In his 11-page statement to the Senate Intelligence Committee before he was interviewed by their staff today Jared Kushner made the following claim:
I did not collude, nor know of anyone else in the campaign who colluded, with any foreign government. I had no improper contacts. I have not relied on Russian funds to finance my business activities in the private sector. I have tried to be fully transparent with regard to the filing of my SF-86 form, above and beyond what is required. Hopefully, this puts these matters to rest.
Well as it turns around a lot of that is a lie and the Guardian has the proof.
Here’s the short of it.
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.
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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
Lev Leviev is an Uzbek Soviet Born Jewish entrepreneur who emigrated to Israel.
Leviev was born in Samarkand, Uzbek SSR in 1956, and today lives in London and Israel. His parents, Avner and Chana Leviev, were prominent members of the Bukharian Jewish community, and Leviev is a practicing Orthodox Jew. He is a supporter of the Chabad movement although he is a Sephardi Jew, brought up in the Sephardic liturgy. In 1971, when he was fifteen, his family emigrated from Uzbekistan to Israel. Shortly afterwards, Leviev began to work as an apprentice in a diamond polishing plant, learning the 11 steps of the diamond cutting process. After serving in the Israel Defense Forces, he established his own diamond polishing plant.
The Magnitsky act suit against Prevezon was abruptly settled after Press Bharara was fired by Trump after he’d promised to keep him on.
(CNN) A major US investigation into Russian money laundering has come to an abrupt end. The case aimed to expose how Russian mobsters allegedly stole $230 million and hid some of the cash in New York City real estate. Also sure to come up was the suspicious death of the Russian lawyer who exposed the alleged fraud, though US prosecutors weren't alleging that the defendants were behind itThe trial was set to start on Monday, but late Friday night, federal prosecutors in New York announced they settled the case with Prevezon, the company accused of buying up "high-end commercial space and luxury apartments" with laundered money.
The abrupt conclusion has some involved in the trial wondering why this Russian investigation had been cut short.
"What most concerns me is: Has there been any political pressure applied in this?" asked Louise Shelley, an illicit finance expert who was set to testify in support of the US government on Tuesday.
We have to note that Leviev’s business partners Prevezon Holdings — who were apparently financed by money stolen via a tax fraud scheme uncovered by Magnitsky who had been falsely imprisoned and ultimately murdered in his cell due to the efforts of corrupt Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika — were being defended by attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, who used to work for Chaika and still keeps in contact with him —.and happens to be the same person that was sitting in Trump Tower when Kushner walked in late to the meeting talking about “Russia Adoptions” when the real subject was sanctions implemented by the Magnitsky act against potentially criminal oligarchs like Prevezon and possibly Leviev.
Wow, small world ain’t it?
There are also other links that Kushner has to Russian money laundering.
Among the overlapping connections is the 2015 deal in which Kushner paid $295m to acquire several floors of the old New York Times building at 43rd street in Manhattan from the US branch of Leviev’s company, Africa Israel Investments (AFI), and its partner Five Mile Capital. The sale has been identified as of possible interest to the Mueller investigation as Kushner later went on to borrow $285m in refinancing from Deutsche Bank, the German financial house that itself has been embroiled in Russian money laundering scandals and whose loans to Trump are coming under intensifying scrutiny.
Earlier this year Deutsche Bank was fined $630 million for being involved in $10 Billion worth of fraudulent transactions related to Russian money laundering.
NEW YORK/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) has agreed to pay $630 million in fines for organizing $10 billion in sham trades that could have been used to launder money out of Russia, the latest in a string of penalties that have hammered the German lender's finances.
In two detailed reports, U.S. and British regulators criticized the bank for not knowing the customers involved or the source of money for the trades, which helped buoy revenue during a slowdown following the global financial crash.
The scheme involved so-called mirror trades carried out between 2011 to 2015 - for instance, buying Russian stocks in roubles for a client and selling the identical value of a security for U.S. dollars for a related customer.
Mirror trade between 2011 and 2015? And what else happened in 2015 — oh yeah — Kushner got refinanced by Deutsche Bank.
It’s also interesting that Trump’s former outside counsel Kasowitz and his law firm are also linked Kushner, Leviev and Deutsche Bank.
Trump attorney Marc Kasowitz’s law firm Kasowitz Benson Torres, represented the owners of the former New York Times building in a 2015 transaction that gave Trump son-in-law Kushner partial ownership of the Times Square property, reported The Guardian.
The real estate company owned by Kushner, now a senior White House adviser, paid $296 million for the ownership stake in 2015 and then then refinanced that debt in October 2016 through a $285 million loan from Deutsche Bank, according to the Washington Post, that could fall under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Deutsche Bank has extended $364 million in loans to Trump — the most of any lender — while gaining a reputation for Russian money laundering, which former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara was believed to be investigating in the southern district of New York before the president fired him.
