Donald J. Trump is a longtime money-launderer who remains beholden to the Russian mob’s “boss of bosses” Semion Mogilevich.
One “day we’re all assured that Iraq is under control, the UN inspectors have done their work, everything’s fine, not to worry. The next day the bombing begins. One day we’re told a shadowy figure with no fixed address named Osama bin-Laden is public enemy number one, and U.S. jetfighters lay waste to his camp in Afghanistan. He escapes under some rock…” — Donald J. Trump, “The America We Deserve” (St. Martin’s Press,2000)
“In October 2001, a month after the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York and the attack on the Pentagon in Washington by al-Qaeda suicide bombers, it emerged that the man who controlled them, Osama bin Laden, had acquired a copy of the still highly secret Promis software.
The version of Promis provided to bin Laden came from a former FBI agent, Robert Hanssen. For years he had been a Russian spy inside the FBI. He had passed over the latest version of Promis to his handlers in Moscow. They had sold on a copy to Simeon Mogilevich for the reputed sum of $3 million. He had sold it on to bin Laden for an undisclosed price.” [“Robert Maxwell, Israel’s Superspy” by Gordon Thomas and Martin Dillon, page 346 (Da Capo Press, 2003)]
“In 2001, a number of stories — in the Washington Times, Washington Post, and Fox News — reported that PROMIS-derivative software provided to the Soviets by Hanssen had found its way to bin Laden.” (Jasper, 2009)
The book “Robert Maxwell, Israel’s Superspy” unveils Maxwell’s “amazing dexterity in balancing his spying activities with his global business empire of over 400 companies — before what the book controversially claims was his assassination at the hands of a right-wing cabal within Mossad. …
The authors claim that Maxwell was [Semion] Mogilevich’s bagman for nearly five years. He even organised Israeli passports for the gangster and 23 of his associates in 1988.
Long-serving US senator John Tower and his family lost their lives through the fallout from the Promis project — along with 20 other passengers on the private plane that exploded over New Brunswick in the summer of 1991, just months before Maxwell’s death.
Tower was a senior figure in Reagan’s Republican Party before he retired and started working as a consultant for Maxwell. Maxwell’s murderers are believed to have been the same men responsible for putting the bomb on Tower’s plane. …
[Maxwell’s] global connections were unequalled at the time. … His links with Russia ran all the way back to the Krushchev era of the 1960s…
He … also regularly dined with senior Communist figures, such as Bulgarian leader Todor Zhivkov, East German boss Erich Honecker and secret service figures including KGB supremo Vladimir Kryuchkov and East German superspy Markus Wolff.
Maxwell’s close contacts within the KGB played a vital role in helping him to organise safe passage for 300,000 Russian Jews to Israel during the height of the Cold War in the 1980s. …
As well as working for Israel, the authors claim, he was a conduit for the Communist security services. His previously undisclosed role in setting up hundreds of front companies headed by former members of the KGB, East German Stasi and Bulgarian secret service goes some way towards explaining the current close links between business and organised crime in former Iron Curtain countries.” (McMahon, 2002)
The following excerpts are from Citizen Journalists Consortium (emphasis added):
The “American: former DEA and FBI agent, Bob Levinson. While at the FBI, Levinson pursued the world’s most wanted criminals to keep America safe. He hunted the mob. …
In 1999, Tom Mangold interviewed Bob Levinson for the BBC. They discussed Levinson’s biggest target: a man leading a conglomerate of international criminals who were coming to America’s shores.
From his home in Broward County, Florida, Levinson gave this warning,“Criminals are coming in who are wealthier and more vicious than any of the criminals that you, or anybody on the continent, have ever seen. As far as I’m concerned, they’re the most dangerous people on earth.” …
The Mangold interview happened after Levinson had left the FBI’s organized crime unit to work in the private sector. But, as Levinson told Mangold, there was a case he could not quit. He had a job that was unfinished. The master hunter had a target.
On November 17, 1998, something extraordinary happened in Moscow. A high-ranking member of the organized crime unit at the FSB (Russia’s FBI) held a press conference. His name was Alexander Litvinenko, and he told the world that Russia’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies had been taken over by organized crime. He called Russia, “A Mafia State.”
