax-n759866


In 2008, Firtash and Manafort were reported to have had plans together to invest $900 million into revamping New York City’s Drake Hotel that never came to fruition. It has been alleged that the entire deal was conceived as a way for Dmitry Firtash to “park his ill-gotten billions that he had siphoned out of Ukraine.”




Austria grants US request to extradite Ukrainian mogul Dmytro Firtash
Vienna court overturns previous decision to reject extradition on grounds it was politically motivated

Reuters and Associated Press in Vienna

Tuesday 21 February 2017 08.55 EST First published on Tuesday 21 February 2017 08.44 EST
An Austrian court has granted a US request to extradite Ukrainian mogul Dmytro Firtash over bribery allegations.

On Tuesday, the court in Vienna overturned a previous Austrian court decision to reject the extradition request on the grounds that it was politically motivated.

“The [appeal against the previous decision] has been granted,” the judge told the court, which was packed with journalists and Firtash’s family. “This does not mean that somebody is being pre-judged as guilty, but rather that it will be decided in another country whether they are guilty or innocent.”

Firtash is a former supporter of Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Moscow Ukrainian president who was ousted in 2014. The mogul, who made a fortune selling Russian gas to the Ukrainian government, denies the US allegations.

He was indicted in Chicago by a US grand jury in 2012 for allegedly paying millions of dollars in bribes to Indian officials through US banks in a failed attempt to secure titanium mining rights in India.

Arrested a year later in Vienna, Firtash posted bail of €125m (more than £106m) shortly afterwards, leaving him free but unable to leave Austria.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... ro-firtash


Will Trump Rescue the Oligarch in the Gilded Cage?
Dmitry Firtash’s extradition case will test the administration’s intentions toward Russia. Flynn’s ouster just complicated it.
by Robert Kolker
February 15, 2017, 11:01 PM CST
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The oligarch is hungry. So Dmitry Firtash crams into a small elevator with his entourage. Slowly, they rise to the private rooftop level of Do & Co, a modernist hotel in the otherwise Old World tourist heart of Vienna. The doors open into a tiny, glass-walled private dining room that seems like a long catwalk suspended in air, affording the oligarch a 360-degree view of the European capital he’s called home the past three years. Downstairs, he’s left behind his two bodyguards, who will spend the evening glowering at anyone entering or leaving the elevator. Up here, he’s exposed yet insulated—a billionaire in a gilded cage.

The waiters bring sushi and crispy shrimp, followed by bouillabaisse, fish, and steak. Firtash says no to a lot of it, including wine. Seated at the table, he pinches his belly self-consciously. A firefighter in his younger days, he says he still trains in martial arts six days a week. He’s 51, pale, burly, and broad-shouldered, with a shock of salt-and-pepper hair and a fighter’s crooked nose. Sipping water, he works to refute, or at least neutralize, the various stories that have been told about him. “I have never been to the U.S.,” he says in Russian, an interpreter by his side. “I don’t understand clearly the priorities of people there, what drives them. I’m sure that what they think about me is negative, because there was a special machine of propaganda organized against me.”


Outside of a John le Carré novel, there may be no more perfectly embroiled middleman than Firtash. Russia and the former Soviet republics have more than a few embattled oligarchs, but only one stands accused of being the missing link between Vladimir Putin and the Trump administration. Last summer, in the thick of the U.S. presidential campaign, a host of news reports noted that Firtash, a Ukrainian natural gas magnate, was the onetime business partner of Donald Trump adviser Paul Manafort, the Washington political operative who’d worked in Ukraine for Viktor Yanukovych, the country’s Russia-friendly kleptocratic president. (Yanukovych, for his part, appeared in the explosive, unverified opposition research dossier on Trump that went public just before the inauguration: He was the Ukrainian politician who was said to have assured Putin that no one would ever trace alleged cash payments to Manafort back to the Russian president.)

But the connection to Manafort, and Manafort’s connection to Trump, represent just the latest alleged entanglement for Firtash. There are the reports that, as a 50-50 partner in Ukraine’s natural gas business with Russia’s state-run Gazprom, he made his billions as Putin’s handpicked surrogate. There are the accusations, leveled by the U.S. Department of Justice, that Firtash benefited from an association with one of the world’s most powerful organized crime figures, Semion Mogilevich, who has appeared on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. Then, paradoxically, there are the warm friendships Firtash has cultivated with members of the British Foreign Office and the praise he’s received from cultural figures such as the French author and public intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy. (“Frankly speaking,” Lévy tells me, “I do not believe all the terrible things I read about him.”)

Finally, there’s the criminal case Firtash is facing in the U.S.—a case with an imminent court date that, given the seemingly never-ending stream of allegations about the Trump administration’s relationship with Russia, is sure to be seen as a foreign policy test. The three-year-old indictment, out of a federal court in Chicago, accuses Firtash of plotting a bribery scheme to set up a $500 million titanium business in India, with Boeing as a potential client. (The deal never happened.) Firtash was arrested in Vienna in March 2014, three weeks after Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution ousted Yanukovych from office. But almost right away, an Austrian judge took the unusual step of denying the U.S. government’s extradition request, which he described as possibly politically motivated: “The aim was clearly to prevent [Firtash] from undermining the political interests of the U.S.,” the judge wrote at the time, “and with his arrest [he] was to be removed from Ukrainian politics.” Firtash was known to have supported Yanukovych, whom the U.S. opposed.

The U.S. Department of State disputed the judge’s decision, saying the case fits squarely under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and the Justice Department announced plans to appeal. Since then, Firtash has been a sort of prisoner in Austria, unable to leave the country for fear the U.S. will have more success extraditing him from wherever else he may go. Ukraine isn’t an option, either; the current government has turned its back on him. For now, Firtash is a very rich man without a country. Not that he doesn’t continue to maintain a proprietary interest in his native land: In addition to his natural gas interests, he owns TV stations and dominates the country’s fertilizer and chemical industries. “First of all, I’ve never left,” Firtash tells me. “I work with Ukrainian businesses and people. My plants keep on working. People come here, to me, to discuss everything. Many people cannot understand—I live for Ukraine.”
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Yanukovych and Firtash at the opening of a chemical plant in 2012.
The U.S. is scheduled to appeal Austria’s extradition decision in a Vienna courtroom on Feb. 21, just as Ukraine has once again become a flashpoint in the relationship between the U.S. and Russia. Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned after allegedly concealing that before the inauguration he consulted with the Russian ambassador about the future of U.S. sanctions. The White House’s position on Ukraine’s war with Russian-backed separatists is hopelessly muddled: First, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, blamed the violence on Russia; then Trump downplayed that position in a statement of his own. The FBI, meanwhile, is continuing to investigate Russia’s influence on the Trump campaign.

In all this, Firtash again finds himself the man in the middle—a canary in a coal mine for the Trump Justice Department. After Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, the Obama administration was widely perceived to be retaliating against Putin by going after his oligarchs. Should Firtash be forced into the U.S. to face charges, many observers have wondered, what might he have to offer the U.S. in exchange for a plea? Perhaps intelligence about Putin? About others in his inner circle? The U.S. has fought for extradition for three years—but there is a new president now. The Justice and State departments aren’t commenting on the case. But if the administration reverses course and no longer pushes hard on the Firtash prosecution, that would send a pretty clear signal that the president’s embrace of Russia and Putin is real.

“First of all, I don’t understand this word, ‘oligarch,’ ” Firtash says over dinner. “I would never call myself an oligarch. In my view, oligarchs are the servants of the state.”

So much talk about corruption and buying political influence, he says, gets it backwards. “Business doesn’t create corruption,” he says. “It’s civil servants and the politicians that create corruption in the country. Show me any businessman who would be willingly giving out money.” Businessmen such as he, Firtash argues, are what’s needed to keep a society stable, to create jobs and pay taxes. “From my point of view,” he says, “rich people have to be supported.”

Firtash spent his childhood in rural Ukraine and admits to certain Luddite inclinations: He doesn’t text, send e-mails, or operate computers, smartphones, or tablets. The one cell phone I see him use looks to be at least 10 years old. “I don’t want to live in the virtual world,” he tells me, “and waste time on this technological stuff.” Then again, his critics would say he has more reasons than most of us to avoid leaving a digital trail.

Firtash’s primary objection with most of what’s said about him, it seems, is the suggestion that he’s anybody’s stooge. He became rich, he says, through a combination of hard work and excellent timing. His favorite childhood story, one he’s told many times, is about how his family grew tomatoes and sold them in their village in Western Ukraine to supplement their paltry income under Soviet rule. “Today it would be called entrepreneurial dexterity,” he says. He leaves out some of the less flattering career highlights, like the time in 1995 he reportedly was jailed for three months for smuggling contraband alcohol.

After attending technical school and serving in the Soviet Army, Firtash married (the first of three marriages) and started a family. When the USSR collapsed, he was in his mid-20s and, like everyone around him, penniless. He moved to Moscow and slowly developed enough contacts to make money in the emerging barter economy that sustained the newly independent republics. With no reliable currency, every transaction required a middleman. His first major deal, he says, was trading Ukrainian powdered milk for Uzbeki cotton, then selling the cotton abroad, taking a cut for himself.