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Kasowitz bragged to friends and colleagues that he urged Trump to fire Bharara, four sources told Pro Publica, although the attorney is known for exaggerating his exploits.
I guess we now know what Kasowitz was so happy about when he took credit for Bharara getting fired since it took pressure off of Prevezon and clearly his parters at AFI, Leviev, and consequently Kushner and Trump once you follow all the rabbit holes to the source of the money.
Also Dutch media investigating Leviev have found he has links to human rights violations in Angola, illegal smuggling of diamonds disguised by soot as being of lesser value and the financing of illegal Jewish settlements in the disputed areas of Israel and the West Bank.
Other issues raised by Kushner’s statement:
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He denied colluding with Russians or discussing campaign issues with them. He says “no one he knows” colluded with them but then he knows Flynn — who lied about discussion sanctions with Kislyak— Manafort — who took money from Russia to promote Putin’s agenda and $17 Million under the table from Putin’s Pal Yanakovych, and Roger Stone — who communicated directly with Guccifer 2.0 and Julian Assange — doesn’t he?
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He said he tried to get out of the Veselnitskaya meeting and never fully read the email or apparently the subject line “Clinton — Russia — Private and Confidential. [But he still showed up, didn't he?] He arrived at the meeting late and the topic at the time was “Russian adoptions” he didn’t see that as being relevant and emailed his assistant to call him in order to give him an excuse to leave. "Can u pls call me on my cell? Need excuse to get out of meeting.” He says he didn’t remember anything about the meeting and had disclosed it on his forms prior to it reaching the press. [Except of course “Russian Adoption” was really about Putin’s retaliation for the Magnitsky Act.]
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He said his SF86 form was accidentally submitted without being completed when his assistant mistook the completion of one section to mean the entire form was complete. [Aren’t these supposed to be signed when submitted certifying that they’re fully complete?]
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He revealed that he received an email that was clearly an extortion attempt by “Guccifer400” that threatened to reveal Trump’s tax returns. He thought it was a hoax and referred it to Secret Service. [That should have gone to FBI, Secret Service protects you from physical threats they don’t pursue blackmail or extortion. Yes, they also pursue counterfeiting.]
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He said he only talked to Kislyak for “about a minute” at the Mayflower Hotel simply to exchange pleasantries and denies the Reuters report that he had two phone calls with Kislyak between April and November, saying he searched his phone records and couldn’t find any numbers associated with the ambassador. “I doubt these calls took place.”
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He says he tried to setup a secure back-channel to the Kremlin — at the initial suggestion of Kislyak — in order to discuss the war in Syria, but not over sanctions. [This doesn’t explain why he wanted the U.S. Intel community cut out of the loop, since they have to implement Syria policy anyway and the people who really don’t need to know are ISIS. Plus this was in December and January while they were all still “private citizens” — Logan Act — and long before there were allegations of “wiretaps”, “unmasking” or “leaks” coming from US Intel so what gives?]
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Kislyak kept pestering him for continued meetings which he didn’t have time for and turned down until finally sending his assistant, then he agreed to meet Gorkov — who owns a sanctioned Russian bank (VEB)— because “he had a direct link to Putin.” He says they didn’t discuss sanctions or business or really anything other than “wanting better relations.”
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He never mentions or explains his meeting with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi which he attended with Steve Bannon following his meeting with Gorkov to further discuss Russia relations, or the follow on meeting to that between the Crown Prince and Eric Prince of Blackwater in the Seychelles Islands.
So of course, there’s nothing to see here folks. Move along. Move along.
Tuesday, Jul 25, 2017 · 4:23:24 AM +00:00
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Frank Vyan Walton
Kushner’s former Editor-in-Chief at the New York Observer is not buying the “bumbling and overworked” act.
Speaking with host Ari Melber, Elizabeth Spiers said she found Kushner’s written statement and brief comments to the press “implausible.”
“Elizabeth, he [Kushner] casts himself as overworked, and not necessarily detail oriented,” Melber asked. “Does that match with the person you worked for, the one you knew?”
“No,” she bluntly replied. “He has a — you know, he has a good work ethic. It’s possible he was working harder than he’s accustomed to. However, in terms of the detail orientation, I find it implausible he would show up to a meeting without knowing what it was about.”
“He’s a busy guy,” she continued. “In my experience, every meeting we had was planned and scheduled, and he always had an agenda for it.”
“When he showed up at a meeting with you, he knew what they were about?” Melber pressed.
“Yeah,” Spiers stated. “I don’t find it credible that he had no idea these meetings were about.”