Paul Manafort, Who Once Ran Trump Campaign, Indicted on Money Laundering and Tax Charges

[Jamesiv1]

haha

comment on the live feed:

MAGA = "many are getting arrested"

[parocks]

Trump's tweet raises new question marks:

Trump acts like it's his job to tweet. Tweeter in chief. Other people, those are the ones who do the government stuff, Trump just tweets about it.

Trump: "I hope the Government does a good job"
People: "Yes, Trump I do too. Who is charge of the executive branch of the government?"

[Brian4Liberty]

"Manafort used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States without paying taxes on that income,” the indictment reads.

Translation: "There was no evidence of Russia collusion, so we went on a fishing expedition to indict the people we want to indict. Five felonies a day, you are all guilty."

[Suzanimal]

Statement from Paul Manafort attorney: "There is no evidence the Trump Campaign colluded with the Russia government."

[phill4paul]

Sooo..when will Uranium One indictments be forthcoming. My bet is never.

[spudea]

wow the biggest witch hunt in our nations history caught a witch. We shall see if the witch floats or sinks.

[Zippyjuan]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/30/politi...lty/index.html

Why George Papadopoulos' guilty plea is a much bigger problem for Trump than the Manafort indictment


Even as President Trump was on Twitter insisting that the indictment of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was meaningless because it involved activities unrelated to Trump or the campaign came news that former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos had pled guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with, wait for it, Russia.

The Manafort news drew the bigger headlines Monday morning -- understandable given his high-profile role at the top of the Trump campaign. But, the Papadopoulos guilty plea -- and the fact that he has been cooperating with the special counsel investigation since his July arrest -- strikes me as significantly more problematic for Trump and his White House in the medium-to-long term.

This paragraph from the FBI's guilty plea agreement with Papadopoulos :

"In truth and in fact, however, and as set forth above, defendant PAPADOPOULOS met the Professor for the first time on or about March 14, 2016, after defendant PAPADOPOULOS had already learned he would be a foreign policy advisor for the Campaign; the Professor showed interest in defendant PAPADOPOULOS only after learning of his role on the Campaign; and the Professor told defendant PAPADOPOULOS about the Russians possessing" dirt" on then-candidate Clinton in late April 2016, more than a month after defendant PAPADOPOULOS had joined the Campaign."

"On or about April 26, 2016, defendant PAPADOPOULOS met the Professor for breakfast at a London hotel. During this meeting, the Professor told defendant PAPADOPOULOS that he had just returned from a trip to Moscow where he had met with high-level Russian government officials. The Professor told defendant PAPADOPOULOS that on that trip he (the Professor) learned that the Russians had obtained "dirt" on then-candidate Clinton. The Professor told defendant PAPADOPOULOS, as defendant PAPADOPOULOS later described to the FBI, that "They [the Russians] have dirt on her"; "the Russians had emails of Clinton"; "they have thousands of emails."

More at link.

[oyarde]

Translation: "There was no evidence of Russia collusion, so we went on a fishing expedition to indict the people we want to indict. Five felonies a day, you are all guilty."

I am living pretty lavish here too . I have peanuts AND beer.

[milgram]

Clinton was only guilty of lying to Congress in his impeachment.

I think "lying" to the FBI is an even more ridiculous charge. Given the way it's used to target people - interview them again and again until they change any part of their story - it shouldn't even be a crime.

http://jimbovard.com/blog/2010/08/18...ng-to-the-fbi/

Playboy May 1999
BEYOND PERJURY by James Bovard

Perhaps the greatest irony of the national debate over who should go to prison for lying has gone largely unreported: Even while President Bill Clinton fought for his reputation and job, his administration aggressively argued that Americans who make even the most offhand false comments to practically any government worker deserve harsh punishment.

Under Clinton’s watch, Congress amended the false statements statute in 1996 to ensure that people who make false statements during congressional testimony could be prosecuted.

The FBI academy in 1997 added a full training course on ethics for new recruits. According to the academy’s official syllabus, subjects of the bureau’s investigations have “forfeited their right to the truth.”

Federal agents have the right to lie to you-and to put you in prison if you lie to them. Any citizen who makes even a single-word false utterance (“no,” “yes”) to a federal agent faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The false statements law conveys so much power that, according to Solicitor General Seth Waxman, it could allow federal agents to “escalate completely innocent conduct into a felony.” One federal judge condemned the law for encouraging “inquisition as a method of criminal investigation.”

[Raginfridus]

Good. Now when are all of the other indictments coming down for everyone else guilty of the same thing? And how is someone like Mueller who is implicated in crimes still acting as a special prosecutor?

do-doo-doo-do-do-doo that's DeeCee!

[phill4paul]

I think "lying" to the FBI is an even more ridiculous charge. Given the way it's used to target people - interview them again and again until they change any part of their story - it shouldn't even be a crime.

http://jimbovard.com/blog/2010/08/18...ng-to-the-fbi/

Pro-Tip: STFU.

[bunklocoempire]

FRN laundering and theft evasion. That little brier patch will do nicely.

Imran Awan who?

[Brian4Liberty]

Pro-Tip: STFU.

Which will be liberally used against a person in the court of public opinion. Good news is it can't be used in a real court.

[Suzanimal]

On the Chicago leg of her book tour promoting "What Happened," former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton addressed the ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, amid a series of indictments that were brought forward by a grand jury as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing Russia probe.

"I'll leave it to the investigators to decide whether or not there was collusion, or conspiracy but we don't need a lengthy investigation to tell us that Trump is ignoring the intelligence community about an urgent threat, refusing to stand up to an adversary who has already attacked us, and abdicating his responsibility to preserve, protect and defend our national security interests."

She added, "We know everything we need to know, we just have to make sure that members of Congress do their jobs and hold the president accountable."

...

The former secretary of state said that the facts Americans are now learning about Russian interference in the presidential election is "more than alarming, it's a clear and present danger to Western democracy."

