Jared Kushner sealed real estate deal with oligarch's firm cited in money-laundering case

[bostonangler]

Jared Kushner sealed real estate deal with oligarch's firm cited in money-laundering case

 Wendy Dent and Ed Pilkington in New York and Shaun Walker in Moscow,The Guardian 8 hours ago

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Donald Trump’s son-in-law bought part of old New York Times building from Soviet-born tycoon, Guardian investigation into Russian money in NYC property market finds

Jared Kushner, seen in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in May. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of Donald Trump, who acts as his senior White House adviser, secured a multimillion-dollar Manhattan real estate deal with a Soviet-born oligarch whose company was cited in a major New York money laundering case now being investigated by members of Congress.

A Guardian investigation has established a series of overlapping ties and relationships involving alleged Russian money laundering, New York real estate deals and members of Trump’s inner circle. They include a 2015 sale of part of the old New York Times building in Manhattan involving Kushner and a billionaire real estate tycoon and diamond mogul, Lev Leviev.

The ties between Trump family real estate deals and Russian money interests are attracting growing interest from the justice department’s special counsel, Robert Mueller, as he seeks to determine whether the Trump campaign collaborated with Russia to distort the outcome of the 2016 race. Mueller has reportedly expanded his inquiry to look at real estate deals involving the Trump Organization, as well as Kushner’s financing.

Kushner will go before the US Senate intelligence committee on Monday in a closed session of the panel’s inquiry into Russian interference in the election in what could be a pivotal hearing into the affair.

Leviev, a global tycoon known as the “king of diamonds”, was a business partner of the Russian-owned company Prevezon Holdings that was at the center of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit launched in New York. Under the leadership of US attorney Preet Bharara, who was fired by Trump in March, prosecutors pursued Prevezon for allegedly attempting to use Manhattan real estate deals to launder money stolen from the Russian treasury.

The scam had been uncovered by Sergei Magnitsky, an accountant who died in 2009 in a Moscow jail in suspicious circumstances. US sanctions against Russia imposed after Magnitsky’s death were a central topic of conversation at the notorious Trump Tower meeting last June between Kushner, Donald Trump Jr, Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin.

 

Sergei Magnitsky was a Russian lawyer who investigated a massive $230m tax fraud in 2007. 

After he revealed the scam, Magnitsky was arrested by the same officials whom he had accused of covering up the racket and was imprisoned. He died in jail after being denied medical treatment. Russia accused him of committing the fraud himself and even put him on trial posthumously.

After a long campaign by his associates, the Magnitsky Act was passed by Congress in 2012, banning entry to the US and freezing assets of officials believed to have been involved in Magnitsky's persecution and death. Russia responded by banning a list of US citizens it deemed hostile to Russia, and blocking the adoption of Russian children by US citizens – a controversial move that led critics to suggest the Kremlin was punishing Russia’s most vulnerable children. 

Donald Jr and Manafort have been called to testify before the Senate judiciary committee on Wednesday, at which they are certain to face questions about the Trump Tower encounter.

Two days before it was due to open in court in May, the Prevezon case was settled for $6m with no admission of guilt on the part of the defendants. But since details of the Trump Tower meeting emerged, the abrupt settlement of the Prevezon case has come under renewed scrutiny from congressional investigators.

Four Russians attended the meeting, led by Natalia Veselnitskaya, a lawyer with known Kremlin connections who acted as legal counsel for Prevezon in the money laundering case and who called the $6m settlement so slight that “it seemed almost an apology from the government”. Sixteen Democratic members of the House judiciary committee have now written to the justice department in light of the Trump Tower meeting demanding to know whether there was any interference behind the decision to avoid trial.

Constitutional experts are also demanding an official inquiry. “We need a full accounting by Trump’s justice department of the unexplained and frankly outrageous settlement that is likely to be just the tip of a vast financial iceberg,” said Laurence Tribe, Harvard University professor of constitutional law.

Separately, the focus of investigators on Trump family finances stem from the vast flow of Russian wealth that has been poured into New York real estate in recent years. As Donald Trump Jr put it in 2008, referring to the Trump Organization: “We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”

Among the overlapping connections is the 2015 deal in which Kushner paid $295m to acquire several floors of the old New York Times building at 43rd street in Manhattan from the US branch of Leviev’s company, Africa Israel Investments (AFI), and its partner Five Mile Capital. The sale has been identified as of possible interest to the Mueller investigation as Kushner later went on to borrow $285m in refinancing from Deutsche Bank, the German financial house that itself has been embroiled in Russian money laundering scandals and whose loans to Trump are coming under intensifying scrutiny.