His big break came in the early ’90s with natural gas in Turkmenistan. “Turkmenistan had lots of gas,” he says, “but they had no idea how to sell it.” He offered a way to do it that was independent of Russia. According to Viktor Yushchenko, the governor of Ukraine’s central bank at the time, Firtash’s Turkmenistan gas deal was an important first step toward establishing Ukraine’s independence from Russian natural gas. “We were 100 percent dependent on Russian gas, Russian oil, so many products coming from Russia,” says Yushchenko, who served as Ukraine’s president from 2005 to 2010. “The biggest thing Russia wanted to see then was the failure of Ukraine. Russia started to block the energy supply to Ukraine, and we didn’t have any alternate supply. We had to fight for a long time to get rid of that monopoly.”
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Friends and Foes (from left)—Paul Manafort: Trump’s former campaign chairman and Firtash did business together. Viktor Yanukovych: The kleptocratic ex-president gave Firtash back his gas business. Viktor Yushchenko: This former Ukraine president is now a supporter of Firtash’s.
By the end of the ’90s, Firtash’s barter arrangements had gradually converted to cash. He became, despite his current protestations, an oligarch, personally controlling the transfer each year of 68 billion cubic meters of Central Asian gas. Some 14 billion cubic meters to 17 billion cubic meters, he estimates, were resold to Europe; the rest went to Ukrainian consumers. Then, by his account, in 2003, Putin swooped in to wet his beak. This wasn’t Putin handing him a piece of the gas industry, Firtash argues; it was Putin taking a piece of Firtash’s gas interests for himself. After a year of negotiations, Firtash emerged with control of half of a new company, RosUkrEnergo (RUE). The other half was owned by Gazprom. This was, in Firtash’s estimation, the big squeeze. “I didn’t enter their business,” he says. “They entered my business. All that I earned myself, I was supposed to share with Gazprom.”

Firtash says he never spoke with Putin personally about the arrangement. “I saw him, of course, but we never met, no,” he says, trying to dispel the notion that he’s close to the Russian president. (Russian government sources, too, have officially denied that Firtash is close to Putin.) But Putin, Firtash says, is in complete control of Gazprom; the deal couldn’t have happened without his say-so. Yushchenko agrees: “The only person in Russia who knows where and how much gas is to be supplied, that’s Putin.”

In the years that followed, many in Ukraine would call Firtash’s agreement a sweetheart deal. A Reuters investigation in 2014 showed that Gazprom sold more than 20 billion cubic meters of gas to Firtash over four years, four times more than publicly acknowledged, at a price so low that Firtash’s companies stood to make $3 billion. Following the pattern of Russian oligarchs in Putin’s circle, Firtash also, according to Reuters, received credit lines of as much as $11 billion, enough to expand his businesses from gas to other industries. “That again shows you the extremely close ties to Moscow,” says Taras Kuzio, a Toronto-based Ukrainian politics scholar. Firtash’s defenders have noted that Ukraine still got gas at below-market rates that sustained jobs in the country.


Russia was never satisfied with their partnership, Firtash argues. After a few years, he says, Gazprom attempted to cut side deals with the other former republics. Then came Yulia Tymoshenko, prime minister in the Yushchenko government, who canceled the RUE deal in 2009 in the name of liberating Ukraine from unnecessary “intermediaries.” In the West, Tymoshenko is known as one of the heroes of Ukraine’s 2004 pro-democracy Orange Revolution; but in Firtash’s telling, she is a venal politician who targeted him for her own financial gain. “She opened a public war against me,” Firtash says, and then she allowed Russia to drive up the price of gas immediately. “For Russia, this was a great solution,” he says. “All they tried to achieve in 2004 [with the RUE deal], they finished successfully in 2009 and got rid of me.”

When Tymoshenko mentioned intermediaries, she didn’t mean just Firtash. She also meant Semion Mogilevich, a Ukrainian businessman who the FBI has said runs a crime ring that spans 30 countries and has a hand in murder, public corruption, money laundering, and weapons trafficking. As early as 2006, an ally of Tymoshenko’s made a statement in Ukraine’s parliament accusing RUE of having Mogilevich as a silent partner. The question of Firtash’s ties to Mogilevich circulated for years until finally, in 2010, WikiLeaks released a confidential memo written two years earlier by William Taylor Jr., then U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, recounting a meeting he had with Firtash. In that meeting, Taylor wrote, Firtash said that he wouldn’t have gotten far in the gas business without the blessing of Mogilevich. Firtash has maintained that his comments were taken out of context and he has no link to Mogilevich. In my interview with Firtash, he refuses to comment on Mogilevich and the bribery case—in fact, those are the only matters his lawyers persuaded him not to comment on in advance of the extradition hearing.
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(From left) Petro Poroshenko: Ukraine’s president supports deoligarchization—so, not a friend. Semion Mogilevich: Wanted by the FBI; Firtash battles whispers that they’re connected. Yulia Tymoshenko: A Ukrainian cause célèbre, she’s clashed with Firtash.
In 2010, Firtash’s gas business was restored, thanks to a new president, Viktor Yanukovych, whom Firtash supported and who won his election with help from a paid political consultant, Manafort. This is the part of the story that came to light last summer in an exposé in the New York Times: The paper discovered ledgers suggesting that Yanukovych paid $13 million to Manafort in cash. No one has proved conclusively that those payments happened. Firtash’s name emerged as a possible connection, thanks, once again, to his old adversary Tymoshenko, when reports surfaced of a lawsuit she’d filed against Firtash and Manafort in civil court in the U.S. in 2011. In the complaint, which was rejected on jurisdictional grounds, Tymoshenko said a real estate project that Manafort and Firtash planned—a hotel and luxury shopping mall on the site of the Drake Hotel in Midtown Manhattan—was little more than a money-laundering operation. In the words of the complaint, it helped Firtash “to hide illegal kickbacks paid to government officials”—later specified as Yanukovych—“and place a significant portion of the proceeds from the gas contracts outside the reach of Ukrainian courts.”

“She was wrong in everything,” Firtash says of Tymoshenko. “She lies all the time. In order to money launder, you need to have dirty money to start with. I always had clean money.”

The allegations of a financial arrangement between Firtash and Manafort became a weapon for Democrats last year. Manafort resigned as Trump’s campaign manager in August, shortly after the ledgers were uncovered. Reached on the phone in February, Manafort hotly denies ever receiving cash from Yanukovych, laundering Firtash’s money, or serving any Russian agenda. “Making Yanukovych Putin’s stooge, and me a link to Putin, is the antithesis of the facts,” Manafort says. “I was integrally involved in the process that resulted in Ukraine becoming a part of the West. This was the opposite of what Russia wanted.” The real estate deal with Firtash, he says, “never got off the ground. Nothing ever was formalized, nothing was ever signed, no money ever transferred hands.”

At dinner with Firtash, I ask how he came to invest in the Drake Hotel project.

“I never invested,” he says.

Then what about the reports that he put $25 million in an escrow account for the developers? And the $100 million investment fund that Manafort helped him set up?

“We were considering that project,” he replies. “I wanted to be involved. I thought that America, at some stage, can be an interesting platform for investment.” But then, he says, he changed his mind.

From the start, Firtash’s legal team has argued that the timing of the U.S. indictment, issued in October 2013, was suspicious. In his 2014 decision to deny the extradition, the Austrian judge, Christoph Bauer, noted that a U.S. State Department delegation had just traveled to Kiev to push then-President Yanukovych to sign an association agreement with the European Union that would pull Ukraine further away from Putin’s influence. As soon as Yanukovych indicated he might not sign, the U.S. called on Austria to arrest Firtash. The U.S. diplomats knew he had influence on Yanukovych, the Vienna judge said, and the intent seemed to be to remove Firtash from circulation and weaken Yanukovych’s position.

Firtash got out of jail a week later on $174 million bail furnished by a friend of his: Russian billionaire Vasily Anisimov, who—stand by for more entanglements here—is a business partner of one of Putin’s closest allies, Arkady Rotenberg, who in turn had helped Firtash rebuild his natural gas business in 2010. The current Ukrainian government, under President Petro Poroshenko, is in the middle of a campaign of “deoligarchization” and has vowed to arrest Firtash on behalf of the U.S. if he comes home. “My view is in the nearest future, it will not be possible for him to return,” says Leonid Kravchuk, who from 1991 to 1994 was the first president of Ukraine. “They need to send him a message.”


Vladimir Putin: The real reason the Obama administration went after Firtash?
Yanukovych turned out to be a kleptocrat of the first order, building a $250 million estate for his family with public money, and as Ukrainians took to the streets, he fled to Moscow. Firtash has never stopped trying to influence Ukraine’s fate from abroad. In op-eds and interviews, he’s explained his belief that Ukraine should be like Switzerland, a neutral bridge between East and West, with allegiances neither to Russia nor to Europe and the U.S. At first, he supported Poroshenko, but has since changed his mind. Poroshenko, meanwhile, has defied Putin not only through his deoligarchization program but also by supporting Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, which puts Poroshenko in a difficult spot now.

The Trump transition team and administration appear to have spent the past several months in contact with forces that would work to destabilize the Poroshenko government—an outcome that, depending on who replaces him, could serve the interests of Putin. Tymoshenko is still in the mix, too, her profile bigger than ever after a prison sentence during the Yanukovych presidency turned her into more of a cause célèbre. Certainly if regime change happens in Ukraine, Firtash stands ready to step in and put his billions to work. His factories employ 110,000 people there—some of whom, he says, he continues to pay even as the continuing war has forced the factories to close temporarily. In Vienna last year he sponsored a conference to propose a plan for modernizing the Ukrainian economy—an effort that includes, among other measures, creating a less erratic tax policy that would make the country more hospitable to investment from foreign business. His efforts have won praise from two of Ukraine’s past presidents, Yushchenko and Kravchuk, as well as the French intellectual Lévy, who’s attached himself to the idea of Ukraine’s reinvention.

“Old Ukraine has been cannibalized by its oligarchs, that’s sure,” Lévy writes in an e-mail. “But I am sure, too, that Firtash is not worse than the others! There is clearly, among the Ukrainian political class, some sort of a settling of accounts turning against him. And there is also the fact that he has the reputation of being pro-Putin. But the impression I always had during our conversations about my dream of a Marshall Plan for Ukraine is that he is, in his way, a true Ukrainian patriot, with a very touching attachment to his country. I find this man a truly novelistic character,” Lévy concludes. “This, being who I am, is a real compliment.”

In Vienna, where his wife and two small children fly in from Kiev to see him on weekends, Firtash has set up a well-appointed base of operations. His mansion on Edenstrasse, near the Vienna State Opera, is the former home of Adele Bloch-Bauer, a wealthy patron of the arts whose portrait by Gustav Klimt was stolen by the Nazis and became known as Woman in Gold. When Firtash first moved in, he wasn’t aware that the Hollywood movie about the painting (also called Woman in Gold) had just come out. He assumed all the people taking pictures outside his house were from the CIA.

