—
When Bank AI programs flag your Financial Transaction History as being “suspicious” — usually something is up. Deutsche Bank’s AI programs did just that — repeatedly, regarding Trump and Kushner Transactions. Yet Deutsche Bank’s Managers ignored those “warning flags” — repeatedly.
Deutsche Bank employees reportedly flagged suspicious transactions involving Trump and Kushner
Tammy McFadden, a former Deutsche Bank employee, said she reviewed transactions that involved Kushner's company and Russians in the summer of 2016.
by Allan Smith, NBC News — May 19, 2019
[...]
Over the past few years, Deutsche Bank has been punished by both U.S. and European authorities for its role in money laundering schemes, paying hundreds of millions in fines as a result. The bank has a substantial relationship with Trump, as it was the only major financial institution to continue lending to Trump after he went through a financial downturn in the 1990s. Deutsche Bank lent Trump and his businesses more than $2.5 billion and, when he became president, the bank held more than $300 million in Trump's debt.
“We have increased our anti-financial crime staff and enhanced our controls in recent years and take compliance with the (anti-money laundering) laws very seriously," Kerrie McHugh, a Deutsche Bank spokeswoman, said in a statement. "An effective (anti-money laundering) program requires sophisticated transaction screening technology as well as a trained group of individuals who can analyze the alerts generated by that technology both thoroughly and efficiently."
[...]
In 2016, McFadden reviewed a series of transactions involving Kushner's real estate company, Kushner Companies, that were flagged by the bank's software system. McFadden told The Times that she found that money had moved from the real estate company to Russians and felt the transactions needed to be reported to the Treasury Department — particularly as Deutsche Bank had come under intense scrutiny for its involvement in Russian money laundering schemes.
But bank managers in New York felt McFadden's concerns were unwarranted and did not send a report to the federal government, employees told The Times.
Then, after Trump became president, an internal anti-financial crime team reviewed the president's transactions and "produced multiple suspicious activity reports involving different entities that Mr. Trump owned or controlled," three former bank employees who saw the reports told The Times.
The reports involved Trump's LLC's and the now-defunct Trump Foundation. But, as The Times reported, the bank chose not to file those reports as well.
[...]
There’s a lot to digest there, so let’s break it down into individual Trump/Kushner Scams and/or abuses of office.
That Kushner Companies flag really got my attention. If I’m reading this correctly — Kushner’s Real Estate company was actually flagged for paying-back Russian interests?
Huh? I thought that money-laundering was suppose to go from the Rich-to-the-Poor (from the Cash-flushed to the Cash-strapped).
Let’s see if we can reconstruct Son-in-Law-1’s “reversal of fortunes” from the public record of 2016-2017. As we recall, Jared Kushner’s 666 Skyscraper was about to “go-under”, and Jared The Billionaire Apprentice, was desperate for “investors” to bail him out of his “trouble” … Enter Russian financiers ...
Kushner met Kislyak in April 2016 at a foreign policy speech by Trump at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington.
Kushner also held a Dec. 13 meeting with Sergey Gorkov, head of the state-owned Vnesheconombank, Russia’s national development bank. He said he took the meeting at Kislyak’s urging because Gorkov had a "direct relationship" with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Russian bank described the session in March as part of a new outreach to “a number of representatives of the largest banks and business establishments of the United States, including Jared Kushner, the head of Kushner Companies.” Kushner, by contrast, said he and Gorkov did not discuss “private business of any kind.”
TheMoscowProject.org — Dec 13, 2016
Jared Kushner met with Sergei Gorkov, the CEO of the sanctioned Russian state-owned Vnesheconombank, in New York. The meeting was reportedly arranged by then-Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak. The White House has stated that “nothing of consequence occurred” during this meeting.
[...]
Meanwhile, Kushner’s family real-estate business — much of which he still owns while serving in the White House — has also come under scrutiny for the conflicts of interest it creates. Kushner Companies is reportedly desperate for financing to stay afloat after a series of ill-advised investments, including the debt-fueled purchase of a skyscraper at 666 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. Especially notable is the $285 million loan the company received from Deutsche Bank, an institution with ties to Russian money laundering, in October 2016, less than a month before the election. Federal prosecutors in New York have reportedly requested records related to the loan, which the company describes as a “routine” transaction.
The two threads arguably came together in December 2016, when, after meeting the previous day with Michael Flynn and the Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak, Kushner met with Sergei Gorkov, the CEO of the sanctioned Russian state-owned bank Vnesheconombank. After the meeting became public, Kushner and Gorkov’s accounts differed: The White House said that they discussed policy and that “Kushner was acting in his capacity as a transition official,” and Kushner later said he took the meeting for insight into Putin’s views of the new administration; Gorkov and VEB, however, said the meeting was a business meeting, with Kushner acting on behalf of his family’s real-estate company.
[...]
So in 2016, before they had a chance to get their “cover-stories” straight, the CEO of Russia’s state-owned Bank VEB, admitted to “doing business” with Kushner’s Real-Estate company. Presumably, Deutsche Bank was the “vehicle” Sergei Gorkov used for his $285 Million “investment” in Kushner Companies. Afterall, it would be “unseemly” to for there to be a “paper-trail” — directly back to Russia-state bank VEB (referred to as Putin’s “slush fund” Piggyback, in other sources; VTB bank is referred to as Putin’s “Piggy-Bank”).
Yet this doesn’t explain the suspicious Kushner “repayment” to “the Russians” that the AI software found.