She added, touching on the recent troves of data released by social media sites on targeted ads purchased on their platforms, "we now know Russian agents, both human and robotic agents, bots, used Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube and even Pinterest to place targeted attack ads and negative stories," she says were used to "fan the flames of division in our society."

As social media representatives are set to testify on Capitol Hill on Tuesday as part of congressional investigators separate probe into Russian interference, Clinton said if she were elected president, she would have led her own investigation into just how these political ads got there in the first place.

"If I had ended up in the White House I would've said, 'look we need an independent commission to investigate this, to get to bottom of it, we need to make it clear to these incredible tech companies that they've got to be part of the solution and not part of the problem and not buy ads in rubles for heaven's sake,'" she added.

...

During a lighter point of supporters' questions, when asked what Clinton was thinking about being for any upcoming Halloween festivities Tuesday, she remarked, "I'll maybe come as the president."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/clinton...inkId=44133507

[Suzanimal]

Kremlin Responds To Mueller Indictment: "No Accusations Against Russia"

...

This irony wasn't lost on Russia, and on Tuesday the Kremlin commented on Monday's news, stressing that the indictment handed down in the special counsel’s investigation did not include accusations against Russia for meddling in the U.S. presidential election. Quoted by Reuters, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during a call with reporters that Russia has always said that it did not interfere in the election.



“Russia does not feature in the charges that were leveled in any way. Other countries and other people feature (in the charges),” Peskov said, according to the news service adding that “Moscow never felt itself guilty so as to feel exonerated now,” when asked whether the Kremlin interpreted the indictment as proof that its denials about meddling in the U.S. presidential election had been confirmed.

Peskov said the investigation was an internal matter for the United States which Russia was not involved in, but was following with interest from afar.
Peskov also commented on details of a case against George Papadopoulos who pleaded guilty in early October to lying to the FBI. Papadopoulos told investigators about his efforts to set up a meeting between the Trump campaign and the Russian leadership during which he said he met a London-based professor boasting of contacts with Russian officials and a Russian woman whom he described as a relative of President Vladimir Putin. The case against Papadopoulos also mentions his contacts with someone with links to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

When asked what the Kremlin made of the details about someone linked to the Russian Foreign Ministry being cited in the Papadopoulos case, Peskov said the accusation was totally unsubstantiated.

“It’s an absolutely laughable allegation,” Peskov told reporters.

...

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-1...against-russia

[Suzanimal]

Sooo..when will Uranium One indictments be forthcoming. My bet is never.

We'll see. I'm not holding my breath, though.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...robe-Democrats

[Murray N Rothbard]

Sooo..when will Uranium One indictments be forthcoming. My bet is never.

HA.... do we really already have yet another partisan buzzword for the purposes of distraction from a real issue? "Benghazi," "emails," now "UraniumOne." OK, we have established Hillary Clinton is corrupt and bad. This is nothing new. What IS new is that she is no longer a sitting, nor viable future, political figure.

So...Why are we still talking about her?

Oh, right... "our" supposed guy is in much hotter water himself.

Well I say stop trying to drive the narrative away from this Russia scandal and let em get absolutely soaked because Trump is NOT our guy and is NOT any better than Bill and Hillary, and most importantly he is the $#@!ing President of the United States. If that does not concern you or fail to attract your attention from fake diversions like "Uranium One" then you are on the wrong forum.

[Suzanimal]

HA.... do we really already have yet another partisan buzzword for the purposes of distraction from a real issue? "Benghazi," "emails," now "UraniumOne." OK, we have established Hillary Clinton is corrupt and bad. This is nothing new. What IS new is that she is no longer a sitting, nor viable future, political figure.

So...Why are we still talking about her?

Because, although she no longer holds office, the Clintons are still major power players. The Bushes no longer in office either and I'd like to see them face justice.

Oh, right... "our" supposed guy is in much hotter water himself.

He's not my guy and if I'm recalling phill's posts correctly, he's not his either.

Here's a thread where he specifically went after Trump supporters.
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...ighlight=trump

Well I say stop trying to drive the narrative away from this Russia scandal and let em get absolutely soaked because Trump is NOT our guy and is NOT any better than Bill and Hillary, and most importantly he is the $#@!ing President of the United States. If that does not concern you or fail to attract your attention from fake diversions like "Uranium One" then you are on the wrong forum.

Why not go after both?

From what I've read so far, I'm starting to think the list of who hasn't colluded with the Russians or Ukrainians is shorter.

[spudea]

HA.... do we really already have yet another partisan buzzword for the purposes of distraction from a real issue? "Benghazi," "emails," now "UraniumOne." OK, we have established Hillary Clinton is corrupt and bad. This is nothing new. What IS new is that she is no longer a sitting, nor viable future, political figure.

So...Why are we still talking about her?

Oh, right... "our" supposed guy is in much hotter water himself.

Well I say stop trying to drive the narrative away from this Russia scandal and let em get absolutely soaked because Trump is NOT our guy and is NOT any better than Bill and Hillary, and most importantly he is the $#@!ing President of the United States. If that does not concern you or fail to attract your attention from fake diversions like "Uranium One" then you are on the wrong forum.

That's the dumbest thing I've ever read. So we should ignore corruption and illegal activities because Hillary lost? It's not a binary choice, one or the other. We can pursue both issues at the same time.

In the pursuit of justice, whether your name is Hillary Clinton or Hillary Jones, the same laws apply.

[Firestarter]

Finally the “special prosecutor” has indicted 2 partners in crime of Donald Trump – Paul Manafort and Rick Gates. This looks more like “Ukrainegate” than “Russiagate” to me...
The trail also leads to the Podesta Group of Tony and John Podesta.
Where have I heard about FBI investigations before…

I’ve quickly scanned the full indictment, but didn’t read that Paul Manafort used property in the Trump Tower, to launder money.
I wouldn’t claim that Robert Mueller is nothing but a “special” cover-up artist, or that this is the most interesting in this scandal, but it's strange that Mueller “forgot” this...