As our dinner ends, Firtash maintains that the real problem with Ukraine now is with the people in power. “These people will go—today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow,” he says. “The country will stay.” He has a different vision for Ukraine, a nationalist vision. “I think it’s best for Ukraine to be on its own. Ukraine, historically and geographically, has a strong territorial position. It needs to use it. We can become the industrial platform for Europe.”

It’s a vision not unlike that of the president who’s in a position to help him. “What is Trump doing?” Firtash says as waiters clear the dessert cart. “He’s saying, ‘We need to make our own production. We will sell what we produce. We will give you loans, and you will serve the loans and give the money back to us.’ I perfectly understand what he’s saying. That signal is clear to me. Ukraine is a small country, and clearly we cannot do like the U.S., but I understand what he’s doing.”

If the Austrian court beats back the extradition again, Firtash’s legal team will move to have the indictment against him dismissed. There is no indication from the Justice Department that it might back off, and doing so would be especially provocative right now in the wake of the Michael Flynn blowup. But this may be what Firtash has to offer Trump, should the case against him end up withering away: a chance to make Ukraine great again, with someone else footing the bill, and a new government willing to do business with both Russia and the West. How could Trump refuse an offer like that?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features ... ilded-cage


Media: Policeman and ‘private detective,’ who helped Firtash, condemned for corruption

By Interfax-Ukraine. Published Jan. 30. Updated Jan. 30 at 4:24 pm

(FILES) This file photo taken on April 30, 2015 shows Dmytro Firtash, one of Ukraine's most influential oligarchs attending a trial on April 30, 2015 in Vienna. An Austrian appeals court authorised on February 21, 2017 the extradition to the United States of Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash on bribery charges, overturning an earlier ruling. Firtash, 51, one of Ukraine's richest men and previously an ally of ousted president Viktor Yanukovych, was arrested in Austria in March 2014.

A former state police commissioner and a detective, who rendered services to Ukrainian businessman Dmytro Firtash, have been convicted of corruption on a large scale in Germany, according to the German edition Deutsche Welle (DW)
https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi ... ption.html.



google translate

German "spies" Firtash sentenced to prison
Former police commissioner of land and "detektyvku" services are used, in particular, Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Firtash in Germany found guilty of corruption in a large scale.
 default
In the trial devoted to consideration of one of the biggest corruption scandals in Germany last year, which involved, in particular, the famous Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash, the set point. On Friday, January 27, the Land Court in the North German city of Schwerin sentenced in the case of the former Chief Commissioner of Criminal Police of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Heinz-Peter Handorfa (Heinz-Peter Hahndorf) and former GDR secret service ahentky "Stasi" Christina (Nina ) Vilkeninґ (Christina Wilkening).
The former civil servant was sentenced to three years in prison for taking bribes on a large scale, the disclosure of official secrets and tax evasion. Vilkeninґ, which calls itself "private detektyvkoyu" will have to spend in prison for two years and ten months. Except in bribes, it also recognized guilty of incitement to issuance of official secrets, DW reported in the press service of the court.
Traces tycoon
For seven years spilnytstva prisoners during which the civil servant received the "detektyvky" round sum for the provision of various kinds of service information, and the case was associated with Firtash. It is at this stage Vilkeninґ Handorf and caught the attention of investigators. To avoid his extradition from Austria to the United States, where he faces the confiscation of property and long prison on corruption charges, the oligarch, according to prosecutors Schwerin, requested the services of Vilkeninґ.
 Firtash
Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Firtash
The same, in turn, gave instructions to the then Commissioner for contact with American law enforcement and intelligence agencies and get the inside information on the case oligarch. Although the deal ultimately fell through, the woman, according to the charges, paid accomplices to work 26 thousand euros. Total in connection with the Firtash, as prosecutors said in court Vilkeninґ received about 420 thousand euros. However she admitted in court that he personally received about 110 thousand euros for work connected with business tycoon.
750 thousand euros for services
Overall, performing various assignments former commissioner, according to investigators, during spilnytstva received from former ahentky about 270 thousand euros. If Firtash order was made for the work Vilkeninґ could get from a businessman to a total of 750 thousand euros, said in court charges.
DW.COM

The failure of "Operation stuffed cabbage": German spies tried Firtash
Austria is studying a request for extradition to Spain Firtash
In the German case Firtash arising komprometuvalni documents
Sentence prisoners during the course of the process are significantly reduced due to the fact that both pleaded guilty. At first they threatened to ten years in prison. The latest charges were demanding three years and two months in prison for ex-commissioner and three years - for Vilkeninґ.
However, before the opening of the criminal case against Firtash trial in Germany so far did not succeed. Although the "spy" case and added instructions for the signature of Dmitry Firtash, issued by the then Commissioner and his assistant, confirmed that DW and lawyers oligarch potential criminal action component of the oligarch was the theme of the court session, the court said. Representatives of billionaire last year rejected any accusations, citing the fact that Firtash supposedly did not know that in fact these people were police officers, and they were represented by lawyers as a businessman.
http://www.dw.com/uk/німецьких-шпигунів-фірташа-засудили-до-позбавлення-волі/a-37299866



Ukraine Wants To Question Manafort, But Says Requests To U.S. Have Gone Unanswered
November 02, 2017 17:06 GMT
Iana Polianska Christopher Miller

KYIV -- Ukrainian prosecutors intend to ask the U.S. Justice Department for permission to interview President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, following his indictment earlier this week, an official said.

Prosecutors also want U.S. authorities to share any evidence they might have pertaining to an ongoing criminal investigation of a former justice minister, Serhiy Gorbatyuk, prosecutor for special investigations, told RFE/RL.

“Yes, of course, we will do it. We are preparing a request and will ask about [U.S. officials] conducting an interrogation or sharing documents,” Gorbatyuk said by phone on November 2.

Manafort, who has not been charged with a crime in Ukraine, is wanted by prosecutors to testify in a corruption case targeting Oleksandr Lavrynovych, who was justice minister under Viktor Yanukovych, the Moscow-friendly former president who fled to Russia in 2014.

Prosecutors accuse Lavrynovych of illegally funneling more than $1.1 million in government funds to a powerful U.S. law firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

Lavrynovych was arrested in September on unrelated charges, accused of having participated in a “coup d’etat.”

Lavrynovych had hired the U.S. law firm in 2011 to review the jailing of then-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was sentenced to seven years in prison for allegedly brokering an unfavorable gas deal with Russia. Her sentence was viewed by much of the international community -- including Russia -- as political in nature. Tymoshenko was released in February 2014 and later reelected to parliament.

Yulia Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison for allegedly brokering an unfavorable gas deal with Russia. Her sentence was viewed by much of the international community as political in nature.
Yulia Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison for allegedly brokering an unfavorable gas deal with Russia. Her sentence was viewed by much of the international community as political in nature.
Manafort became involved when he arranged for Skadden Arps to draft a report that was used by Yanukovych’s allies to justify Tymoshenko’s imprisonment.

Court documents in the case against Lavrynovych, seen by The New York Times, alleged that Manafort “designed a strategy” for Skadden Arps to “confirm the legality of the criminal prosecution of Yulia Tymoshenko and…reject any political motives of such prosecution.”

In June, Skadden Arps refunded $567,000 to the Ukrainian government, reportedly because the money had been placed “in escrow for future work” that never took place, according to The New York Times.

Gorbatyuk told RFE/RL that his office has made several appeals for information regarding the Lavrynovych case to the FBI and U.S. Justice Department officials since December 2014 -- each of which contained exactly one question pertaining to Manafort.

“We want to find out Manafort’s role in it,” Gorbatyuk said of the Lavrynovych case. “We sent a request for questioning representatives of the firm and also Manafort. We also asked about copies of documents [pertaining to the case].”

Gorbatyuk said Washington has not responded to the requests about Manafort.

Then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych (left) and then-Justice Minister Oleksandr Lavrynovych in Kyiv in June 2011

Gorbatyuk also said his office has not provided any documents to Special Сounsel Robert Mueller’s office or U.S. law enforcement for their investigation of Manafort, who was indicted on October 30 on conspiracy and other financial crimes charges. The charges relate to Manafort’s longtime work as a consultant for Yanukovych’s former political party.

“Our cases are related to each other,” Gorbatyuk said. “Accordingly, we are interested in cooperating with the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI.”

A spokesman for Mueller declined to comment when contacted by RFE/RL.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman, meanwhile, told CBC News during an official visit to Canada on November 1 that his government had not been contacted by Mueller’s office or U.S. law enforcement.

“But if we receive a request we will, of course, provide the information we have,” he said.

Manafort and his business partner, Rick Gates, turned themselves into the FBI on October 30 as Mueller’s monthslong investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election gains momentum. They pleaded not guilty to all charges and were put under house arrest. A bail hearing was set for November 2.

The indictment focused chiefly on Manafort’s work in Ukraine, alleging that more than $75 million flowed through the offshore accounts of Manafort and Gates, and that Manafort spent more than $18 million “to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States without paying taxes on that income.”

Yanukovych, for whom Manafort worked for nearly a decade, was driven from office in February 2014 after months of public demonstrations fueled by Ukrainian anger over the corruption that was seen as flourishing during his presidency.

News of Manafort’s indictment was welcomed by Ukrainians, especially those who helped expose Yanukovych’s alleged corruption and the slush fund reportedly used by his political party to make millions in off-the-books payments to Manafort between 2007 and 2012.

Asked whether Ukraine would try to recover any of money Manafort was paid by Yanukovych and his party, Gorbatyuk said, “I will be able to answer it, when it will be clear that the money paid to Manafort had a criminal origin.”