Well, perhaps the “King of Diamonds” Lev Leviev, provided Kushner the cash, to help him appear “solvent” ...
by Wendy Dent and Ed Pilkington in New York and Shaun Walker in Moscow
theguardian.com — 24 July 2017
[...]
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.
[...]
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.
[...]
Now you see it (the $285 Million Deutsche Bank loan) — now you don’t ...
—
Interesting too, that Deutsche Bank officials chose to ignore the warning flags, about Trump’s many, many LLC companies. Companies which Trump routinely uses to “scam” his next mini “caper”:
Donald Trump has charged his own reelection campaign $1.3 million for rent, food, lodging and other expenses since taking office, according to a Forbes analysis of the latest campaign filings. And although outsiders have contributed more than $50 million to the campaign, the billionaire president hasn’t handed over any of his own cash. The net effect: $1.3 million of donor money has turned into $1.3 million of Trump money.
In December, Forbes reported on the first $1.1 million that President Trump moved from his campaign into his business. Since then, his campaign filed additional documentation showing that it spent another $180,000 at Trump-owned properties in the final three months of 2018.
[...]
“I don’t need anybody’s money,” he announced on the day he launched his 2016 campaign, standing inside the marble atrium at Trump Tower. “I’m using my own money. I’m not using the lobbyists. I’m not using donors. I don’t care. I’m really rich.”
[...]
Once he became president, Trump had a chance to get some money back. The campaign put more than $800,000 into Trump Tower Commercial LLC, the holding company through which Trump owns his interest in the original Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. Trump Tower Commercial LLC took in an additional $225,000 in rent from the Republican National Committee, which coordinated those payments with the campaign. That means that, since the inauguration, Trump’s reelection effort has had a hand in funneling more than $1 million into the president’s most famous property.
[...]
I could NOT believe it when I looked at this next List. Who in the world, needs this many “shell companies”?
Well, as we shall see shortly, LLC (Limited Liability Companies) have many “tax advantages” for those who would rather not conduct their “financial transactions” in the public square.
A list of everything Donald Trump runs that has his name on it
The forms were released on Wednesday, July 22, by the Federal Election Commission. Among other things, they required Trump to list all entities for which he serves as an executive. Of the 515 listed in the disclosure, 268 of them—52%—contain his last name [...]
[See
The Trump List, most of these “companies” are just another
Trump LLC.]
—
Interesting too, that Deutsche Bank officials chose to ignore the warning flags, about Trump’s Foundation. A “charity front” which Trump used as another “public facing” Shell Company …
A “vehicle” which Trump Co. can no longer use to “move money around” — all thanks to recent court rulings:
The Trump Foundation is shutting down, but the president and his family still could face liability
TheConversation.com — Dec 19, 2018
The Donald J. Trump Foundation will shut down and distribute the money it has left to charities approved by the New York state attorney general, while the state’s lawsuit against the president and his three oldest children alleging violations of state laws governing charities proceeds.
[...]
Meanwhile, Underwood’s lawsuit against Donald Trump and three of his children – Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric – will go forward even as the family foundation winds down. Underwood’s lawsuit seeks more than $2.8 million in restitution plus additional penalties from these four members of the Trump family for allegedly misusing charitable assets and to temporarily prohibit them from serving on the board of any nonprofit incorporated or authorized to conduct business or solicit donations in the state.
[...]
Under New York law, criminal tax fraud occurs when a person “knowingly” submits “materially false or fraudulent information” in connection with a tax return. To hold someone criminally liable, the prosecution must prove that the person acted “willfully” – which means with “intent to defraud” or to avoid “a known legal duty.” Criminal tax fraud is, at a minimum, a class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail.
—
Who’s knows what all those LLC’s might be used for? Looks like Trump Co. was very skilled at creating them, whenever they need them. Like to pay “hush money” to keep untimely “family values” news from becoming public.
Or perhaps to keep the Ringling Brothers MC rolling in “peanuts” — with well-hidden “shell” resources. Who doesn’t needs some “extra loot” — to tide them over … to make ends meet?
Trump’s tax returns will reveal who is paying him; congressional Republicans don’t want to know.
[...]
This is why Trump’s tax returns matter
We don’t know the truth behind payments to the LLCs because these limited liability companies are what are known as “pass-through” entities. They do not pay corporate income tax; instead, their profits simply “pass through” to the owner — i.e., to Donald Trump — who then pays individual income tax on his taxable income.
If Trump disclosed his tax returns, as is customary for presidential candidates, then those returns would contain fairly detailed statements regarding the incomes of these various entities. It would, of course, still be possible to conceal the true source of income through the use of further shell companies. A firm that wanted to pay Trump could, for example, create an indirectly controlled intermediary shell company, give money to that shell entity, and then have the shell entity hire DT Aerospace (Bermuda) LLC or whichever other Trump-owned firm it likes. But if we saw Trump’s books, we would at least see clear evidence of him getting paid by mystery entities that could then be investigated by Congress or by journalists on their own terms.
Without the tax returns, however, we know nothing.
[...]
— — —
Oh and about Trump’s “lender of last resort” — they need to be put under some serious scrutiny too, if their prior violations mean anything:
— —
When Trump (and his handlers) say “You will NEVER see his Tax Returns” — believe them.
For past that point, career-ending dangers lie …
Beyond that point, the veil of the ‘Honest Businessman’ will be lifted ... gone with the wind.
Cast away into the angry seas.
…