Between 2006 and 2013, Paul J. Manafort bought 3 homes in New York — one in Trump Tower, one in Soho, and one in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. Using shell companies, Manafort paid for them in full, and then transferred the properties into his own name for no money.
In 2005, Manafort and Davis began pursuing work with Oleg Deripaska, one of the richest “businessmen” in Russia, CEO of RUSAL and close to Vladimir Putin.
Manafort’s 2006 purchase of a Trump Tower apartment coincided with signing a $10 million contract with Deripaska.

In 2012, one of Manafort’s shell companies, MC Soho Holdings LLC, purchased a fourth floor loft on Howard Street (on the border of Soho and Chinatown), for $2.85 million. In April 2016, when he was becoming Trump’s campaign manager, Manafort transferred the unit into his own name and borrowed $3.4 million against it.
In 2013, another Manafort-linked shell company, MC Brooklyn Holdings, purchased a townhouse at 377 Union Street in Carroll Gardens for $2,995,000. This transaction followed the same pattern: the home was paid in full without a mortgage. On 9 February 2016, after Trump’s victories in Michigan and Mississippi, Manafort took out $5.3 million in loans on the property.
This looks like a scheme to keep the source of the (dirty) money hidden.

Between April 2015 and January 2017 – including time that he worked on the Trump campaign – Manafort borrowed about $12 million against his 3 New York homes (including the apartment in Trump Tower). That was more than he had paid for them, and more than they’re worth.
Days before Trump was sworn in as President, Manafort transferred the Carroll Gardens brownstone from MC Brooklyn Holdings to his own name and refinanced the loans with The Federal Savings Bank, taking on more debt. He now has $6.8 million in loans on a building he bought for $3 million (in March 2017). According to David Reiss, a professor real estate law, it’s extremely unusual for a home loan to exceed the value of the property.

In August 2016, The New York Times published an article on Manafort, claiming he’d accepted $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments from a pro-Putin, Ukrainian political party between 2007 and 2012. Then Manafort had to resign as campaign manager: http://www.wnyc.org/story/paul-manaf...ate-purchases/
(archived here: http://archive.is/okldW)


Even more interesting is the “lobbying” for the European Center for Modern Ukraine (ECFMU) by Mercury LLC (of Manafort and his employee Rick Gates) and the Podesta Group from 2012 to 2014. ECFMU was affiliated with Viktor Yanukovych, who was the president of Ukraine from 2010 to 2014. Yanukovych is pro-Putin and had to flee the country after protesters overthrew his government. He was reportedly helped by Putin to escape to Russia.
Reportedly Podesta and Manafort had to lobby the message that Ukraine’s 2012 election was really democratic and that the country’s leaders wanted to move further away from Putin and closer to the West.

The Podesta Group has in the past lobbied for foreign government clients with abysmal human rights records, like Vietnam, Azerbaijan and South Sudan.

Mercury LLC’s filings with the Justice Department show that its lobbyists, including Ed Kutler (an ally of Newt Gingrich), spent time setting up meetings related to Ukraine issues. One person they introduced to numerous Hill offices and to a senior official at the Export-Import Bank was Sergiy Klyuyev.
Less than a year after Mercury LLC introduced Klyuyev around the Hill, the EU froze his assets in the wake of the collapse of the Yanukovych regime. Klyuyev was one of more than a dozen Yanukovych allies the EU suspected of embezzling state money. Klyuyev and his brother reportedly also fled to Russia. Sergiy’s brother has been accused of orchestrating mass killings of Euromaidan protesters: http://www.thedailybeast.com/how-dc-...a-putin-puppet
(archived here: http://archive.is/lRJm1)


Over $1.5 million has been paid by the Party of Regions to American politicians in 2012 and 2013 alone. The founders of the ECFMU, at that time, were 3 Members of the Parliament from the Party of Regions, who in 2 years since have moved considerably up the power ladder — the current Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara, the current head of the Budget Committee of Parliament Ievgenii Hiellier and the current head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Verkhovna Rada Vitaliy Kahlyushnyy.
The reported budget of the ECFMU (located in Brussels, Belgium) is only €10,000. In 2012, the Belgian mediator paid the American lobbyists 80 times that amount — $800,000. In 2013 they have paid American lobbyists 79 times their budget — $790,000.
The Podesta Group, was founded by brothers Tony and John Podesta. John headed the office of President Bill Clinton in 1998-2001, since December 2013 was a senior adviser to President Obama and then campaign chairman for Hillary Clinton. In 2012, 2013 the Podesta Group received $1.02 million from the ECFMU.

The second company that was hired by ECFMU, is Mercury/Clark & Weinstock, of Manafort and Rick Gates. Mercury is affiliated with ex-Republican congressman John Vincent "Vin" Weber, who was involved in the last presidential election campaign of Mitt Romney. Mercury received $570,000 from Brussels in 2012, 2013.

What’s bizarre about the ECFMU is that it was first reported to be founded by acting Members of Parliament in the Ukraine: Leonid Kozhara, Ievgenii Hiellier and Vitaliy Kahlyushnyy.
The surnames of Kozhara, Hiellier and Kahlyushnyy were taken out of the registry, and replaced by former MP Oleg Nadosha, ex-MP Oleksiy Plotnikov and Kseniya Solovyova (born in 1987).

German Ina Kirsch Van de Vater, was also among the founders for the ECFMU. Ina Kirsch claimed that the ECFMU has no relation to the Klyuyev Foundation (suspected of embezzling state money):

U.S. companies that cooperate with the ‘European Centre for Modern Ukraine’ have no relation to the Party of Regions. They work exclusively in support of the Center (...) The Center has nothing to do, directly or indirectly, to Klyuyev’s fund.