“Until then, it’s hard to say,” he said.
https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-wants-t ... 31822.html
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Re: Paul Manafort

Postby stillrobertpaulsen » Fri Nov 03, 2017 3:01 pm

Cyprus Gave Manafort’s Bank Records to Mueller Team, Sources Say

By Stephanie Baker
and Georgios Georgiou
November 3, 2017, 10:17 AM PDT


Files were received last week, just before U.S. indictments
FBI agents want to question bankers, lawyers in Cyprus: report

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Paul Manafort Photographer: Zach Gibson/Bloomberg

Authorities in Cyprus handed over bank and company records to U.S. investigators late last week related to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his business partner Rick Gates, just before they were indicted in the U.S., according to people familiar with the probe.

The Cypriot government was responding to a June 7 request from U.S. investigators for records related to Manafort, Gates and companies they set up in Cyprus and the Seychelles, the people said. The pair of U.S. consultants had at least 15 accounts on the island with Bank of Cyprus and a bank it took over in 2013, Cyprus Popular Bank, one of the people said.

Only a small part of the request from the investigative team headed by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller hasn’t been answered yet, the people said. A Bank of Cyprus spokesman declined to comment.

Manafort and Gates, his former right-hand man, are accused of hiding their work as agents of Ukraine, laundering millions of dollars and concealing foreign accounts. They pleaded not guilty, and a judge placed them under house arrest.

It’s unclear how much of the information Cyprus authorities provided was new or whether it might open additional doors in the Mueller probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The indictment provided extensive details of money flows from Cyprus to the U.S. but didn’t specify the sources of the millions of dollars channeled through the companies controlled by Manafort and Gates in Cyprus.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has asked Cyprus to allow its agents to gather testimony from accountants, bankers, lawyers and state officials in Cyprus about the Manafort case, Nicosia-based Politis reported, without saying how it knew. The FBI is waiting for a court in Cyprus to approve its request, the agency said.

Consulting Work

The indictment against Manafort and Gates was unsealed on Oct. 30. Manafort is accused of having laundered $18 million, including proceeds from his political consulting work for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his pro-Russia Party of Regions. Yanukovych fled to Russia in 2014 after he was toppled.

In all, prosecutors allege that more than $75 million flowed through the offshore accounts set up by Manafort and Gates, the bulk of which were in Cyprus. The indictment detailed $12 million of payments from those accounts for Manafort’s personal real estate purchases and goods and services in the U.S.

The case is U.S. v. Manafort, 17-cr-201, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

— With assistance by David Voreacos
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Re: Paul Manafort

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Nov 03, 2017 3:45 pm

thanks rp!

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Mueller’s team tells a federal judge they would need 15 days in court to convict Manafort and Gates.
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Donald Trump’s Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is in deep trouble after arrest of Paul Manafort
Bill Palmer
Updated: 3:28 pm EDT Fri Nov 3, 2017

Earlier this year it became clear that Donald Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort was laundering Russian money through Bank of Cyprus, and it appeared that Trump himself might have been doing the same. This led to the inevitable question, which at the time had no answer: what did this have to do with Trump’s decision to nominate Bank of Cyprus vice chairman Wilbur Ross as his Secretary of Commerce? Now we’re finally getting to the Wilbur Ross stage of the Trump-Russia investigation.


Manafort’s arrest and indictment this week revealed that he was indeed using Bank of Cyprus for his Russian money laundering, as has long been reported. Now comes word that Bank of Cyprus itself turned over its records on Manafort to Robert Mueller just before Manafort’s arrest (link). This appears to mean that the records were indeed helpful, and served as the final piece of evidence that allowed Mueller to conclude he had Manafort nailed. So what does this have to do with Ross?

It means that Bank of Cyprus, long viewed as a virtually opaque haven for money launderers, is now willing to fully cooperate with the Feds in the United States. In other words, the bank is likely willing to turn over any relevant records involving its former vice chairman Wilbur Ross. So if Mueller wants answers as to whether it was just a coincidence that Trump picked Ross as his Commerce Secretary, it means he can get them. Based on what we already know, it already looks very bad for Ross.


Earlier this year, Deutsche Bank was busted by U.S. and European regulators for laundering billions of dollars of Russian money through Bank of Cyprus and into hands of clients in places like New York City (link). Deutsche Bank has also suspiciously loaned extraordinary amounts of money to Donald Trump in recent years, even as most banks came to view him as a poor credit risk. In other words, it sure looks like the New York City client on the receiving end of that Russian money was Trump, and the “loans” were just a cover.


Wilbur Ross will have a hell of a time convincing anyone that as vice chairman of the Bank of Cyprus, he somehow didn’t know what Donald Trump, Paul Manafort and Russia were using his bank for. Now that Manafort has been charged with Russian money laundering through Bank of Cyprus, look for the Mueller probe to target Ross soon, as either a witness or a subject, if it hasn’t already.
http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/wil ... ssia/5853/



Manafort’s (new)Attorney Thomas Zehnle
Look at his expertise TAX FRAUD

Image

Image
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Re: Paul Manafort

Postby seemslikeadream » Sat Nov 04, 2017 10:05 am

How cases of Paul Manafort and Sergei Magnitsky are linked: money laundering through Cyprus

U.K. fund manager Bill Browder says 'Cypriot authorities turn a very active blind eye' to money laundering

The indictment this week of former Donald Trump presidential campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his aide Richard Gates, runs to 31 pages.

Much of it reads like a bank ledger, listing dozens of wire transfers both men allegedly made over several years, moving millions of dollars into the United States without paying taxes. Most of those wire transfers came from roughly a dozen bank accounts in Cyprus.

For anyone familiar with the money-laundering tale uncovered by Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, that's an interesting coincidence. The financial fraud case he discovered in Moscow in 2007 also saw millions passed through bank accounts in Cyprus.

"Cyprus is, effectively, the money-laundering country of choice for criminals from Russia," says U.K. hedge fund manager Bill Browder. "And the reason … is because the Cypriot authorities turn a very active blind eye to the money-laundering."

Magnitsky was working for the fund manager when he discovered several of Browder's companies had been effectively stolen by Russian criminals with ties to the country's judiciary, netting them $230 million US ($293.2 million Cdn).

A CBC News investigation earlier this year showed some of that money later flowed through bank accounts that tied back to Canada. It's still not clear if any of the people who received the money here knew it may have originated with a brutal crime in Russia.
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Paul Manafort and Sergei Magnitsky
Paul Manafort, left, is accused of funnelling millions through Cyprus to the U.S., avoiding tax. The fraud uncovered in Russia by Sergei Magnitsky, right, took a similar route. (Getty Images/Hermitage Capital)

Magnitsky was jailed by some of the very people he was investigating and died in prison nearly a year later.

"There are no real money-laundering investigations that have ever happened in Cyprus to my knowledge," Browder told The Investigators for this week's program (Saturday at 9:30 p.m. and Sunday at 5:30 p.m. on CBC News Network).

"And in fact, we have evidence to believe that the Cypriot authorities are effectively in league with the Russians in a number of these situations," he said.

This week, the head of Cyprus's anti money-laundering unit Eva Papakyriacou, dismissed Browder's criticisms as annoying and untrue, according to a report on the Cyprus Business Mail website. It also reported the U.S. has signaled an interest in interviewing some bank officials in Cyprus in relation to Manafort.
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Magnitsky widow and son react to the passing of Magnitsky Act in Canada
00:00 08:04
Magnitsky widow and son react to the passing of Magnitsky Act in Canada8:04
But beyond the spectre of money-laundering, and the apparent use of Cypriot bank accounts to do it, there's another element that links the stories of Manafort and Magnitsky.

Angered by the U.S. government's decision in 2012 to pass the Magnitsky Act, seizing the U.S. assets, and barring the travel of Russians connected to his death, Russian President Vladimir Putin retaliated by cancelling the pending adoptions of Russian children by U.S. families.

That adoption issue was part of the now much-scrutinized meeting last year in the office of Donald Trump Jr. in New York's Trump Tower.

The Russian lawyer who attended the meeting was apparently there to encourage Trump Jr. to convince his father to repeal the Magnitsky Act if he won the presidency.
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Cda Magnitsky 20171101
Sergei Magnitsky's widow Natalia, left, and son Nikita were in Ottawa Wednesday, praising Canada's passage of the Magnitsky Act. 'Thank you very much to everybody who took part in the creation of this law,' she said. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

How far Russia was willing to go to ensure that would happen is now part of the focus of U.S. investigators looking into possible Russian interference in the 2016 election. One of the people in the room for that meeting was none other than Paul Manafort, then still head of Trump's election campaign.

"It is a bit strange to think that my issue, and the Magnitsky issue, has sort of become front-and-centre in the entire Russia-Trump, election interference discussion," Browder told CBC News.

Putin's personal money

But why would Putin be so concerned about repealing the act? Browder believes he knows why.

"He hates it because it affects him personally. It affects his personal money. His net worth. He thinks that his money will eventually be frozen under the Magnitsky Act."

Browder has sought the spotlight in an international campaign to bring those responsible for Magnitsky's death to justice. The Russian government has taken a dim view of his efforts.

How a local Brooklyn blogger helped uncover Manafort's alleged money laundering
In an attempt to turn the tables, the Russian government posthumously convicted Magnitsky, accusing him of engineering the very fraud he had found, and convicted Browder in absentia, for the same thing. It has several times tried unsuccessfully to get Interpol to return Browder to Russia to serve a prison sentence.

That's an explanation flatly rejected by most Western countries. Since the U.S. passed the Magnitsky Act, Estonia has followed, the U.K. has passed a version of it, and Canada became the latest country to approve a Magnitsky law earlier this month.

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“It’s been a hard, long struggle to get it done”
00:00 06:03
“It’s been a hard, long struggle to get it done”6:03
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Passing Magnitsky Act 'opens the floodgates' for other countries
00:00 07:38
Passing Magnitsky Act 'opens the floodgates' for other countries7:38
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/manafort-m ... -1.4385860
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Re: Paul Manafort

Postby seemslikeadream » Sat Nov 18, 2017 6:08 pm

FOREIGN AGENTS

The Manafort indictment is killing D.C.’s secret lobbying business

By Christina Sterbenz and Alex Thompson Nov 17, 2017
For years, there’s been an open secret in Washington power circles: It’s highly profitable, if morally dubious, to secretly promote the interests of foreign governments, dictators, or oppressive regimes.