One year later, Vladimir Putin became President of Russia. But during Litvinenko’s final months at the FSB organized crime unit, Putin was his boss.
On July 5, 1998, Putin was appointed by President Yeltsin as Director of the FSB. He had found his way to the position of top law enforcement officer in all of Russia on weak qualifications — and after serving a stint as Deputy Mayor of St. Petersburg. We … state here for you to know now: 1) St. Petersburg’s Mayor was a politician owned and controlled by the Russian mob; 2) Putin was hand-picked by this same mob to ascend to power, because he is their puppet. …
The FSB is the very agency that Litvinenko warned the world about at that press conference four months after Putin’s appointment as its director. This is the agency that Litvinenko said was being run by the mob. …
Our research indicates that this is the very same mob that Bob Levinson warned us was sending criminals to our shores. And like all mobs, there is always a Don. A boss. A head of “The Family.”
On December 31, 1999, when Vladimir Putin was first elected, this Don controlled the President of Russia. …
Both Bob Levinson and Alexander Litvinenko hunted the most brilliant, dangerous, powerful, criminal mastermind the world has ever seen.
… SEMION MOGILEVICH.
Semion Mogilevich goes by many names, and we will use some of them interchangeably throughout our reporting. Mogilevich, the “Boss of Bosses,” is also known in Russia and to international intelligence agencies as Don Semyon, “The Brainy Don.”
To introduce Mogilevich, [BBC’s] Tom Mangold gave this summary. Pay attention to the date. …
“In May 1995, the FBI together with Russian, German, and Italian offices, produced [a] devastating report on organized crime, naming Mogilevich as leader of an organization with some 250 members. Mogilevich’s main activities are listed as arms dealing, trading nuclear material, prostitution, drug dealing, oil deals, and money laundering.”
1995. That’s the date.
In 1995, Bob Levinson was still with the FBI. Alexander Litvinenko was at the FSB in Moscow. Both men hunted one organized crime syndicate above all others. We believe that this report must have passed through both of their hands. We know, through many reports on their individual histories, that both of our hunters were on Mogilevich’s trail. They were the experts on Don Semyon. …
The Soviet Union collapsed. In the vacuum of leadership — of policy — of governmental order, a few hungry souls made a mad grab for state resources. They were the original seven oligarchs, called “The Magnificient Seven.” And they were all bankers.
One of these first seven bankers, Mikhail Fridman — the founder of ALFABANK, is Semion Mogilevich’s partner. With the “Brainy Don” inside an economic engine, the operational infrastructure for a global crime syndicate had its funding. “Alfa” (sometimes spelled “Alpha”) became the brand under which an empire was born.
With a bank behind him, all that was left to do for Semion was take out the “hunters.” He began locally — in Russia. Semion launched his attack on Russian intelligence and law enforcement, using his leverage over politicians to compromise any and all checks and balances against his own mob.
Here is a link to a supporting article, which provides an analysis on how Putin was used to help execute Semion’s strategy for turning Russia into a Mafiya State. It provides a brief historical narrative on the early moves of Semion’s mob after the fall of the Soviet Empire, and provides further resource links for you to read and explore: THE UNFATHOMABLE RISE OF ORGANIZED CRIME PUPPET, VLADIMIR PUTIN.
So that you understand, here, what we are revealing to you about Putin and Semion, we have obtained video of Semion Mogilevich at Vladmir Putin’s campaign headquarters in 2000 — watching his man ascend to the Presidency. This is five years after a global intelligence report on Semion’s mafia empire.
You will see Don Semyon looking back to the camera at 1:15.
The Empire
Once the Russian intelligence community had been taken over — once the Russian hunters were jailed, exiled, or assassinated — the guardrails were gone for Don Semyon.
Mogilevich already had a criminal enterprise — an infrastructure that reached beyond borders — with ports, ships, goods… All “The Brainy Don” needed to do was GROW.
The Intelligence Report on Semion’s operations that Tom Mangold references in his interview was from 1995. 22 years ago.