Strangely Ina Kirsch “forgot” to mention that her husband Robert Van de Vater in 2014 was a Deputy Board Chairman of the Klyuyev Foundation: http://www.pravda.com.ua/articles/2014/02/5/7012902/
(archived here: http://archive.is/GhInS)

The following graph explains this in short.



Possibly the most interesting from the official document...
Prosecutors say in:

total, more than $75 million flowed through the offshore accounts. MANAFORT laundered more than $18 million

Manafort spent the money extravagantly, including more than $1.3 million to clothing stores in New York and Beverly Hills.

[Firestarter]

In this post are both FARA filings from last April, by the Podesta Group and Manafort’s Mercury, and another publication that’s mostly about the Podesta Group’s connection to the ECFMU.

I suspect that Paul Manafort and Rick Gates were indicted by Robert Mueller, because the trail (also) leads to Podesta (thus Clinton and Obama). In this way Donald Trump can insinuate that he’s the victim (and claiming that this was years ago, in 2012, 2013), while he can continue to play the “crooked” Hillary Clinton game…

According to the laws in the USA it’s a criminal offence to violate FARA and not register as a foreign agent. In practice this means that when lobbyists “forget” to put this in their filing, and this comes out, they simply retro-actively register as a foreign lobbyist, and they’re off the hook.
Manafort’s associate, Rick Gates, continued to work for Trump after Manafort's resignation, but in March 2017 (also) had to resign.

Here’s the 12 April 2017 FARA lobbying registration form by Podesta, Kimberley Fritts. The contract was signed between Ina Kirsch and Anthony (Tony) Podesta: https://www.fara.gov/docs/5926-Exhib...170412-101.pdf
This form doesn’t have sufficient information. It doesn’t specify any of the activities.
It only contains a general description of the activities, which includes the following (interesting names):
former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi;
former Chancellor of Austria Alfred Gusenbauer;
former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewksi;
former Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko.
The Podesta Group claims that they didn’t register as a foreign agent, because they didn’t understand they were working for the Ukraine…


Here’s the 28 April 2017 FARA lobbying registration form by Mercury, John Vincent Weber: https://www.fara.gov/docs/6170-Amend...0170428-29.pdf

The most interesting from this filing is the table with a description of the activities (meetings) arranged by Mercury (mostly) in May, June 2013.
The names include Sergiy Klyuyev, while Ina Kirsch has denied the relation between ECFMU and the Klyuyev Foundation...


Some of the interesting names that were in meetings arranged by Mercury:
Alfred Gusenbauer (former Chancellor of Austria);
John Schuster (US Export-Import Bank);
Caleb McCarry and Jason Bruder (Senate Foreign relations);
Andrew Palace (Center for Sustainable Shale Development);
The Macellus Shale Chamber of Commerce;
The Brookings Institution;
Representative Tim Murphy;
Representative Marino;
Representative Aderholt;
Representative Gardner;
Representative Ed Royce.

Ed Royce is an honorary chairman of the Nowruz Commission, for more information on the ties of Nowruz to Michael Flynn: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...=1#post6513779
Ed Royce was also present at the 23 May conference with the FDD of the largest campaign contributor to Donald Trump, Sheldon Adelson. For more information on Sheldon Adelson: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...etal-detectors


The European Centre for a Modern Ukraine (ECFMU) was formed in 2012 by 3 senior members of the Party of Regions, a pro-Russia party led by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and advised by Paul Manafort.

The Podesta Group arranged meetings with unnamed "Ukrainian officials".
In one of those meetings, Ukraine's foreign minister Leonid Kozhara met Senator Christopher Murphy, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Europe subcommittee. Kozhara was a founder of the ECFMU and close adviser to President Yanukovych.

The Podesta Group, did not disclose at least 32 contacts with the State Department in a 2012 lobbying report to Congress. At that time, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was scrutinising Ukraine's upcoming election.
In April of this year, the Podesta Group filed new lobbying disclosures to augment lobbying reports from 2012 to 2014.
Both the Podesta Group and Mercury have claimed that they believed the ECFMU was an independent group that was not funded or directed by Ukraine's government.

According to David Marin, Podesta’s spokesman, the Podesta Group’s work for the ECFMU was supervised by Manafort's associate Rick Gates: http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/09/po...ing/index.html

[Firestarter]

I suspect that Paul Manafort and Rick Gates were indicted by Robert Mueller, because the trail (also) leads to Podesta (thus Clinton and Obama). In this way Donald Trump can insinuate that he’s the victim (and claiming that this was years ago, in 2012, 2013), while he can continue to play the “crooked” Hillary Clinton game…

Kimberley Fritts, CEO of the Podesta Group after Tony Podesta resigned, told that the firm will cease to exist by the end of the year.
Tony and his brother, John Podesta (who left the firm in 1993), founded the company almost three decades ago: http://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/11/po...ion/index.html

This “news” looks like another obvious ploy to cover-up “Russiagate” to keep us pacified while the corruption and genocide continue…

[Firestarter]

I haven’t found out yet who funnelled money through the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine (ECFMU)...
It appears that Dmytro “Dmitry” Firtash had lots of money to spend. Firtash effectively controlled the Party of Regions of Viktor Yanukovych, and has a long standing relationship with Paul Manafort.
Firtash in turn was an associate of Oleg Deripaska.

Paul Manafort has previously acted as a consultant to Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole, before becoming (and resigning as) the campaign chairman for Donald Trump.
Manafort has also represented amongst others Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos and Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, to improve their public reputations.
In the summer of 2005, Manafort and his team – including Rick Gates - was recruited to work for the Party of Regions in Ukraine by the oligarch Rinat Akhmetov.