Then came Paul Manafort’s indictment.

At the end of October, Trump’s former campaign manager was charged for working for Ukraine for nearly a decade without telling the U.S. government. Special Counsel Bob Mueller, who’s overseeing the Russia investigation, could also bring a similar case against former Trump adviser Mike Flynn for over half a million dollars’ worth of work he did as a foreign agent of Turkey, including writing an op-ed in strong support of the country on Election Day.

“That served as a wake-up call to current FARA registrants that they can’t make errors that they know are errors.”

Now, D.C. has snapped to attention. Lobbyists and media consultants working on behalf of foreign governments, known as foreign agents, are scrambling to lawyer up and tell the government, as required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). And because of decades of non-disclosure, some congressional offices have even been going through their records to check who, exactly, they’ve been meeting with.

Foreign agents have long operated under a loose system of voluntary disclosure, and prosecutions for failure to disclose their ties were so rare as to be nonexistent. In the last 50 years, FARA has been used to prosecute just seven people. Based on the level of detail included in Manafort’s indictment, however, Mueller may have a solid case, although Manafort pleaded not guilty to all 12 counts.

“The ante has been raised with this kind of indictment. From their [his clients’] perspectives, they just want to check all of it,” said Ron Oleynik, the head of Holland & Knight’s international trade practice, based in D.C.

With the new focus on enforcement since Manafort’s indictment, D.C. lawyers who specialize in FARA told VICE News they’ve seen a notable increase in business.

“The firm’s phone has been ringing off the hook,” Oleynik said. “We’ve had literally a dozen or more new clients or potential clients. We don’t see a dozen in a year.”

Joshua Rosenstein, a partner at D.C. political law firm Sandler, Reiff, Lamb, Rosenstein & Birkenstock, also experienced what he called a “definite uptick”: around 10 new or existing clients inquiring about FARA.

Even before Manafort’s indictment, rumors of his business ties to the Party of Regions, the pro-Russian political base of Ukraine’s ousted president Viktor Yanukovych, thrust FARA at least partially into the political spotlight. The number of registrants surged to a five-year high in fiscal year 2017, which ended Sept. 30, according to data obtained by Bloomberg. At the time, 2,161 people and 426 firms had registered as foreign agents for places like Turkey, Catalonia, and Saudi Arabia. Since FARA requires that registrants re-file every six months, those numbers likely ballparked everyone registered.

The surge of new clients isn’t wholly surprising. FARA is now on everyone’s radar. As it’s written, voluntary compliance is the cornerstone of the law. Even if someone waits years to register, as long as they do when they’re asked, they likely won’t be criminally charged. Roughly half of all FARA filings come in late and even DOJ staffers complain about the lack of enforcement, according to a report from the Inspector General last year. Effectively, that means lobbyists for foreign governments can do much of their work in secret — and register retroactively.

READ: It’s nearly impossible to tell who’s working for a foreign government

Manafort’s charges for failing to register alone shocked the system. But Mueller added another unusual unusual charge: lying to the DOJ about his work in Ukraine five separate times, each of which carries a sentence of up to five years in prison if he’s convicted.

“That served as a wake-up call to current FARA registrants that they can’t make errors that they know are errors,” Rosenstein said. At least half a dozen current clients have called his boutique firm asking for help reviewing their prior filings to the DOJ. “We take special care with our clients to make sure that what they do file is accurate, so it’s unusual to have that many inquiries in this short a time.”

Aside from Manafort’s indictment, the spectre of enforcement in D.C. has suddenly became real. The day after the charges came down, Rep. Mike Johnson and Sen. Chuck Grassley, both on their legislative bodies’ respective judiciary committees, proposed a bill to reform FARA, that has a good chance of passing. Although light on specifics so far, the bill, called Disclosing Foreign Influence Act, seeks to clarify registration requirements and give more resources to the thinly staffed FARA Registration Unit within the National Security Division of the DOJ.

D.C. lawyers said that some people who called in to their offices specifically mentioned either Manafort’s indictment or Johnson and Grassley’s bill, or both. Tony Podesta even resigned from the Podesta Group — another lobbying firm that may have failed to disclose the extent of its work for Ukraine — the same day the charges dropped.

“My bill is about protecting our democratic process. Currently, foreign agents can easily circumvent our laws, accept millions of dollars from foreign entities and use that capital to lobby the U.S. government, subverting the voice of the American people and threatening our national security,” Johnson told VICE News. “Congress cannot continue to ignore decades of reports that highlight the failures in this law. We must restore transparency in our system.”


Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-IA, arrives on Capitol Hill before a continuation of Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on attempts to influence American elections, with a focus on Russian meddling in the last presidential elections on July 26, 2017 in Washington D.C.(Photo by Oliver Contreras)
READ: Manafort’s indictment was written to terrifying K-Street

Acting as a foreign itself isn’t illegal; only failing to tell the government is. Rosenstein said being a foreign agent comes with a “Scarlet L,” for lobbying, on their foreheads. No one wants to end up in the White House, for example, having worked on behalf of Russia or Turkey at some point in their career.

“There’s a view in much of the Washington lobbying community that FARA is a pain, that you represented foreign interests and somehow that’s unpatriotic and the American public is not going to view that favorably,” Oleynik explained.

Since Manafort’s indictment, not even media companies — which the government has traditionally left out of public enforcement efforts — have been safe from the crackdown. Last week, the DOJ had set a deadline of Nov. 15 for RT America, the D.C.-based arm of Russia’s Kremlin-controlled news agency, to register as a foreign agent. That’s not a new idea, even from the Russian side of the aisle, and Japan’s NHK and China Daily had already registered.

Although RT soon complied with the DOJ’s request, the publication had resisted a prior deadline of Oct. 19, before Manafort’s indictment.

“Between a criminal case and registration, we chose the latter. We congratulate American freedom of speech and all those who still believe in it,” RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan tweeted. It’s worth noting, however, that registering shouldn’t affect the publication’s content. The law’s intent is transparency rather than censorship or control.

In a report on Wednesday, the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission, an independent agency of Congress, urged that some Chinese journalists and publications also be required to register.

“If you are truly acting as agent for a foreign government, it doesn’t matter what your corporate status is — whether you’re a think tank, a media organization, a lobbyist,” Rosenstein said. “FARA does have broad applicability.”

https://news.vice.com/story/the-manafor ... ewstwitter
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Re: Paul Manafort

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Nov 30, 2017 8:14 am

Firtash.....Moglievich


Trump-Insider Manafort’s Alleged Money-Laundering Scheme Appears To Have Kremlin Roots

Moscow-linked Ukrainian billionaire accused of funneling money to Manafort

The criminal indictment filed in late October alleging Paul Manafort engaged in a labyrinth money-laundering scheme involving the washing of at least $18 million, at first glance, appears unconnected to any Kremlin-related activity.

A Narco News examination of public records related to Manafort’s past financial dealings, however, reveals the money-washing activity alleged in the recent indictment appears to intersect with the business dealings of Dmytro Firtash, a Ukrainian billionaire and alleged mob-connected Kremlin asset.

Firtash, who made a fortune reselling Russian natural gas in Ukraine, has been indicted on criminal bribery charges and is fighting an attempt by US authorities to extradite him from Austria to face those charges in federal court in Chicago.
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A spokesperson for Manafort, who is the former campaign manager for President Donald Trump, stresses that Manafort is not a party to the Department of Justice case against Firtash, nor is he named in the pleadings.

“To include Paul Manafort’s name in connection with this matter in any way is false and misleading,” Manafort’s spokesperson told NBC News.

Still, some Ukrainian politicians, including former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and parliament member Sergiy Vysotskiy, claim that Firtash helped to fund Manafort’s work in Ukraine with backing from the Kremlin. That work involved providing strategic assistance and political counsel to the campaign, and later the presidency, of Viktor Yanukovich, the Kremlin-backed president of Ukraine from 2010-2014.

“As I see it, it's impossible that Manafort didn't know about Russia's program of bringing Yanukovich to power, and then to occupy Ukraine in [a] hybrid strategy, if Manafort isn't a complete idiot, which seems highly unlikely to me,” Vysotskiy said in an interview with Narco News.

If there is any merit to those allegations, then the money-laundering activities alleged in the Manafort indictment, and potentially other financial dealings, may well have a purpose beyond lining Manafort’s pockets. They could be part of a larger scheme to fund a Kremlin influence campaign.

The resources required for the Kremlin to stage a covert attack on US democracy to manipulate the outcome of a presidential election would have to be paid for in some way, after all — and in such a way that those funds can’t be easily traced.

Former FBI Director Robert Mueller was appointed as special counsel this past May “to oversee the previously-confirmed FBI investigation of Russian government efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election and related matters,” according to a statement released by the Department of Justice. Mueller has been methodically building a case and working his way up the food chain since then, drawing first blood last month with the indictments of Manafort and his business partner Richard Gates, as well former Trump foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos — who pled guilty after cooperating with prosecutors.

More recently, the lawyer representing Trump’s former national security advisor, Michael T. Flynn, met with members of Mueller’s team, creating speculation in the press that Flynn may be close to cutting a deal with prosecutors. Mueller’s investigation has already reached into the ranks of former White House officials with the Flynn development and he still has plenty of string to pull, which could well lead to Trump’s doorstep.

In that light, the US criminal charges pending against Firtash and Manafort have the potential to further expand Mueller’s prosecutorial target list by exposing the major players and backbone of the Kremlin’s covert financing system. That could have major ramifications for Trump’s presidency — particularly if Firtash or Manafort were to cut a deal and cooperate with US law enforcers.

