DOJ Abruptly Settles Russian Money Laundering Case – Nothing to See Here
In May, two days before trial, Jeff Session’s DOJ abruptly settled a $230 million Russian money laundering case for a measly $6 million. The case, United States v. Prevezon Holdings Ltd, alleged that Russians were using New York real estate to launder Russian money into the US. To add just a little intrigue, the Russian attorney who discovered the fraud, Sergei Magnitsky, died in a Russian prison under mysterious circumstances. Even more important, though, was that one of the attorneys representing Prevezon in the case was none other than Natalia Veselnitskaya…that’s right, that Natalia Veselnitskaya, who met with DJT Jr last summer promising dirt on Hillary.
But that’s not all. The US attorney in New York who was going after Prevezon? Correct. Preet Bharara, who Trump summarily fired earlier this year. In describing the case before he was fired, Bharara said,
In 2007, a Russian criminal organization engaged in an elaborate tax refund fraud scheme resulting in a fraudulently-obtained tax refund of approximately $230 million from the Russian treasury….
Members of the criminal organization, and associates of those members, have also engaged in a broad pattern of money laundering in order to conceal the proceeds of the fraud scheme. In a complex series of transfers through shell corporations, the $230 million from the Russian treasury was laundered into numerous accounts in Russia and other countries ….
PREVEZON HOLDINGS laundered these fraud proceeds into its real estate holdings, including investment in multiple units of high-end commercial space and luxury apartments in Manhattan, and created multiple other corporations, also subject to the forfeiture action, to hold these properties.
Why was Bharara fired? We’ll never really know, but he was hot after Trump’s Russia connections and other cases involving him and his companies.
This case received little attention in May when the settlement happened, but in the wake of the firestorm around DJT Jr’s emails and meeting with Veselnitskaya last summer, Democrats in Congress are beginning to connect the dots and have now demanded disclosure from Jeff Sessions about this case and its connections to both Trump and DJT Jr. Are all of these Trump/Russia intersections simply coinkidink? I think not, but it will take persistence of the press and honest prosecutors to uncover it, for sure.
Drip, drip, drip.
There’s not enough popcorn in the world . . .
1I have been writing for a couple of months now that Trump’s real concern over the Russia election issue was not about any collusion problem. Slimy and possibly illegal as it is I am sure Trump and his people believe they can tough that out using their Republican immunity.
The real concern that an investigation of that will eventually turn up the Russia financial leverage over Trump. Meuller will have to follow the money and that is where it goes. There is little question that Russians and possibly other foreign interests can squeeze Trump at will and that is what he doesn’t want you to know.
Having said that I don’t think even that would be enough to strip off the Republican immunity that Trump enjoys. But keeping that hidden seems to be a real concern to the Trumpists.
2I give this nacilbuper congress exactly zero credit in connecting the dots. They wouldnt/couldnt connect three dots if you spotted them two connections.
3If I ( hopefully) live long enough we are going to discover trump companies had dealings with Russia reaching back decades. Republicans would say ” move along nothing to see here”.
4The Republicans are selling America out to the Russians. Given the histrionics about The Evil Empire over the years from that same party, the situation leaves me shaking my head in wonder and disbelief. Every day that they excuse the Trump family’s activities and the clear evidence of election hacking activity by the Russians, they throw the U.S. further under the Russian bus. What is WRONG with these people? I’d like to stab every one of them with their @#%^ flag pins.
5Yesterday I watched a Stephen Colbert clip in which he had a montage of Trump saying over and over that he had no connections in Russia, no business in Russia, period. Donnie’s pants were not in flames but should have been.
Someday people are going to look back at these years and marvel at how clueless or (much more likely) corrupt the GOP was to put up with all this garbage.
6Democrats may demand all they want, it seems Sessions refuses to reply to anything Democrats request, demand or ask. This situation is intolerable and should result in charges against Beauregard.
7The Barking Yam went out looking for a sip to head up DOJ and lo! there he was – Jefferson Beuregard Sessions. That was one damn deliberate act of chicanery right there. And the Barking Yam got what he wanted. But the whole reeking lot of the should keep looking over their shoulders. Karma knows where all of them live and exactly how to get them.
8On Hannity, Jr. said, about the meeting and his released info: “that’s it, that’s all there is, that’s everything” and I thought to myself why is he being so emphatic, almost as if there is more to it than Clinton info which they say did not pan out.
9what if, it was really about PREVEZON????
and the Trumpets decided to deflect by concocting the Clinton story?
Mueller is a smart guy, Jr is dumb. If it was about Prevezon Mueller will nail them.
10From the Reuters link:
“The settlement comes after Prevezon was hit with key setbacks last week: U.S. District Judge William Pauley denied a summary judgment motion by the defense and granted a government motion to admit evidence from a Russian criminal case.”
It almost sounds like Prevezon was on the ropes the week before–and then the DOJ settles for a paltry amount. Wow!
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