“The report says your organization operates in central Europe — including Prague, Vienna, Russia, the United States, Ukraine, Israel, and the United Kingdom.”
That quote tells us just how established, globally, Don Semyon was in 1995. How many men — how big of a global enterprise — has Mogilevich been able to build in the 22 years since?
Let’s begin with the core organization. Semion has two main brands. The first is “Alfa” (sometimes “Alpha”). You will find that name in the Steele Dossier. Under Semion’s umbrella, are a plethora of businesses. In addition to the criminal industry sectors listed by the 1999 intelligence report, subsequent reporting has attributed more profit centers to Semion, including human trafficking.
Here is a chart that gives the basics on Semion’s Alfa business sectors, his partners, and his “employees.” He owns it all.
… Semion is the brain inside what became an EXTRA-NATIONAL CRIME SYNDICATE. He connected resources, goods, and people of the former Soviet Empire to service a criminal underworld and produce billions in profits. This global mob has evolved since the fall of the Soviet Union. Semion’s lieutenants have risen in power and stature within his mob — as have the Heads of State of former Soviet block nations. We cannot assert for certain that Semion’s power is as absolute as it once was. But make no mistake, this MOB is his creation. He connected all the dots. He is the founder, and he is still the man to hunt.
We’ve put the key individuals to Semion’s organization on the chart. These are the names that will be exploding in the press, as Mueller’s investigation continues to unfold. In addition, we’d like to draw your attention to some names that will be explored in depth by us in the future. HERE is a summary document, with source links.
For the purpose of this story — the story of the hunters who came before, we’d like to highlight one detail of Semion’s decades-long empire: SEMION TRADES IN NUCLEAR MATERIAL AND ARMS WITH IRAN. …
Semion has long known the Iranians. He knew past regimes and present. He’s dealt with them all. He’s a key individual in the black-market trade of nuclear material. This aspect of Semion’s criminal enterprise is one thing (of many) the Iran Deal sought to eliminate. Keep that in mind. …
And Bob Levinson had his number.
… It’s important to note that Bob Levinson was hunting Mogilevich from the very beginning of the Russian Mafiya’s infiltration of America. He witnessed the Russian take-over of America’s mafia crime families, the “Five Families,” (La Cosa Nostra) by members of Semion’s mob.
Bob had come to know the operations, individuals, and bosses of the Five Families during his time working for the FBI’s organized crime unit in New York City. He knew the businessmen and politicians the mob worked with and compromised. And he knew, as we do now, that the Russians were not only the most dangerous criminals he had ever encountered, they were also the smartest.
How do you take over a new territory in a new land? You infiltrate an existing mob. You take over their operations with your brutality and your wealth. Why re-invent the wheel, or build one from scratch, when you can steal what’s already there? That’s how smart criminals work. This is Russian Mafia 101.
For Bob, the hunt for Semion began in the early ’90s, when the mobster Vyacheslov Ivankov set him off on Semion’s trail. Ivankov was Semion’s lieutenant, sent to America to set up operations. If you recognize his name, it’s because Ivankov is the mobster who landed in a condo in Trump Tower, hid out regularly at Trump Taj Mahal, and was eventually caught by the FBI’s organized crime unit. …
Bob was the key law enforcement witness at Ivankov’s trial. Here is his testimony.
By the time he testified, Bob had moved from the NYC field office to Florida. It’s an interesting move, considering it follows the Diaspora of Semion’s mob on our shores. …
Hunting Mogilevich’s crime syndicate is also THE case that puts the history of Donald Trump’s business “partnerships” into context. It explains why the #TrumpRussia investigation — from the FBI to the congressional committees — has shifted from counter-intelligence to CRIMINAL. It is the “WHAT” and the “WHY” that set us off on this journey.
It also answers what lurks beneath Trump’s flailing tweets, firing of Comey, and strategic undermining of the integrity of our independent press. It is the answer that sits at the core of the Special Prosecutor’s evidence, especially if Mueller indeed has his hands on Trump’s bank records and tax returns.