The Chicago Case

Firtash was indicted in Chicago in 2013 on racketeering charges stemming from an attempt to pay some $18 million in bribes to Indian government officials to secure titanium mining rights. As part of that conspiracy, U.S. prosecutors claim, Firtash planned to sell the titanium to U.S.-based aerospace manufacturer Boeing, which has not been implicated in the scheme nor charged in the case.

The Boeing connection, however, provides U.S. prosecutors with a legal basis to pursue the bribery charges against Firtash, who claims he is innocent and is fighting both the charges and his extradition.

Firtash has retained a top-notch legal team in the U.S. that includes Daniel Webb, former U.S. attorney in Chicago; Michael Chertoff, former Secretary of U.S. Homeland Security; and Lanny Davis, former special counsel to President Bill Clinton and an attorney and partner in Davis Goldberg & Galper.

Davis has earned a reputation for providing lobbying support and legal counsel for some notorious clients. In 2009, for example, he was retained by a business group in Honduras to lobby the U.S. Congress in support of the governing junta that staged a military coup in that nation that same year and ousted its democratically elected president.

Firtash was arrested in Austria in March 2014 at the request of US officials in the wake of his 2013 indictment in Chicago on racketeering charges. He was subsequently released on a $174 million bond on the condition he remain in Austria.

A lower Austrian court in April 2015 denied a request for his extradition to the US, but that decision was reversed by a higher Austrian court this past February, US court pleadings state. At the same time, however, Firtash was re-arrested in Austria at the request of Spanish authorities, who also were seeking his extradition in relation to money-laundering allegations in that country, according to media reports and US court records.

An Austrian court ultimately rejected the extradition request from Spain this past August, media reports indicate, but the US extradition process continues to drag on in the face of additional appeals and procedural delays. Narco News was unable to determine as of press time if Firtash is currently free on bail in Austria or being held in custody pending the outcome of his US extradition case.

This past July, US prosecutors filed pleadings in federal court alleging Firtash and a co-defendant in the case are “upper-echelon associates of Russian organized crime.”

“Their prosecution will disrupt this organized crime group and prevent it from taking further criminal acts within the United States,” the US government’s court pleadings assert.

A statement released by Firtash’s legal team argues that the charges against Firtash relate to a project “that was never completed” and occurred in India, outside the jurisdiction of the U.S., and in which the U.S. “has no legitimate interest.”

In addition, Firtash’s legal team says, in relation to the allegation that their client is connected to organized crime, “there is no evidence of that accusation, and that is why the government did not include it in its own indictment.”

A former CIA case officer, who asked not to be named, told Narco News that Russian intelligence agencies —overseen by Russian President Vladimir Putin, himself a former KGB officer — are essentially “running the Russian mafia. ”He added that organized crime operatives are used to carry out dirty work that requires a degree of separation from the Kremlin.

The Kremlin Connection

Firtash, according to court documents and media reports, accumulated his fortune, in large measure, by serving as a middleman for natural gas sales between Russia’s Gazprom and Ukraine. Gazprom is a huge natural gas exporter owned by the Russian state and controlled, ultimately, by Putin.

Firtash and his billions of dollars earned through sweetheart natural gas deals also played a key role in helping to get Putin-backed Yanukovych elected president of Ukraine in 2010 — and in advancing Yanukovych’s pro-Putin agenda over the ensuing four years.

An investigation by the news service Reuters alleges that companies controlled by Firtash, between 2010 and 2014, made more than $3 billion off of a lucrative business relationship with Gazprom. Under that arrangement, the Russian gas giant sold natural gas to Firtash, according to Reuters, through a shell company in Cyprus and priced it “well below market prices.”

In fact, Reuters calculates that the deal with Firtash cost Gazprom some $2 billion in revenue — and, by extension, the Russian people as well. In addition, a Russian bank controlled by Putin’s cronies extended some $11 billion in credit to Firtash during the same period, Reuters reported.

On another front, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Tymoshenko filed a civil lawsuit in 2014 against Firtash, Manafort and a former business associate of President Trump’s father (an individual name Brad Zackson), among others. That lawsuit contained allegations related to Firtash’s business operations that mirrored the findings of the Reuters investigation.

From the litigation:

The initial funds for the operation of defendants’ racketeering enterprise came from the unlawful profits that defendant Dmytro Firtash and others “skimmed” from RosUkrEnergo AG (“RUE”) [emphasis added].

… {RUE] served as a middleman in natural gas dealings between Naftogaz, a Ukrainian state-owned gas company, and Gazprom, a Russian company. Firtash, who largely controls RUE, was able to secure profits from various corrupt Russia-Ukraine gas deals due to his close relationship with, and payment of illegal kickbacks to, Ukrainian government officials.

... Firtash and the US-based defendants and co-conspirators [including Manafort and Zackson] … used the proceeds from the Russia-Ukraine gas deals to acquire various U.S.-based companies and entities, which were then … used to generate unlawful proceeds by means of a series of racketeering acts spanning over a period of several years and continuing to the present. [These include] but are not limited to the laundering of money through various US-based companies and real estate development entities.

The litigation alleges that “a substantial portion of the money that was laundered through New York bank accounts under the guise of supposedly legitimate real estate development projects” was later routed through a series of shell companies and bank accounts controlled by Firtash.

Those shell entities were based in “Europe, Cyprus, Panama and elsewhere so that virtually untraceable funds could be generated” to bribe and payoff politicians and other key players in Ukraine, Tymoshenko’s lawsuit alleges. The goal was to prop up Ukrainian President Yanukovych and to advance the Kremlin’s agenda in that nation.

Tymoshenko’s lawsuit was dismissed in 2015 on jurisdictional grounds before ever making it to trial. The defendants in the case claimed the charges were without merit.

Tymoshenko, however, is not the only Ukrainian politician claiming Firtash, Manafort and the Kremlin are joined at the hip. This past August, prior to Trump’s election, Ukrainian Parliament member Vysotskiy, alleged in an interview with Narco News that the “heads of Ukraine intelligence and security services during the time of [Ukrainian President] Yanukovych were all FSB-connected persons.”
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The FSB is one of Russia’s major intelligence agencies, and Manafort worked as a close advisor to Yanukovych, an ally of Russian President Putin, for years, helping to get him elected president of Ukraine in 2010.

“So, is he [Manafort] an idiot and didn't see what's was happening around him?” Vysotskiy asked. “Or he just didn't care that he is building a PR and foreign-relations strategy for criminal, corrupted government that was ready to sell out my country to Kremlin like it was a garage sale?”

Vysotskiy also alleged that Manafort was on Firtash’s payroll, while working as a political consultant for the Ukrainian government.

“He [Manafort] was paid by [officials working for Yanukovich] and [with] Mr. Firtash money,” Vysotskiy said. “They obtained [that money] from RosUkrEnergo scheme, a trade-corrupted scheme of selling Russian gas to Europe from Ukraine.

“[The scheme] was controlled by the Kremlin and international Russian-based criminal boss Semion Mogilevich [who is wanted by the FBI],” he continued. “Then, after Yanukovich became incumbent [president of Ukraine], he was paid by the same people that were involved in Ukraine-Russian corruption with new schemes.”

Firtash’s legal team contends their client is a legitimate businessman and that the corruption claims against him have no merit.

The Manafort Indictment

The allegations in both the Tymoshenko case and the Reuters investigation follow the same pattern as those contained in the recent criminal indictment filed against Manafort, down to the use of offshore accounts in Cyprus to facilitate the alleged schemes. Cyprus isan island nation off the southern coast of Turkey that has earned a reputation as a haven for opaque shell companies.

The indictment filed against Manafort in federal court in Washington, D.C., this past October alleges he and his business partner Gates, “acted as unregistered agents” for former Ukrainian President Yanukovych and related political parties — who were closely aligned with the Kremlin.

Yanukovych was run out of office in 2014 in the wake of massive civil unrest and fled to Russia — four years after Manafort and Firtash helped to get him elected.

The indictment further alleges that Manafort and Gates were paid “tens of millions of dollars” in return for their lobbying work for Yanukovych and his Kremlin-aligned government. That money was, between 2006 and 2016, “laundered … through scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships and bank accounts,” the recent criminal pleadings against Manafort allege.

“In total, more than $75,000,000 flowed through the offshore accounts [controlled by Manafort and Gates],” the criminal indictment claims. “Manafort laundered more than $18,000,000, which was used by him to buy property, goods, and services in the United States, income that he concealed from the United States Treasury, the Department of Justice, and others.”

The bulk of the offshore accounts used by Manafort, according to the indictment, were in Cyprus. Manafort allegedly used the offshore accounts to make at least $12 million in purchases between 2008 and 2014, including:

• Paying a Hamptons, New York-based home-improvement company some $5.4 million;
• Buying nearly $1 million in antique rugs from a store in Alexandria, Virginia; and
• Buying some $849,000 worth of goods from a men’s clothing store in New York.

Manafort also drew some $6.4 million from the Cyprus accounts to help purchase three properties in New York and Virginia in 2012, the indictment reveals.

Although the indictment does not comment on whether the goods, services and real estate purchases were made at inflated prices, that is typically the way a money-laundering scheme works.

Dirty money is cleaned up by running it through legitimate-looking enterprises, such as real estate or retail operations, and then representing it as revenue or income from those legitimate operations. By inflating the value of purchases, more of the dirty money can be washed and made to look legal.

Thus, money laundering is a bit like a snake eating a rodent. After the rodent is swallowed and makes its way through the belly of the snake, and is eventually devoured, it disappears and becomes part of the snake.

Following the Money

The money-laundering schemes outlined in the October 2017 federal indictment against Manafort, the 2014 Tymoshenko case and more recently by Ukrainian anti-corruption officials are all oddly consistent in nature. They all involve moving millions of dollars through various overseas shell companies to seemingly obscure the original source of the funds.

One of the specific schemes highlighted in the Tymoshenko case, for example, involves Manafort and Firtash allegedly acting as part of a conspiracy to defraud investors in a New York City real estate deal. The purported scheme involved an effort to launder at least $25 million — the earnest money deposit in a hotel-redevelopment project that never panned out.