In 2007, Manafort set up a private equity firm called Pericles Emerging Partners LP, based offshore in the Cayman Islands. Pericles had 3 American partners – Manafort, Rick Gates and Rick Davis. Davis was cofounder of Davis Manafort, Manafort’s lobbying company in Delaware.
Pericles was set up to make investments in the Ukrainian cities of Kiev, Odessa and Mariupol. It would acquire small companies, consolidate them into larger enterprises, and then sell them for a profit. One of the investors in Pericles was the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, an aluminium baron and close friend of Putin, who invested almost $19 million.
Pericles ever only made a single investment, in a Ukrainian telecoms company called Black Sea Cable. The money was funnelled through offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands. The cash went through other opaque shell firms, including Cascado AG, set up by the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
After the global financial crisis hit in 2008, Deripaska wanted his cash back. In 2011, the Americans emailed to say that it was difficult to sell his stake because of “market conditions”. Deripaska claimed that he didn’t get his money back, and filed a 2014 petition against Manafort’s firm. Maybe this was just another charade, because later Manafort introduced Deripaska to Senator John McCain, over problems travelling to the US, after the US in 2006 had revoked Deripaska’s visa.

In February 2014, riot police shot dead 100 people in downtown Kiev. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych had to flee, and escaped to Russia.
Putin exploited this crisis to seize Crimea and launch a covert military invasion of eastern Ukraine – which resulted in 10,000 dead.

Also in 2014, Firtash was arrested on a US warrant in Vienna, accused of bribing Indian officials over a titanium deal. But an Austrian judge denied a US extradition request (later the Austrian court granted the request, but Firtash still fights extradition): https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...ine-yanukovich
(archived here: http://archive.is/qP78c)


According to a writ filed in 2011 by former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, the Group DF (of Dmytro Firtash) never had any intention to purchase the Drake property for $850 million, but instead used the real estate project as a vehicle to “invest” $25 million in New York bank accounts, for the purpose of money laundering, racketeering and bribes.
Firtash even acquired his own bank, Nadra Bank: http://freebeacon.com/wp-content/upl...omplaint-2.pdf

1. This case concerns the arbitrary prosecutions, arrests, and detentions of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and other political opposition members in violation of international law, which have been carried out by or with the assistance of Defendants, representing a collection of private and public figures that stand to benefit politically and/or financially by eliminating Ukraine’s political opposition.
(…)
7. From 2004 to early 2009, Defendant RosUkrEnergo AG (“RUE”) received substantial profits for serving as a middleman in natural gas dealings between Naftogaz, a Ukrainian state-owned gas company, and Gazprom, a Russian company. Ukrainian billionaire Defendant Dmytro Firtash a/k/a Dmitry Firtash (“Firtash”), who largely controls RUE, was able to secure profits from the Russia-Ukraine gas deals due to his close relationship with, and payment of illegal kickbacks to, Ukrainian government officials, including then Naftogaz Chairman Yuriy Boyko and Deputy Chairman Ihor Voronin, both of whom were nominated to RUE’s Coordination Committee after securing RUE’s initial brokerage contract.
(…)
35. (…) Manafort played a key role in the defendants’ conspiracy and racketeering enterprise by assisting Firtash to become a major “investor” and silent partner in defendants CMZ Ventures (sometimes referred to as “ZMC Investors”), Group DF and their affiliated companies, through which Firtash and his associates were able to money launder a large portion of the funds that Firtash, Group DF and RUE were skimming from numerous Gazpron/Naftogaz natural gas transactions, as well as the windfall payments and profits worth approximately $3.5 billion that they received as a result of the corrupt transactions and breaches of fiduciary duties that resulted in the Stockholm Arbitration award, as described below in greater detail. These monies were then laundered through various New York based bank accounts under the guise of otherwise legitimate real estate and other investment activities in New York and elsewhere in the United States, and the contracts, agreements, meetings, discussions and electronic communications (e.g., computer, email and fax transmissions) relating to said money laundering and investment activities were primarily conducted through defendants’ offices located at 1501 Broadway, 25th floor.
(…)
83. RUE is owned by Russian state-owned energy company, Gazprom (owning a 50% share of RUE), Firtash (owning a 45% share of RUE through holding company Centragas), and Ukrainian businessman and Firtash associate Ivan Fursin (owning a 5% share of RUE also through holding company Centragas, which is almost wholly owned by Firtash through Group DF).
(…)
100. Firtash, Mogilevich, and their affiliated companies used three U.S. companies in particular—CMZ Ventures LLC, Kallista Investments LLC, and the Dynamic Fund (which were sometimes referred to collectively as “The Dynamic Group)—to launder money in the United States and abroad under the guise of investing in legitimate business ventures.
(…)
136. As of June 2011, Nadra Bank had approximately $500 million on deposit in New York bank accounts at JP Morgan Chase (Acct No. 762804508), BNY Mellon (formerly Bank of New York) (Acct. No. 8900341629); and Standard Chartered Bank (Acct No. 3582021684001).

According to Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau, handwritten ledgers found in the Ukraine show $12.7 million in undisclosed payments to Manafort from the Party of Regions from 2007 to 2012.
Investigators assert that the cash was part of an illegal off-the-books system whose recipients also included election officials.
The network comprised shell companies whose ultimate owners were shielded by the secrecy laws of the offshore jurisdictions where they were registered, including the British Virgin Islands, Belize and the Seychelles.
Oleg Deripaska claimed he had also paid about $7.3 million in management fees to the Pericles fund in over two years: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/u...rump.html?_r=0


Peter Mandelson is a member of the Bilderberg Group and appointed “life peer” by Queen Elizabeth. Mandelson is director of the Russian defense firm Sistema, which supplies Putin with early warning missile systems.

Oleg Deripaska is CEO of RUSAL and friends with Roman Abramovich.
Abramovich is Putin’s close confidant, and a joint shareholder along with the Russian government in Gazprom, Aeroflot, and RUSAL.