While with the FBI in New York, Bob Levinson knew all about the Five Family’s and Trump Enterprises lawyer and fixer, Roy Cohn. Bob knew all about Donald Trump. He knew all about Fred Trump.
That was Bob’s job. To know the businessmen and lawyers who profited, represented, and sheltered the American mobsters that he hunted.
… To find that perfect mark in his new U.S. territory, all Semion Mogilevich had to do was follow the debt.
In the United States, there was one businessman at the top of Don Semyon’s list. One who was the easiest mark and could reap the greatest return. One who was sheltering Mogilevich’s Men. One who was already in business with the American mafia, when “the” RUSSIAN MOB rolled over them all.
Mob tactics are mob tactics. It doesn’t matter if you’re the Italians, the Irish, or the Russians. You need businessmen because they are your “fronts.”
And thanks to Fred Trump, Roy Cohn, and the “Five Families” of American mafia, the United States already had a perfect front for Mogilevich to take. A man — a brand, that could wash the devil’s blood money clean.
Donald J. Trump
Our President’s mafia ties have been long documented. His Russian ties have been long documented. What we are saying to you is that they are one and the same. When Semion Mogilevich took over American mafia’s territory, he took Donald Trump with it.
With Donald Trump, our President, whether you are looking at the shady and corrupt business deals of his past, or the Russians all around his present, what you are really looking at is THE MOB.
Here is the chart that shows how Semion Mogilevich took over his second brand: TRUMP ENTERPRISES.
The below video is a timeline representation of our [Citizen Journalists Consortium] research into Donald Trump’s life as a money-laundering front for organized crime: from American mafia to Russian. Every item — every Donald Trump project or event that we’re presenting here as mob-connected is SOURCED. …
We’ve included some key trips to Russia (both Donald and his family), with the inference that these were not un-productive jaunts. Donald’s ties to Semion are old and long-held.
Take it all in. This is our President. Watch…
WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR HUNTERS?
From FSB to MI6 After his 1998 press conference — telling the world that Russia’s FSB had been taken over by the Mob, Alexander Litvinenko was jailed. His story from there is remarkable.
Litvinenko turned to the man whom he was once ordered to assassinate. Prior to his press conference, Litvinenko was ordered by his mobbed-up superiors to murder one of the original seven oligarchs — a banker named Boris Berezovsky, who was a competitor to Alfa Bank. Instead, Litvinenko warned Berezovsky to run. That assassination order was what prompted the press conference.
In between Litvinenko’s trials and prison movement, Berezovsky managed to get Litvinenko and his family (wife and son) out of Russia and into the United Kingdom.
Finding safe exile in London, Alexander Litvinenko continued working to hunt Mogilevich’s mob. In our opinion, the very best journalism on Litvinenko’s journey from the FSB to MI6 is done by Luke Harding. We highly recommend his book, “A Very Expensive Poison.”
In Harding’s book, we learn of Litvinenko’s work with MI6. He was instrumental in the arrests of key members of the Tambov Gang (SEMION’S PARTNERS), who were hiding out in Spain.
In late 2006, at the peak of his hunting, and perhaps due to a dossier he co-wrote that landed in the wrong hands, Litvinenko was assassinated. It was a gruesome murder that was meant to send a signal: he was poisoned with radioactive material, that was under the control of Vladimir Putin’s regime. Polonium.
Litvinenko’s death was slow enough for him to identify who he believed had murdered him and how. In these last interviews he gave from his hospital bed (as detailed in Harding’s book), Litvinenko was visited by his MI6 handler — a man with the code name “Martin.”
Harding surmises that “Martin” would have been fluent in Russian. Due to the dates when Litvinenko and “Martin” were known to be working together at MI6 (2003–2006), we cannot help but wonder if “Martin” is Christopher Steele — who handled the Russian Desk at MI6 from 2004–2009 and participated in the investigation into Litvinenko’s assassination.
In our bibliography under Alexander Litvinenko is the official finding by the British Court on his murder (“The Litvinenko Inquiry”). Vladimir Putin is directly named.
But we go back to that press conference because that is what haunts us personally. We believe that what Litvinenko warned the world about is happening again — here at home.