Court documents and company records show that AFI was cited in the Prevezon case as a business partner of the defendants. In 2008, Prevezon entered a partnership with AFI in which Prevezon bought for €3m, a 30% stake in four AFI subsidiaries in the Netherlands. Five years later, AFI tried to return the money to the Russian-owned company, but it was intercepted and frozen by Dutch authorities at the request of the US government as part of the Prevezon money-laundering investigation.

In Manhattan, Leviev’s firm also sold condominiums to Prevezon Holdings from one of its landmark developments at 20 Pine Street, just a few blocks from Wall Street.

Real estate brochures describe the lavish interior decor of the condominiums, replete with bathrooms bedecked in stone and exotic woods, and boasting “the ultimate in pampering; a sybaritic recessed rain shower”. The 20 Pine Street apartments that Leviev sold to Prevezon were later frozen by US prosecutors seeking to block the flow of what they alleged to be money stolen from the Russian treasury and laundered through New York real estate.

Prevezon’s 20 Pine Street apartments and €3m in assets were all released as part of the settlement in May.

The Guardian contacted both Kushner and Leviev for comment, but they did not immediately respond.

The pursuit of Prevezon Holdings for alleged money laundering took on enormous political significance as it unfolded. For the prosecutors, it was a test case over suspicious Russian money flows designed to show the US was serious about going after money launderers. For the Russians, it was an opportunity to push back against stringent US sanctions that had long infuriated the Kremlin.

In court documents, US prosecutors accused Prevezon and its sole shareholder, Denis Katsyv, of participating in the laundering of proceeds of the vast tax fraud that stole $230m from the Russian treasury and moved it out of the country in chunks. Prevezon was alleged to have received some of the fraudulent spoils through a network of shell companies, hiding the money by investing in Manhattan real estate including the Leviev condominiums in 20 Pine Street.

Prevezon and Katsyv have consistently denied any involvement in money laundering and have dismissed the lawsuit as “ill-conceived”. In a statement released at the time of the settlement, they said they had “no involvement in or knowledge of any fraudulent activities”.

Magnitsky discovered the massive tax fraud, said to be one of the largest in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, in 2007. After he blew the whistle on the scam, he was arrested by the same officials whom he had accused of covering up the racket and imprisoned, dying in jail having been denied medical treatment.

Magnitsky’s death led to a political backlash in the US that in turn spawned tough sanctions on Russia, known as the Magnitsky Act. Russian individuals associated with the lawyer’s demise and other human rights abuses were banned entry to the US.

Veselnitskaya not only acted as Prevezon’s Russian counsel in the money-laundering case, she also was a leading lobbyist against the Magnitsky sanctions. She raised the subject prominently at the meeting in Trump Tower with Don Jr and Kushner, though according to Veselnitskaya the president’s son-in-law left after 10 minutes.

By the time of the Trump Tower meeting, Veselnitskaya was already personally acquainted with Russia’s powerful prosecutor general, Yuri Chaika, and her lobbying against the Magnitsky sanctions had drawn significant attention in government circles.

“Natalia’s main role was coordinating, including regular coordination with Chaika, whom she knew personally,” said a source acquainted with the Prevezon case.

Veselnitskaya told the Guardian: “My meeting with Trump’s son was a private meeting; nobody in the government had anything to do with it.” She declined to answer a follow-up question about whether and how she knew Chaika.

Jamison Firestone, the founder of the Russian law firm that employed Magnitsky at the time that he exposed the fraud, said that Veselnitskaya clearly intended to use the Trump Tower meeting to lobby against the Magnitsky sanctions. “They really made it a state priority to get rid of these sanctions,” he said.

[new york kevin]

Is anyone saying that Trumps son in law never had any business dealings with Russians, or Russian ex-patriots? No. The Dems are screaming collusion, and manipulating their propaganda machine disguised as ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC  et al to report... well if so many law makers (dems) are saying there are improprieties,  then their must be improprieties,   so demand a Special Prosecutor. The Special Prosecutor Investigation is not about if one businessman who happens to be Trumps son in law, had business dealings with an American businessman who use to be Russian. It about did anyone on the Republican side, and or Trumps campaign specifically work with the Russian government hackers to influence the out come of our POTUS election just to win said election. .What if Adam said no one who knows a mafia type or criminal can be a member of DV or receive any of its benifits post RV. How many of us do not know someone who fits into such catgories? Does that mean we are criminal by association? Would it be fair for anyone to be expelled from DV because of such a tangential connection? No. JMHO.