As part of that transaction, Manafort allegedly was working in league with a group that included Firtash and Brad Zackson, the former exclusive broker for properties controlled by Donald Trump’s now-deceased father, Fred. The real estate deal involved a fanciful $850 million plan to purchase and redevelop the Drake Hotel in Manhattan, according to the Tymoshenko litigation and multiple media reports.

From the Tymoshenko lawsuit:

In December 2008, Firtash met with Paul Manafort to discuss establishing one of their various funds …that would ostensibly enable Firtash, [alleged Russian crime boss Semion] Mogilevich and the other defendants to acquire and purchase real estate investments in the United States. But [their plan] was solely designed to further the money-laundering activities and to … deprive legitimate US businesses and real estate owners of their money and property.

… Firtash and his associates had committed to finance the purchase of the Drake Hotel property when, in truth and in fact, Firtash and his co-conspirators … were only creating the appearance of being seriously interested in closing on the Drake Hotel deal as a disguise for their money-laundering activities.…

Firtash [and associated shell companies] never closed on the Drake [Hotel] property, which another company purchased. … Firtash never had any intention to purchase the Drake property, but instead used the real estate project as a vehicle for moving another $25 million into New York bank accounts in furtherance of the enterprise’s racketeering activities….

Ukrainian anti-corruption officials also allege that deposed President Yanukovych and his associates channeled some $12.7 million in secret cash payments to Manafort. The evidence of those payments was contained in a handwritten ledger maintained by Yanukovych’s political party, they claim. Manafort has denied the charges.

Subsequent media reports and documents released by Ukrainian officials, however, seem to show that the ledger entries are grounded in some reality. At least $1.2 million in payments corresponding to entries in the ledger were made to a shell companies in Belize in 2007 and 2009 and subsequently routed to a bank account controlled by a Manafort company, according to a New York Times report.

Manafort has previously told the media that he had no business relationship with Firtash, adding that “there was one occasion where an opportunity was explored [but] … nothing transpired and no business relationship was ever implemented.”

In yet another case with a nexus to Firtash, Manafort in September 2016, shortly after resigning as Trump’s campaign chair, created a shell company called Summerbreeze LLC that borrowed $3.5 million against a home he owned in the Hamptons in New York. That loan was funded by a subsidiary of Spruce Capital, which was launched by an individual who had partnered on hotel projects with Donald Trump in the past, according to an NBC News report.

Spruce Capital also is financed, in part, by a Ukrainian-American real estate tycoon named Alexander Rovt, who donated some $10,000 to Trump’s election campaign. The Trump campaign had to return all but $2,700 of the donation because it exceeded legal limits.

Rovt made his initial fortune by selling his Ukrainian fertilizer-business interests to Firtash. Rovt, through a spokesperson, told NBC that he was not involved in the Manafort loan.

Proving the existence of a money-laundering conspiracy beyond a reasonable doubt in federal court is no easy task because, by design, an effective conspiracy places as much distance as possible between the players in the criminal deed and the money it generates. Still, every money-laundering conspiracy has some weak links. In this case, time will tell if Manafort or Firtash are among them.

If one or both of them do flip and start cooperating with prosecutors, given the Kremlin threads running through their past dealings, and the special counsel’s charge to get to the bottom of Russian interference in the 2016 US election, it’s likely their cooperation would lead Mueller to even bigger fish to fry.
https://narcosphere.narconews.com/noteb ... ars-have-k
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Re: Paul Manafort

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Dec 04, 2017 7:03 pm

Oh Pauly just couldn't stay out of trouble :yay


CONFIRMED: The Manafort associate who Mueller alleges has Russian intelligence ties is KONSTANTIN KILIMNIK, a Red Army veteran who was known in Moscow "as the guy from the GRU."


Ari Melber‏Verified account
@AriMelber
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Ari Melber Retweeted Tom Winter
Breaking: Mueller pushing for changes to Manafort bail deal because he was allegedly caught secretly working with a person "based in Russia" with "ties to Russian intelligence service" to write an op-ed about his work in Ukraine.

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Mueller just abruptly reversed course on his bail agreement with Manafort

Natasha Bertrand
FILE PHOTO: Former Trump 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort leaves U.S. Federal Court after being arraigned on twelve federal charges in the investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election in Washington, U.S. October 30, 2017. REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan/File Photo FILE PHOTO: Manafort leaves U.S. Federal Court after being arraigned on twelve federal charges in the investigation into alleged Russian meddling, in Washington Thomson Reuters

Special counsel Robert Mueller has abruptly withdrawn support for a bail agreement he struck last week with Paul Manafort's legal team.
Manafort failed to tell the government that he was ghost-writing a draft op-ed about his work with Ukraine as late as November 30, Mueller's team said.
Mueller's team argued that the op-ed, if published, would have attempted to sway public opinion and undermined a fair trial.
Special counsel Robert Mueller has abruptly reversed course on a bail agreement his office struck with Paul Manafort's legal team last week that would have allowed him to be released from GPS monitoring.

Manafort evidently failed to tell the government that he was ghost-writing a draft op-ed about his work in Ukraine as late as November 30. He was working on it with his longtime protege Konstantin Kilimnik, who is believed to have ties to Russian intelligence, according to the special counsel's court filing.

The government said that the court had initially "admonished" Manafort's lawyer for making public statements to the press about the case and on November 8 had barred both "the parties and counsel from making statements that could interfere with" a fair trial.

"Even if the ghostwritten op-ed were entirely accurate, fair, and balanced, it would be a violation of this Court’s November 8 Order if it had been publish," the government argued. "The editorial clearly was undertaken to influence the public's opinion of defendant Manafort, or else there would be no reason to seek its publication."

The filing continued: "Because Manafort has now taken actions that reflect an intention to violate or circumvent the court's existing orders ... the government submits that the proposed bail package is insufficiently reasonable to assure his appearance as required. The government's prior general consent to the bail package presupposed that Manafort was complying with the Court's existing orders."

Manafort, who served as President Donald Trump's campaign manager between April and August of 2016, was indicted in late October alongside his longtime business associate Rick Gates on charges that included money laundering, tax fraud, and failure to register as a foreign agent.

The agreed-upon bail package would have required Manafort to forfeit four of his properties in Virginia, Florida, and New York — worth a combined $11.65 million — if he violated his bail by attempting to travel internationally or anywhere outside of Florida, Virginia, New York, and Washington, DC.

But the special counsel's office said in its court filing that "the proposed bail package does not provide for a surety who is not a close family member. It does not provide for GPS monitoring. And it does not provide for a fully secured bond of unencumbered real estate. The Bridgehampton property, which is the largest of the assets in the proposed bail package, is already subject to forfeiture in the Indictment."

A docket in the criminal case against Manafort and Gates, unsealed earlier this month, alleged that both men had received "millions of dollars" from Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs that would allow them "to live comfortably abroad" and therefore make them a flight risk.

It was not immediately clear whether Manafort would still be under house arrest, or if he would just be subject to continued GPS monitoring. The government asked the court in its latest filing that Manafort be required "to report to Pretrial Services where he will be located during the upcoming week, including details of any planned travel and where he will be staying."
http://www.businessinsider.com/mueller- ... ia-2017-12


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Paul Manafort Begged Jared Kushner Not to Fire Him from Campaign: Report


Photo Credit: mark reinstein / Shutterstock
As more excerpts of Corey Lewandowski’s new book continue to leak, a picture is emerging of Steve Bannon’s feud with Paul Manafort, who begged the Trump campaign to keep his job.

According to Politico, Steve Bannon’s first day at work with the Trump campaign was August 14. He’d met with Donald Trump and Manafort that weekend at the Bedminster golf course. Manafort reportedly appeared in boat shoes, which Bannon thought made him look like Thurston Howell III from “Gilligan’s Island.”

Manafort requested the company of Bannon, handing him a transcript from a New York Times story. After just three paragraphs, Lewandowski claimed Bannon looked up from the story, asking, “$12.7 million payment from Ukraine? How much of this is true?”

Manafort assured him that it was all lies and that his lawyers were fighting it.

“When are they going to run it?” Bannon asked. Manafort said The Times planned to publish the following day.

“Does Trump know about this?” Bannon asked.

“What’s to know? It’s all lies,” Manafort replied.

Bannon argued someone should probably give him a heads up that his new campaign manager is about to be in the paper.

“It was a long time ago,” Manafort claimed. “I had expenses.”

Bannon actually understood that the explosive story in his hand would “at the very least … leave a mark.”

When the story ran the following day, Lewandowski claimed, Trump exclaimed “I’ve got a crook running my campaign.”

Trump wanted Bannon to fire Manafort that day, but Bannon cautioned that it would make a flood of bad press. He argued Trump should simply remove his authority and give him a new title. Kellyanne Conway was named as the campaign manager and Bannon was the new CEO. Manafort remained “chairman.”

Just days later, Trump was about to take the stage at a North Carolina rally when a friend showed him an AP story that described Manafort as running “a covert Washington lobbying operation on behalf of Ukraine’s ruling political party, attempting to sway American public opinion in favor of the country’s pro-Russian government.” The AP story also revealed that Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, had “never disclosed their work as foreign agents as required under federal law.”

According to court documents, the two men are now under indictment by a federal grand jury on 12 counts: conspiracy against the U.S., conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading [Foreign Agents Registration Act] statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts.

Trump demanded son-in-law Jared Kushner fire Manafort. That following morning Manafort balked at the request to resign, concerned about the perception it was about the Ukraine stories.

“It will make me look guilty,” he said.

Kushner warned nothing could be done and a press release was going out any minute.