After the firing of James Comey, Donald Trump named Christopher Wray the new Director of the FBI. Prior to this recent appointment, Wray spent over a decade working for King & Spalding — a small law firm (on the scale of how large firms can be) whose primary clients are GAZPROM and ROSNEFT. Although Wray was at the FBI before his years at King & Spalding, those years at the FBI were also at a time when Semion’s mob was infiltrating intelligence communities world-wide, to compromise the LE agencies who hunted him. All of this has us more than concerned.
Even more concerning is Donald’s nomination for running the ORGANIZED CRIME UNIT at the DOJ (as in, the men and women who specifically hunt the mob) — Brian Benczkowski. … Why does he concern us so? Benczkowski is Alfa Bank’s private attorney.
[Benczkowski currently serves as the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice. Yikes.]
The Final Tip
2006 was an ominous year. Litvinenko was murdered in November. Five months earlier, in June, U.S. intelligence reached out to Bob Levinson for help.
The CIA International Financial Crimes Group had a case that required someone with a specific skill set. They needed a master hunter with a certain history. They needed Bob Levinson.
Levinson had officially left the FBI by this point and had established his own firm, working as a consultant for the private sector. He specialized in cases that drew on his contacts/ sources and expertise from his years hunting Semion. These included corporate espionage work for Philip Morris — tracking cigarette counterfeiters (one of Semion’s profit specialties, as identified in that 1995 intelligence report), foreign nationals seeking better relations with the United States, and even work for the Bank of Cyprus — helping them with some money-laundering issues they were having.
There is mixed reporting on whether or not Bob was ONLY an independent contractor at the time the CIA reached out to him. Some suspect that Bob had never left the FBI. Either way, the CIA needed help — and Bob Levinson was the hunter they hired. …
First, you should know that this was the last hunt that Bob was ever on.The “official” story from US intelligence has shifted over the years, so we started with that big question: Who was the target? Who?
Who could have pulled Bob Levinson back into a hunt? Do you think it would be just any old criminal?
Levinson has a family who loves him. A happy life. Who could it have been? Who was so important to capture, that a CIA operation was launched? Whowarranted Bob’s special knowledge, over using active intelligence agents? …
What we’ve discovered is that Bob did two critical things before he left for his hunt:
1) He told others he was off to hunt cigarette smugglers. Remember that. Remember cigarettes.
2) He went to see one of his long-held contacts, Boris Birshtein. Birshtein is a known associate of both Donald Trump and Semion Mogilevich.
Birshtein is the father-in-law of the oligarch Alex Shnaider, Donald’s business partner on Trump Toronto hotel. Birshtein is also a named consigliere of the Russian Mafia. He organized a meeting between Semion and several Bratva members in Israel in 1995 — right around the time of that first, big international intelligence report on Semion.
From what we can surmise, by the time Bob contacted Birshtein in 2006, Birshtein had been unable to obtain a visa into the U.S. because of his association with Semion’s organization. This provided Bob with the perfect carrot to offer Birshtein for helping the CIA.
“While tracking possible Rafsanjani money in Canadian 2006, Levinson also met Lithuanian-born Boris Birshtein, believed by U.S. authorities to be connected with Russian and Israeli organized crime.”
[“Where is Bob Levinson” by Philip Giraldi, American Conservative -Dec 31, 2013]
Here is where we tell you what happened to Bob Levinson. You may have recognized his name, but the old footage of him — in his healthy, happy life as a husband, father, and professional — may not be the image you know.
Bob Levinson was kidnapped during his final hunt on the island of Kish, Iran. He is now the longest held American hostage in history.
There is much you can read on Bob’s capture, but we want to bring you this final stunning detail. Among the attempts to recover Bob, the CIA reached out to another notable name, OLEG DERIPASKA.
Now, it is unclear to us, actually, whether the CIA reached out to Oleg, or Oleg reached out to them. What IS clear is that, like Birshtein, Deripaska needed a visa. Like Birshtein, Deripaska’s links to Semion’s mob were preventing his entry into the U.S. And, like Birshtein, he was someone that seemed to know Bob Levinson.