Sir Evelyn de Rothschild has been knighted by Queen Elizabeth and is also her financial adviser. Evelyn de Rothschild lives in the same New York building as Henry Kissinger and Wilbur Ross Jr. Wilbur Ross is the current US Secretary of Commerce, and has previously worked for the Rothschild family.
Nat Rothschild, son of Baron Jacob Rothschild, is business partners and close personal friends with Peter Mandelson, Roman Abramovich and also Oleg Deripaska: http://www.dzig.de/sites/default/fil...ockefeller.htm

[Firestarter]

Another of Trump’s foreign policy advisers, Carter Page, is an investment banker with close links to Gazprom, the Kremlin-controlled gas company, and an outspoken supporter of Putin.
Frank Mermoud, a former state department official with business ties in the Ukraine by Cub Energy, also has longstanding ties to Paul Manafort.
Manafort’s relationship with Dmytro Firtash was first exposed in a 2011 racketeering lawsuit that was later dismissed. Paul Manafort has been closely tied to Ukraine over the past decade, making millions from consulting work. He worked as an adviser for Rinat Akhmetov, Firtash and Oleg Deripaska: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...sia-putin-ties


Months after an Austrian court ruled that Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash can be extradited to the USA, wanted in Chicago since 2013, it’s still not certain if he'll ever show.
Austrian Justice Minister Wolfgang Brandstetter said in February that he would not extradite Firtash until the Austrian courts have ruled on the Spanish claim on Firtash.

Paul Manafort has arranged an all-star legal team to keep Firtash out of the USA, including former US Attorney Dan Webb, Clinton White House counsel Lanny Davis and former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
Webb wrote:

The Indictment fails to allege a single illicit act by Firtash that either occurred in the United States or affected the United States.

Never mind that Firtash was involved in a scheme to sell titanium to Chicago-based Boeing: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...509-story.html
(archived here: http://archive.is/SpgCj)

For more on Michael Chertoff’s expected profits from the 1 October Las Vegas “mass shooting”: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...etal-detectors


Firtash once confided to the US ambassador in the Ukraine that he had made use of the organised crime boss Semion Mogilevich to protect his business from attacks by competitors, and had to ask Mogilevich’s permission to make business deals.
See the 10 December 2008 Wikileaks cable:

He acknowledged ties to Russian organized crime figure Seymon Mogilevich, stating he needed Mogilevich's approval to get into business in the first place. He was adamant that he had not committed a single crime when building his business empire, and argued that outsiders still failed to understand the period of lawlessness that reigned in Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
(…)
In the meeting, which lasted two and a half hours, Firtash told the Ambassador that he was not a public person, but had recently been pulled deeper into Ukrainian politics. He admitted that he has "loyally served" as an unofficial advisor to President Yushchenko during tense gas negotiations with Russia and political crises dating back to the Orange Revolution in 2004. He reported that he met with the Yushchenko at his dacha (cottage residence) three times in the last week at the President's request. He described himself as a close friend and confidante of the President -- someone the President can trust totally.
(…)
Firtash also recounted that Makarov invited him to dinner in Kyiv in January 2002, shortly after Firtash had signed the gas deals with Central Asia. Firtash added he went to that dinner not knowing if he would be beaten up or even killed for having taken Makarov's business from him. According to Firtash, Makarov was there with his head of security, Semyon Mogilevich, Sergei Mikhas, from the Solnstevo Brotherhood, and a Mr. Overin when Makarov told Firtash he would regain his gas business as easily as Firtash had taken it away.

https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08KYIV2414_a.html

[Firestarter]

Here’s some more on Dmytro Firtash...

On 21 February 2017, Austrian police detained Dmytro Firtash after an EU arrest warrant issued by Spain. In Spain, Firtash was accused of money laundering $10 million through companies on Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands.
Firtash also has a residence in London’s Knightsbridge: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-a7439621.html


The US criminal investigation against Firtash is based on the FBI’s charge of bribing Indian public officials to obtain licences for the mining of ilmenite, to manufacture titanium for Boeing. The investigators claim that he paid $18.5 million in kickbacks to Indian officials.
Lanny Davis represents Firtash for a fee of $60,000 dollars per month.
Michael Chertoff was recruited by Paul Manafort as Firtash’s defence lawyer.

Austria is the headquarters of Firtash’s Centragas Holding GmbH, a company that holds 50% of RosUkrEnergo (RUE) shares.
Firtash main lawyer in Austria is Dieter Böhmdorfer, who was Austrian Justice Minister from 2000 to 2004 for the FPÖ party.
Firtash’s media advisor Daniel Kapp is almost as illustrious. Kapp’s boss, former Austrian vice-chancellor Josef Pröll of the ÖVP party, is closely linked to the same Raiffeisen group that acted as a front for Firtash when he was still hiding his involvement with RUE.

Dmytro Firtash has his own public relation group in the Agency for the Modernization of Ukraine, which has boasted names of famous politicians, including EU Commissioners Günter Verheugen, Stefan Füle and Peter Mandelson (member of Bilderberg and life peer), Germany’s former finance minister Peer Steinbrück, and former French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner.
Three celebrity names were announced as the Agency’s founding fathers: the French writer Bernard-Henri Lévy; the German MP and chair of the Bundestag’s Ukrainian-German group Karl-Georg Wellmann; and Richard Risby (member of the British House of Lords).

Ukrainian Modernization Agency has a “sister” organisation in the UK - the British Ukrainian Society (BUS). BUS was founded in February 2007 with 2 directors: Robert Shetler-Jones and Richard Spring. Spring is also known as Lord Risby and is a life peer.
Robert Shetler-Jones is very close to Firtash. From its inception until August 2012, he was CEO of Firtash’s parent company Group DF: http://www.eurozine.com/the-firtash-octopus/
(archived here: http://archive.is/E6XMt)

[Firestarter]

It looks to me like the (war against) Ukraine (is that Russiagate?) is mainly over (shale) gas…

According to AP, Paul Manafort didn’t get a mere $10 million, from close associate of Nat Rothschild and Vladimir Putin - Oleg Deripaska. This was his annual pay check beginning in 2006 through to at least 2009. It’s not clear how many millions Manafort received in total.