Trump defended Manafort just months ago, saying that Manafort’s lawyer proved there was no collusion on the campaign. He then attacked former foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos, who seems to have turned against Trump.
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-polit ... ign-report
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Re: Paul Manafort

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Dec 06, 2017 12:22 pm

More charges could be coming against former Trump aide in Russia probe
More charges could be coming against former Trump aide

Manafort, Gates remain under house arrest
(CNN)Robert Mueller may not be through with Rick Gates, a deputy Trump campaign aide and one of the four people who have been charged as part of the special counsel probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

In a court appearance Monday in Manhattan, Gates' attorney Walter Mack said that federal prosecutors have told him that more charges, called superseding indictments, may be coming.

"We don't know what the government is going to do," Mack said in court, referring to both Gates' case and a white-collar case in New York involving one of Gates' business partners. "I mean, in both cases we've been told that there may be a superseder. We don't know what's happening."

Mueller charged President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy, Gates, on October 30 with 12 alleged crimes related to money laundering and foreign lobbying violations. Both have pleaded not guilty. The charges against Manafort and Gates are unrelated to the Trump campaign, though it's possible Mueller could add additional federal charges.

The four people charged in Mueller's investigation
Mack represents both Gates in DC and his business partner in New York. Neither is a witness or co-defendant in the other's case, federal prosecutors say, but attorneys from Mueller's special counsel investigation have raised the possibility that a conflict of interest could arise between the two men and their attorney.

The indictments came almost six months after Mueller assumed the federal investigation into Russian collusion, yet so far the charges have not directly related to Manafort and Gates' work for the Trump campaign or to Russian foreign policy.

This week, lawyers working for Mueller revealed that Manafort was ghostwriting an op-ed about Ukraine with a Russian as recently as last Thursday. It's unclear how the investigators found this new information, as the op-ed was never published. The prosecutors have submitted it to the court under seal.

Russia investigation 'wearing' on White House, despite spin
The ghostwriting revelation puts a proposed bail deal for Manafort in question. He and Gates are both currently under house arrest and GPS monitoring and subject to $10 million and $5 million unsecured bond, respectively. The federal prosecutors argue they're both flight risks.

Manafort's lawyers are expected to respond to the op-ed accusation by Thursday, and both Manafort and Gates are scheduled to appear in court December 11.

Who's who in Trump-Russia saga
It's not unusual for federal prosecutors to charge defendants in white-collar cases once part of their investigation is complete, then bring additional charges later on. Typically, a second round of charges can come if the prosecutors had more work to do in certain aspects of the investigation or if they're attempting to persuade a defendant toward a plea agreement or cooperation in a broader investigation.

Two targets in Mueller's investigation, Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos, have already pleaded guilty to charges of lying to investigators.

The other case that Gates' lawyer is working on involves three defendants who allegedly took part in a scheme to defraud feature film and documentary movie investors. Mack's client, Steven Brown, has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for a trial in March.

Gates was a partner in one of the companies caught up in those charges. Gates is not accused of wrongdoing in the New York case.

Who is Rick Gates?
The New York judge verified in a hearing Monday that Brown understood the possibility of a conflict of interest and chose to keep Mack as his attorney.

Mack declined to comment, as did a spokesperson with the special counsel's office.

The judge in Gates' case in DC has ordered the lawyers involved not to make comments that could influence public perception of Gates and Manafort, and not to share documents outside of the official court proceedings. Mack mentioned those restrictions in his court appearance in New York Monday, calling them and the prosecutors' ability to bring up new information about Gates, such as his connection to Brown, "unfair."
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/05/politics/ ... index.html
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Re: Paul Manafort

Postby seemslikeadream » Tue Dec 26, 2017 10:22 pm

Robert Mueller May Indict Paul Manafort Again

The charges against the former Trump campaign boss appear to have been only an opening salvo in a legal barrage on the president’s confidants, informed observers say.


Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast


From its inception, two things about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation were clear: first, the White House’s biggest concern was that Mueller would follow the money; and second, Mueller is following the money.

It’s been seven months since Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein ordered Bob Mueller to take over the FBI’s counterintelligence probe into possible links between the Kremlin and people associated with the Trump campaign. Trump’s lawyers have long said they expected the probe to stay focused and end quickly. Instead, Mueller has assembled a team of prosecutors with expertise in handling financial investigations and white-collar crime, and obtained guilty pleas for crimes that weren’t committed during the election year.

And, most importantly, he’s sent a thinly veiled warning to the White House: No one’s finances are off limits. If 2017 had the president’s inner circle sweating, 2018 could feel like a sauna.

And no one may feel more heat than Paul Manafort. In Washington legal circles, there’s a broad expectation that Mueller will file what’s called a superseding indictment of Manafort and Rick Gates, his erstwhile business partner—and alleged partner in crime. Gates and Manafort both pleaded not guilty when Mueller’s team filed their indictment on Oct. 30. Legal experts say there may be more charges to come.

“I would expect a superseding indictment to come down relatively soon,” said Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University’s law school.

“There was much in the narrative of the indictment that referenced crimes not charged,” he added. “Prosecutors will often issue a superseding indictment as the grand jury continues its work. There’s also a tactical reason for this, that superseding indictments tend to grind defendants a bit more over time.”

A superseding indictment would essentially replace the current indictment of Manafort. And in that current indictment, Mueller’s team hinted there was more to come. In particular, they hinted at potential tax charges for Manafort’s foreign financial transactions. Federal prosecutors can bring charges against any American who has money in a foreign bank account and doesn’t check a box on their tax forms disclosing it. The Manafort/Gates indictment describes financial behavior that may be liable for that kind of prosecution. And that’s an indicator that Mueller’s team may be preparing to formally charge both men with violating tax laws.

A former prosecutor from the Justice Department’s tax division said Mueller handed down what’s known as a “speaking indictment”—in other words, an indictment that contains more information than necessary.

“It’s a way of dirtying up a defendant without having to actually prove the conduct,” he said. “I think, in fairness to them, they probably rushed it because they didn’t want to wait for the tax division approval on those tax counts. That, I assume, would be working its way through the system.”

“No one’s finances are off limits. If 2017 had the president’s inner circle sweating, 2018 could feel like a sauna.”

Anytime federal prosecutors want to charge someone with breaking tax law, they must get approval from the Justice Department’s Tax Division. That approval process can be time-consuming, and the would-be defendant’s attorneys often can petition Tax Division lawyers against authorizing the charges. Following the money, it turns out, can be circuitous.

“Superseding indictments are frequently brought in financial investigations due to defendant recalcitrance to cooperate and also because they take so long to be put together,” said Martin Sheil, a retired supervisory special agent for the IRS’ criminal investigations unit.

Mueller has been working with IRS criminal investigators, as The Daily Beast first reported in August. Those agents specialize solely in financial crimes with a tax nexus; their cooperation was an early indicator that money mattered to Mueller.

And Manafort and Gates may not be the only Trump campaign alums with headache-generating finances. On Dec. 1, retired Gen. Michael Flynn—the president’s former national security adviser—pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his communications with Russian government officials. Court documents indicate that Flynn has agreed to help Mueller’s team with their investigation in exchange for leniency.

Sheil noted that if Flynn isn’t as cooperative as Mueller expects, then his financial dealings could be easy fodder for Mueller.

“Flynn did not disclose payments received from Russia in 2015 nor Turkey in 2016 on his Security Disclosure forms,” Sheil said. “What is the likelihood he reported these sums on his tax returns?”

Additional trouble for Team Trump could arise out of the blizzard of subpoenas that reportedly went out to Deutsche Bank in the last few weeks.

The German mega-bank is likely accustomed to hot water. In January of 2017, they agreed to pay $425 million to the New York Department of Financial Services to settle allegations that they let Russian traders engage in what those regulators called “a money-laundering scheme.” In that particular scheme, Russians moved $10 billion to the United States.

It’s an eye-popping concession, but one that largely got lost in the noise of Trump’s inauguration and the political implications of Russian efforts to intervene in the 2016 elections. But it points to close ties between the bank and Kremlin elites. The bank’s lawyers signed court documents admitting they were “on clear notice” about their insufficient safeguards against unlawful activity (PDF)—while the multibillion-dollar scheme was unfolding. In fact, those lawyers admitted their traders in Moscow went “to significant lengths” to make the scheme work. They even admitted that one of their Moscow supervisors appeared to have taken bribes related to the scheme that were worth up to $2.3 million. It was underway from 2011 to early 2015.

Jared Kushner and Trump himself have had significant dealings with the bank, which also helped the hedge fund of billionaire Trump patron Robert Mercer trim billions from its tax bill. The bank has long interested congressional investigators looking into potential connections between Trump World and the Kremlin. And if reports about Mueller’s subpoena of the bank are correct—and the White House says emphatically that they are not—then Mueller’s money trail may be making a pit stop in Germany.

“Flynn did not disclose payments received from Russia or Turkey in 2016 on his Security Disclosure forms... What are the chances he reported these sums on his tax returns?”

Besides that, Mueller’s probe is causing bipartisan anxiety in Washington. The indictment of Manafort and Gates mentioned two lobbying firms—referring to them only as “Company A” and “Company B”—which are widely assumed to be the Podesta Group and Mercury LLC. Within hours of the indictment’s release, Tony Podesta resigned from his firm. He’d previously drawn criticism for helping Manafort push Kremlin-friendly talking points to Capitol Hill offices.

“The Manafort and Gates indictment left a number of torpedoes in the water,” said Turley. “We’re just waiting to see who they hit. One of the most likely targets is Tony Podesta.”

The only person in a position to constrain Mueller and his deputies is Rosenstein, who has been overseeing all Trump/Russia matters since Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ recusal. A former Justice Department official who worked under now-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told The Daily Beast that he’s unlikely to rein in Mueller at all.

“As long as Rod is supervising, he is never going to put Mueller under any kind of pinch,” he said. “That’s just the way Rod operates.”

It means that as long as Rosenstein stays in place, Mueller will likely be able to follow that money trail wherever it leads.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/robert-mu ... fort-again
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Re: Paul Manafort

Postby Jerky » Wed Dec 27, 2017 5:16 am

Oh man oh man... the Thot Plickens!!!

Manafort is ManaFUCKED.

J
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