Agents involved in Bob’s recovery believed that Deripaska knew of his whereabouts. WHY? Why would the CIA believe that Deripaska, of all people, would know who was holding Bob?
Because of all of these details — because of all of this circumstantial evidence that we cannot ignore, it is our belief that Semion Mogilevich arranged for Bob Levinson’s capture with the Iranians — whom he had been in business with for years.
Bob Levinson walked into a trap. …
Tom Mangold called Bob Levinson Mogilevich’s “nemesis.” Based on what we’ve uncovered about Trump’s ties to this mob boss, we cannot leave Levinson’s safe return solely to Trump’s conscience. We cannot help but believe that Donald Trump would never do anything to go against Mogilevich’s wishes. Unless and until Vladimir Putin takes care of Mogilevich for Donald Trump, Trump would never expose his boss. …
So, we will do it for him. For all of us. We need you to raise your voice. America owes a debt to Bob Levinson. Even more so, because two past Presidents FAILED him. FAILED to bring him home. …
[L]et us leave you with something from that Mangold interview. Let us leave you with the devil’s own words:
MANGOLD: “People will be astonished that four nations, including your own, have got together to produce this damning [intelligence] report… Why is it that all these disparate, these different people, pick on you? I look at you, and I don’t see a victim. So, why do people pick on you?”
MOGILEVICH: “It’s because I smoke so much. Davidoff cigarettes.”
—TO BE CONTINUED —
(Citizen Journalists Consortium: Lincoln’s Bible, Neu, McKenzie)
“McClatchy reported that the Mueller inquiry has been passed evidence of a [Trump’s former lawyer Michael] Cohen visit to the Czech Republic — a claim backed up by one intelligence source in London. But was Cohen really concealing a visit to Russia? There is an eyewitness who puts Cohen in a hotel room with members of the Solntsevskaya organized crime group in Moscow, in 2013, as he pursued the hotel deal. The occasion was the birthday party of one of the group’s leaders. Solntsevskaya is the most feared and powerful of Russia’s mafia gangs, with deep connections to the Kremlin at the most senior level. The introductions for Cohen were said to have been made by Felix Sater.” (Cockburn, 2018)
Semion Mogilevich was the key money laundering contact for the Solntsevskaya.
Jay McKenzie reports (emphasis added):
“According to a Reuters investigation, [Ukrainian gas mogul] Dmitry Firtash “said he had needed and received permission from a man named Semion Mogilevich to establish various businesses” in Ukraine. His primary partner in the country was Gazprom.
Firtash’s gas business, RosUkrEnergo, was responsible for handling gas deals between Russia and Ukraine. According to Foreign Policy, “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.”
Firtash has long denied close ties to Mogilevich, but both men have been directors at the same company in the past. They also shared the same attorney, a man named Zeev Gordon, who was involved in Firtash’s company Eural Trans Gas in another venture with Naftohaz and Gazprom.
Though Firtash may never admit it himself, he made billions in Ukraine because the mob — specifically Semion Mogilevich’s mob — allowed him to. This is not a bond simply or easily broken, nor has there ever been any real indication Firtash cared to break it.
The other bank linked to financing for Yuri Milner’s investment in tech companies was VTB Bank, which is majority owned by the Kremlin and under U.S. sanctions. However, perhaps even more importantly, VTB Bank was lined up as an investor in the much-discussed Trump Tower Moscow deal that Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, attempted to strike during the 2016 campaign.
But who was it that setup the financing for the Trump Tower Moscowdeal? It was Trump’s longtime business partner in the Bayrock Group, Felix Sater. Here’s why that matters.
Felix Sater’s mob connections run deep
Though not personally implicated in the Bank of New York and Bank Menatep money laundering case, Felix Sater was in New York around this time working for the mob. However, the New York Times first broke the story on Bank of New York’s involvement in money laundering operations for Semion Mogilevich in August of 1999.
By that point, Felix Sater was already a cooperating witness for the government, having pled guilty in 1998 “to one count of racketeering for his role in a $40 million stock fraud scheme involving the prominent Genovese and Bonanno crime families, according to court records.” However, Sater’s involvement with Mogilevich runs deep. Mikhail Sheferovsky, Felix Sater’s dad, was a longtime underboss within the Mogilevich Organization.
