Jason Leopold at Buzzfeed News has some big news for followers of the Russian Agent Maria Butina saga:
Seems like Wells Fargo flagged a series of payments by Butina and Erickson including a $90,000 wire transaction with a Russian Alpha Bank account.
Bank documents indicate Wells Fargo’s anti–money laundering team began checking Butina’s and Erickson’s bank activity in early 2017, after receiving a referral from the FBI. In a report the bank prepared and shared with the bureau and the US Department of the Treasury's financial crimes division, Wells Fargo officials expressed suspicion about the “significant control” Erickson had over Butina’s account. He had access, Wells Fargo found, to her personal checking account, which she opened in 2014. He frequently made payments on her behalf; the recipients have not been identified. He sometimes appeared to write checks that Butina signed. The bank closed the duo’s personal and business accounts in late 2017.
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Among the suspicious transactions cited by the bank and federal investigators:
• About $89,000 passed between Erickson’s US accounts and one held by Butina at Russia’s Alfa Bank...
• About $93,000 was sent or received during a single four-month period — from May to August 2017, after Butina had arrived in the US and was attending graduate school at American University in Washington, DC...
• In June and July 2017, Erickson wired $45,000 to an unidentified law firm in Washington on Butina’s behalf...
• Last summer, Erickson sent two wires for $15,000 to a California company established by the son and brother of Jack Abramoff, a disgraced former lobbyist who is Erickson’s longtime friend, political ally, and business partner...
Looks like Paul Erickson has some more explaining to do.
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UPDATE: This really should be a separate diary, but there is more Butina news breaking tonight by Betsy Woodruff in the Daily Beast: Accused Russian Spy Maria Butina Told American CEO: Send Cash to Moscow
In April of 2015, while that audit was still underway, Butina and Alexander Torshin—a Russian Central Bank official, later accused of money laundering and sanctioned by the U.S. government—attended a private discussion of Russia’s financial situation at the Center for the National Interest, according to Reuters. Greenberg participated in the meeting.
...
Greenberg is a main source of funding for the Center, which arguably has closer relationships with Kremlin officials than any other Washington think tank. From fiscal year 2012 to fiscal year 2015, its total net revenue was $11.6 million; Greenberg’s $5.6 million in contributions nearly half of its income. Greenberg is chairman emeritus of the Center’s board and received its lifetime achievement award in 2017.
...
Sources familiar with Butina’s activity told The Daily Beast that she approached his [Greenberg] Starr investment empire and recommended he invest more money in the flailing bank. The move left observers shocked and disturbed—a little-known twenty-something who was closely linked to a top official in the Russian Central Bank appeared to be telling a major American financier how to handle his Russia investments.
Yikes!