In June 2005, Paul Manafort wrote a memo about a plan that would improve the image of President Vladimir Putin in the US, Europe and former Soviet republics. Manafort proposed that Deripaska and Putin would lobby Western governments, to achieve the result that oligarchs could keep their formerly state-owned assets in Ukraine.
Manafort proposed building “long term relationships” with Western journalists. According to legal filings by Deripaska’s representatives, he gave Manafort nearly $19 million to invest in Ukrainian TV company Black Sea Cable.

Manafort promised that the plan:

will be offering a great service that can re-focus, both internally and externally, the policies of the Putin government.
(…)
We are now of the belief that this model can greatly benefit the Putin Government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate commitment to success.

https://apnews.com/122ae0b5848345faa...-Government%27


Gazprom has sold more than 20 billion cubic metres of gas below market prices to Dmitry Firtash in 4 years - about 4 times more than the Russian government has publicly acknowledged. Because of the low price, companies controlled by Firtash made more than $3 billion. Gazprom missed out on about $2 billion in revenue it could have made by selling that gas at “normal” prices.

In 2012, Moscow sold the gas to Firtash for $230 per 1,000 cubic metres; and in 2013, for $267 per unit on average. This is at least $100 per unit below the market price in Western Europe.
The gas was sold to Firtash for at least one-third less than what Ukraine’s Naftogaz had to pay.
Firtash’s Ostchem companies in Cyprus and Switzerland resold the gas to his chemical plants in Ukraine for $430 per unit. The 2 offshore Ostchem companies made an estimated profit of $3.7 billion in 2 years.

Kremlin spokesman Peskov said Putin has met Firtash but that they are not close. He said Russia supplied gas at “lower prices” to Ukraine because Ukrainian President Yanukovich had asked for it and Russia wanted to help Ukraine’s petrochemical industry.
According to sources in the energy industry, every major deal that Gazprom signs, is approved by Putin.
The deals were financed by the Russian Gazprombank, which is not directly controlled by Gazprom (that holds only a minority share). It is overseen by people linked to Putin, including Yuri Kovalchuk, a banker, who until March 2014 controlled an investment firm that manages a majority stake in Gazprombank.

Starting in 2002, Eural Trans Gas (registered in Hungary) was transporting gas from Turkmenistan through Russia to Ukraine. Its ownership was unclear, but Firtash represented it.
In July 2004, RosUkrEnergo became the new intermediary for gas deals between Russia and Ukraine. Most of RUE was owned by Firtash and Gazprom.
Firtash imported the Russian gas through a Cypriot company of which he is sole director, and a Swiss one set up by Group DF (Group Dmytro Firtash).

In June 2010, Firtash started Ostchem Investments in Cyprus. A month later, Gazprombank lent the company $815 million. By March 2011, Gazprombank had lent up to $11.15 billion to Firtash companies.
A Gazprombank manager said that the Russian bank had led a consortium of lenders which in 2011 lend about $7 billion to Firtash (I don’t know who the other lenders were…).

In September 2010, Ostchem Investments bought a 90% stake in the Stirol fertiliser plant in Ukraine (gas is needed to produce fertilizer). In 2011, Firtash acquired 2 more fertiliser plants in Ukraine - Severodonetsk Azot and Rivne Azot.
Firtash also bought the Nika Tera sea port, through which amongst others fertiliser is shipped. He also acquired the Nadra Bank and invested in the titanium industry: http://www.reuters.com/article/russi...0TF4QD20141126
(archived here: http://web.archive.org/article/russi...0TF4QD20141126)


Apparently Gazprom and Gazprombank do everything they can to help Firtash…

On the other hand, in May 2014 (after Yanukovich had fled to Russia) Gazprom told Ukraine's Naftogaz (a competitor to Firtash) that the company has to pay in advance for the gas or it will stop delivering by 2 June 2014, because:

The debt of Naftogaz amounts to $3.505 billion, so there is a good reason to require prepayment from the Ukrainian company.

This only sounds unreasonable to me, because Firtash is treated so sweet by the same Gazprom.
Naftogaz has to pay $1.659 billion (for 3.42 billion cubic meters of gas) in advance, based on a price of $485 per 1000 cubic meters of gas: https://sputniknews.com/voiceofrussi...g-method-1425/


In July 2014, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, located in The Hague, Netherlands, ruled that the Russian government must reimburse $50 billion to former shareholders of Russian oil company Yukos. The tribunal said that the government, starting in 2003, had violated “due process” in dismantling and seizing the assets of Yukos and transferring them to Gazprom and state-run oil company Rosneft.

In 2014, Gazprombank hired former US senators Trent Lott and John Breaux, to lobby against the US sanctions imposed on it by the Obama administration over the Ukraine crisis: https://www.publicintegrity.org/2014...er-us-senators

[Swordsmyth]

Some have suggested that the FBI losing five months of text messages between anti-Trump investigators is a coverup of an "insurance policy" to smear Donald Trump with claims of Russian collusion in the event of a win. Others have suggested it's simply bureaucratic incompetence. Paul Manafort's attorneys, on the other hand, are likely chomping at the bit see if they can argue for a dismissal of the federal charges against their client due to Robert Mueller's increasingly tainted probe.

Look for Paul Manafort to jump all over this. He’s already fighting his indictment, claiming that Mueller is overstepping his authority and shouldn’t be running the investigation. Throw in this evidence that the investigation may have been tainted before Mueller even took over, and that the DOJ could be covering up damaging information, and a motion to dismiss alleging prosecutorial misconduct is a near certainty.
FBI Agent Strzok was reportedly heading up the Manafort investigation before he was taken off the Mueller probe. Manafort’s attorney might try to say that the missing text messages could contain exculpatory evidence (or evidence favorable to the defendant) and therefore the court should get to the bottom of what the two said. However, two former federal prosecutors who spoke to Law&Crime both contend it would be difficult to get the entire indictment dismissed based on the text messages alone. -LawandCrime.com

“It depends on what FBI’s retention policy is for text messages. It does certainly raise questions as to how these five months came up missing,” explained former federal prosecutor Bill Thomas, adding “However, the court is not going to just dismiss the case. If it comes to it, the judge may hold a hearing to get to that information through calling witnesses. Dismissal is the nuclear option, it would have to be something very very egregious for a court to dismiss the case.”