We recently received additional confirmation of Felix Sater’s ties to Mogilevich in the form of Fusion GPS’s Glenn Simpson. Here’s a copy of part of his testimony to Congress below.
The testimony (seen above) made it clear that President Donald Trump’s longtime business partner, Felix Sater, is closely tied to Semyon Mogilevich. Some intelligence experts take issue with the Dossier, Fusion GPS and its explosive claims. I have my own reservations about plenty of Simpson’s testimony and the Dossier itself. We should be cautious and take nothing at face value. However, there are two things I’d like to point out.
1. This is not the first time Felix Sater has been linked to Semion Mogilevich. As I mentioned earlier, Sater’s dad was an underboss in Uzbekistan for the Mogilevich Organization. This is known.
2. The media LOVES to talk about the Dossier. They love to talk about the provokatsiya known as the “pee-pee” tapes. There was, of course, plenty of hype surrounding the unexpected release of Glenn Simpson’s testimony. Yet, still, has the MSM mentioned Semion Mogilevich’s direct connection to Donald Trump yet?
No. So, why the hell not?
While in most cases we can only speculate on the why, it’s worth reminding ourselves of just how many of these connections do exist. If you’re wondering what some of those are, I’m here to help. We recently learned the followingabout Felix Sater:
Former Trump adviser and business partner Felix Sater has been served with subpoenas in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) relating to a high-profile money laundering case. The two subpoenas were issued on October 27, 2017, and required Sater to produce documents and sit for a deposition.
The two plaintiffs in the Manhattan case are Kazakh government entities — BTA Bank and the city of Almaty, Kazakhstan. The defendants include three fugitive Kazakh officials who allegedly laundered hundreds of millions stolen from BTA through U.S. real estate deals. One of those deals included the 2013 purchase of three condos in the Trump Soho Hotel.
There are several money trails to follow with regards to Kazakhstan and dirty money, but here’s one that hasn’t gotten much attention. I mentioned Eural Trans Gas (ETG) earlier because the lawyer hired by Firtash to do work for ETG, Zeev Gordon, has also admitted to doing work for Mogilevich himself.
The same article from Foreign Policy goes on to discuss another man appointed as a director of ETG by Firtash, Andras Knopp. It was Knopp who went on to sign all the contracts between Naftohaz and Gazprom (yes, them again). One of the countries Knopp facilitated deals for was Kazakhstan. Unsurprisingly, Knopp was mentioned in a 2005 report out of the Austrian Federal Criminal Investigation Agency on the Mogilevich Organization. …
In July of 2017, we learned more about Paul Manafort’s financial dealings when the New York Times reported Manafort owed, through a series of shell corporations, $9.9 million to the same Ivan Fursin who is business partners with Firtash in RosUkrEnergo. Subsequently, The Daily Beast reported that Ivan Fursin “is closely linked to one of Russia’s most notorious criminals: Semion Mogilevich.”
The same article goes on to say, “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.” So, authorities in Austria believe Andras Knopp, Ivan Fursin and Dmitry Firtash all work at the behest of Semion Mogilevich.
Knowing this, it’s interesting to read additional reports of Paul Manafort’s ties to Ivan Fursin’s business partner, Dmitry Firtash, and a failed hotel deal they worked on together with Fred Trump’s (yes, Fred Trump, Donald Trump’s dad) money man, Brad Zackson. Perhaps there’s more there, right?
Manafort and Trump are closer than you might think.
In addition to being Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort lived in Trump Tower. Manafort’s longstanding business ties to Donald Trump are extensively covered in my piece here. It is fair to say for a decade, at a minimum, Paul Manafort was devoted to the interests of the Kremlin first and foremost.
Yet, still, we wait for the media to catch up to, potentially, one of the biggest stories ever told: Donald Trump, our president, is a longtime money-launderer who remains beholden to the Russian mob’s “boss of bosses” Semion Mogilevich.” (McKenzie, 2018)