[Karsten]

Hell.....I think I figured it out. I myself have dealt with people in the Ukraine, Russia and others all over Europe. A lot of what I sell went to be installed on Ukrainian Sniper Rifles.....So let me see if I can get this right and Help Mueller out....Me having the connections to them over there, added to the Fact I also support Trump but I also Voted for him.

 

Now add that the above that my GF who Also Voted for Trump does community work at a little church thrift store brought home a New pair of Trump Slippers that someone dropped off to sell on Ebay....So see, my connections plus the Votes and the Trump Slippers getting sold on Ebay.

 

Yeppers, Mueller....there it is the Smoking Gun of Collusion.

 

Karsten

[nstoolman1]

I think your guilty.  

[new york kevin]

2 hours ago, nstoolman1 said:

I think your guilty.  

She's a colluder! 

[nstoolman1]

1 hour ago, new york kevin said:

She's a colluder! 

I think he is a he. 

Edited July 25, 2017 by nstoolman1

[Karsten]

6 minutes ago, nstoolman1 said:

I think he is a he. 

I am most likely a He but just in case Mueller is gonna start looking and is somewhere Gender Impaired....I have one of those Outty things that even at my age happens to get hard an there are Vid's of some hot Russian ladies to.....See, more for Mueller to look into.......Hot Russian Porn Stars and all the stranger emails I get from ladies over there that want to hook up looking for a new life.

 

I had better ***** Bit my HD  before Hillarious's goones kick my door down.....nope, nothing to see here as I sorta wiped it all clean with a micro fiber detail cloth and Detail Spray.

Looking all shiny now.

 

Karsten

[umbertino]

 

Jared Kushner's explanations on Russia reveal a man wholly unsuited to his job

 

Kushner’s statement raises new questions about how Donald Trump could have entrusted someone with so little foreign policy experience with such a powerful international portfolio

 

 

Ed Pilkington in New York

Monday 24 July 2017 18.07 BST

 

 

 

2 vids in link

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/24/jared-kushner-ignorant-trump-russia-senate-intelligence

 

 

 

[new york kevin]

On 7/24/2017 at 9:34 PM, Karsten said:

I am most likely a He but just in case Mueller is gonna start looking and is somewhere Gender Impaired....I have one of those Outty things that even at my age happens to get hard an there are Vid's of some hot Russian ladies to.....See, more for Mueller to look into.......Hot Russian Porn Stars and all the stranger emails I get from ladies over there that want to hook up looking for a new life.

 

I had better ***** Bit my HD  before Hillarious's goones kick my door down.....nope, nothing to see here as I sorta wiped it all clean with a micro fiber detail cloth and Detail Spray.

Looking all shiny now.

 

Karsten

And it repels water now. Don't get any water spots Sir, you know like that particular brand of English pudding. OMG, did I type that? Must be a hangover from that last  bostonangler party I was in. 

[Shabibilicious]

On 7/25/2017 at 0:05 AM, nstoolman1 said:

I think he is a he. 

 

Girls intuition, or what?  

 

GO RV, then BV

[nstoolman1]

On 7/24/2017 at 6:10 PM, nstoolman1 said:

I think your guilty.  

 

On 7/24/2017 at 8:53 PM, new york kevin said:

She's a colluder! 

 

On 7/24/2017 at 10:05 PM, nstoolman1 said:

I think he is a he. 

 

On 7/24/2017 at 10:34 PM, Karsten said:

I am most likely a He but just in case Mueller is gonna start looking and is somewhere Gender Impaired....I have one of those Outty things that even at my age happens to get hard an there are Vid's of some hot Russian ladies to.....See, more for Mueller to look into.......Hot Russian Porn Stars and all the stranger emails I get from ladies over there that want to hook up looking for a new life.

 

I had better ***** Bit my HD  before Hillarious's goones kick my door down.....nope, nothing to see here as I sorta wiped it all clean with a micro fiber detail cloth and Detail Spray.

Looking all shiny now.

 

Karsten

 

1 hour ago, Shabibilicious said:

 

Girls intuition, or what?  

 

GO RV, then BV

 

No. Not going there. Just read whats there.