Buzzfeeed is reporting that the FBI is tracking at least 60 payments that might reflect Russian monetary support of its 2016 election efforts. Some of the money came directly through the US embassy in Washington
The wire transfer, which came from a Kremlin-backed Russian bank, landed in one of the embassy’s Citibank accounts and contained a remarkable memo line: “to finance election campaign of 2016.”
Other payments were deliberately spread through accounts around the world.
The money wound up at Russian embassies in almost 60 countries from Afghanistan to Nigeria between Aug. 3 and Sept. 20, 2016. It is not clear how the funds were used. At least one transaction that came into the US originated with VTB Bank, a financial institution that is majority-owned by the Kremlin.
It’s not clear that any of the funds ended up directly in campaign coffers. These transactions may have gone toward Russia’s ad buys with Facebook, Twitter, Google and other social media. They may also have gone directly to still unknown resources in the United States. The transactions were turned up by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network as part of the broader Russia investigation and are still being examined. Not all of the funds under investigation may have be directly election-related—some likely reflects money laundering activity … but not all.
“We had an election and the intelligence community concluded Russia interfered in it,” said the FBI agent. “How could we not investigate a suspicious financial transaction that contained a memo that said, ‘finance election campaign 2016?’ Given the climate and what was in that memo line it would be very irresponsible for us not to investigate. It’s a good lead.”
The 60 transactions are just a small part of a larger set of transitions that could come under review.
Following the congressional requests, Citibank turned over a range of financial documents. The material includes more than 650 suspicious transactions between November 2013 and March 2017 totaling about $2.9 million. That money was sent to four Russian accounts operating in the US: the embassy; the Office of Defense, Military, Air and Naval Attaches; and Russian cultural centers in Washington and New York City.
And where the money went from there … still needs to be determined.