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And in other Trump Corruption News today ...
by Christian Berthelsen, bloomberg.com — December 11, 2019
[...]
Rudy Giuliani’s associate Lev Parnas got $1 million from an account in Russia in September, a month before he was charged with conspiring to funnel foreign money into U.S. political campaigns, according to U.S. prosecutors who asked a judge to jail him for understating his income and assets.
[...]
Parnas and Fruman are also accused of using an unnamed Russian national as the source of funds for political donations to curry favor with state and federal officials for support in starting a retail marijuana business. The government didn’t say whether the same Russian was the source of the $1 million payment in September.
Prosecutors asked the judge to revoke Parnas’s bail, saying he also lied about his income. While he presented varying pictures of his financial condition to authorities on three different occasions, prosecutors say he never disclosed the $1 million payment, or a $200,000 escrow deposit he had made on a $4.5 million Boca Raton property -- and that he really received $200,000 for his work on Firtash’s legal team, not the $50,000 he claimed.
[...]
Who is Firtash?
Exclusive: How a Ukrainian Oligarch Wanted by U.S. Authorities Helped Giuliani Attack Biden
by Simon Shuster, Time — Oct 15, 2019
In their effort to discredit President Donald Trump’s perceived enemies, close allies of the President have received key documents and information from a Ukrainian oligarch wanted in the U.S. on corruption charges, according to five people directly involved in this effort and two other people familiar with it.
The information came from the legal team of Dmitry Firtash, a wealthy industrialist with assets across Europe, who has spent the last five years in Vienna fighting extradition to the U.S. on bribery and racketeering charges. The U.S. Department of Justice said in 2017 he was among the “upper echelon associates of Russian organized crime”—something Firtash vigorously denies, along with all charges against him.
As part of his legal defense, Firtash’s lawyers have gathered documents that make controversial allegations against former special counsel Robert Mueller and former Vice President Joe Biden. Firtash’s lawyers have passed these documents and other information to associates of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
In his frequent appearances on cable news, Giuliani has presented some of these documents to the American public as evidence for his claims of wrongdoing by Mueller and Biden. [...]
Firtash may deny “vigorously” that he is not a mobbed-up Russian Oligarch — like Trump fevorishly “denies” he is anything less than “perfect” — BUT Dmitry Firtash’s own admitted track record, tells an entirely different story:
by Luke Harding, The Guardian — Dec 1, 2010
Gas supplies to Ukraine and EU states are linked to the Russian mafia, according to the US ambassador in Kiev.
His cable, released by WikiLeaks, followed statements by the then prime minister of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, to the BBC that she had "documented proof that some powerful criminal structures are behind the RosUkrEnergo (RUE) company".
Allegations have long swirled that the Russian crime don Semyon Mogilevich had covert interests in Swiss-registered RUE, which distributes gas from central Asia. A billionaire Ukrainian businessman, Dmitry Firtash, nominally owns nearly half the company. (The Russian state firm Gazprom owns the other half.) [...]
In a secret memo the ambassador, William Taylor, wrote: "He [Firtash] acknowledged ties to Russian organised crime figure Semyon Mogilevich, stating he had needed Mogilevich's approval to get into business in the first place."
And this fugitive Firtash is Rudy Giuliani’s primary source … of his quote “Evidence” …
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As we were reminded on the Maddow Show this evening, Lev Parnas’ Lawyer has made — in all “seriousness” — the claims of privilege for his client, because Parnas insists he was working directly for Rudy, who in turn was following the orders of Trump. (Parnas has recorded evidence of his Trump meetings.)
There is some debate, who is working for whom,
in this “secret mission” trio:
"Mr. Parnas at all times believed that he was acting only on behalf of the President, as directed by his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and never on behalf of any Ukrainian officials,” Parnas’s attorney told CNN.
…
But the real question is who is the deep-pockets “Russian businessman” that has been funding their nefarious back-channel “persuasion” roadshow?
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Who was Firtash working for, since he was obviously footing the bills, and providing the “dirt”?
Was Dmitry working for Rudy and the GOP — OR was he instead “doing a favor” for Putin?
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Perhaps it was both.
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I’d bet that some crucial evidence of these connections, is buried somewhere on Rudy’s phone. He’s told us as much, on many occasions …
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Let’s not forget, when this sordid story first broke — It was because of the breaking news that Giuliani had been paid a half-million bucks from the Lev and Igor store front: “Fraud Guarantee”
… Rudy’s unreported income, for {Cough} “security consulting services” …
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Who is working for Whom, indeed?
(That was only 2 short months ago, which kind of seem like an eternity, in Justice-seeking years. Only in Trump’s Corrupt America ...)
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