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...muellers-probe

[goldenequity]

Some have suggested that the FBI losing five months of text messages between anti-Trump investigators is a coverup of an "insurance policy" to smear Donald Trump with claims of Russian collusion in the event of a win. Others have suggested it's simply bureaucratic incompetence. Paul Manafort's attorneys, on the other hand, are likely chomping at the bit see if they can argue for a dismissal of the federal charges against their client due to Robert Mueller's increasingly tainted probe.

Look for Paul Manafort to jump all over this. He’s already fighting his indictment, claiming that Mueller is overstepping his authority and shouldn’t be running the investigation. Throw in this evidence that the investigation may have been tainted before Mueller even took over, and that the DOJ could be covering up damaging information, and a motion to dismiss alleging prosecutorial misconduct is a near certainty.
FBI Agent Strzok was reportedly heading up the Manafort investigation before he was taken off the Mueller probe. Manafort’s attorney might try to say that the missing text messages could contain exculpatory evidence (or evidence favorable to the defendant) and therefore the court should get to the bottom of what the two said. However, two former federal prosecutors who spoke to Law&Crime both contend it would be difficult to get the entire indictment dismissed based on the text messages alone. -LawandCrime.com

“It depends on what FBI’s retention policy is for text messages. It does certainly raise questions as to how these five months came up missing,” explained former federal prosecutor Bill Thomas, adding “However, the court is not going to just dismiss the case. If it comes to it, the judge may hold a hearing to get to that information through calling witnesses. Dismissal is the nuclear option, it would have to be something very very egregious for a court to dismiss the case.”

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...muellers-probe

I disagree.. Manafort WILL be able to get the charges dismissed (but not because of the 'missing 5 months of text mssgs')...
It will/must be overturned because the 'case' constructed by the prosecution is built WITH 'fruit' from 'the poisonous tree' aka the illicit wire taps and attempted entrapment of a HOST of individuals w/ Manafort being just ONE of them.
Read through this.

The FISA Abuse Memo Unveiled; What Exactly Is In the Memo, According to Intel Insiders

If all or most of these points are 'true' (and I believe they are... with more coming) then Manafort's 'case' is irretrievably tainted and 'poisoned'.

[Firestarter]

The FISA Abuse Memo Unveiled; What Exactly Is In the Memo, According to Intel Insiders

If all or most of these points are 'true' (and I believe they are... with more coming) then Manafort's 'case' is irretrievably tainted and 'poisoned'.

Everybody is systematically spied upon - Big Brother is watching you. As nobody seems to care (even walking around with a cell phone), it's very unlikely that this will be used for an argument.
Special cover-up artist Robert Mueller will simply compile one or several very thick reports that hide the most damaging info, and will conclude something like Manafort's behaviour gave the impression of wrongful conduct, but he didn't violate any laws...


I’ve found a story that involves Oleg Deripaska, a high Russian government offiicial and a prostitute locked up in a Thai prison.
It could be a cover-up story, but it's a good one (I think better than Stormy Daniels).

In early August 2016, during the US presidential campaign, Oleg Deripaska and the deputy Russian prime minister, Sergei Prikhodko, took a pleasure yacht trip off the coast of Norway.
To increase their enjoyment, they invited several prostitutes, including Anastasia Vashukevich of Belarus (a.k.a. Nastya Rybka).

Vashukevich posted a video on her Instagram account showing Deripaska and Prikhodko.
It includes a snippet where Deripaska says the following (according to the Russian translator):

We’ve got bad relations with America, because the friend of Sergey Eduardovich [Prikhodko], Nuland’s her name, is responsible for them. When she was your age, she’s spent a month on a Russian whaling boat. She hates our country after this. Why is that?

This includes a reference to President Obama’s State Department official overseeing Russian relations - Victoria Nuland.

The video finally got the attention it didn’t deserve, when Russian lawyer, and wannabee politician, Alexei Navalny, posted the video with his Russian commentary with English subtitles on Youtube.
Navalny tried to challenge Putin for president in 2018, but was blocked by electoral authorities.

Vashukevich and her group of “sex workers” in the meantime have been jailed in Thailand, for working without a work permit. Vashukevich does just about anything to get publicity and has posted videos and photos on Instagram detailing being locked up.
An earlier stunt in which Vashukevich was involved was a nude demonstration for Harvey Weinstein in front of the US Embassy in Moscow.
Vashukevich now claims that she has more than 16 hours of audio recordings from her trip with Deripaska and Prikhodko, including conversations with 3 people who were probably Americans, and:

They were discussing elections. Deripaska had a plan about elections.

Vashukevich claims to have evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. I don’t believe this: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...s-nastya-rybka

Vashukevich says she fears for her life, if she will be returned to Russia.
Russia reportedly shut down most of Navalny’s online presence and blocked his Youtube video on Vashukevich, Deripaska and Prikhodko.
Information was also deleted from Vashukevich’s Instagram account.

For more information on the affairs of Anastasia Vashukevich, her friend Aleksandr Kirillov, (a.k.a. Alexander Lesley) and 5 other Russian “sex workers” in custody in Thailand: http://www.hotties-pattaya.com/2018/...ecrets-on.html


The fact that Alexei Navalny’s video has not been deleted by Youtube makes it more probable that this isn’t the “bombshell” that some “alternative” media wants us to believe.

[timosman]

Mueller Hoping Manafort Will Choose to Testify Against Trump Rather Than 'Die in Prison' - http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/07/3...ump-rather-die