Companion Appendix to TrumPutin Timeline:

Trump and Russia: An Exhaustive Timeline 1987-2017

aggregation and editorial by @R0G3R5R4NG3R5

Felix Sater

(*Ed. note: I have included Felix in both this page and the “Team America” page as his ultimate allegiance has yet to be determined as of the date of this writing.)

Summary: Sater had a criminal history and served as an informant in the FBI, [WashPost], before finding a job at Bayrock from roughly 2003 to 2008. [FT; WashPost]. Around 2009, he went to work directly for the Trump Organization. [WashPost]. He would work with Trump on real estate deals (including a Trump Tower in Moscow into the fall of 2015). [NYTimes].
Criminal History Born in the Soviet Union, Sater emigrated to the US when he was 8. [Wash Post]. In 1991, Sater stabbed a foe in the face in a bar fight. [WashPost]. Later, he was convicted in a stock manipulation scheme involving the Mafia and Russian criminals, [NYTimes], but avoided jail time by becoming a FBI informant in national security cases. [WashPost].
Trump Denies Knowing Sater: Articles in Forbes and the Washington Post show Sater had a close relationship with Trump and even met Trump’s family. In 2011, under oath, Trump said he knew Sater “for a period of time.” [MotherJones]. Yet in 2013, under oath, Trump swore he wouldn’t recognize Sater. [Politico]. Attorneys filing the 2016 lawsuit against Bayrock convincingly claim this is a falsehood. [Forbes].
Sater Ties to Trump Campaign/Administration: Sater made the maximum allowable donations to the Trump campaign. [Politico]. Recently, Sater helped route a plan to reduce sanctions on Russia to Trump. [NYTmes]. The plan was created by a Ukrainian politician with encouragement from top aids to Putin. [NYTmes].

Tevfik Arif was born Tofic Arifov in Cambul in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic in May 1953.^[1][2] He received an international relations degree from a Moscow university.^[1] Prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Arif worked for the USSR’s Ministry of Commerce and Trade for 17 years. He served as the deputy director of its Department of Hotel Management.^[3] Arif resigned from the ministry in 1991 and founded Speciality Chemicals Trading Company, an export-import business trading in rare metals, chrome, and raw materials.^[1][4] He then worked as an “agent on the ground” in Kazakhstan for Trans World Group, a natural resources company run by David and Simon Reuben.^[1]

Arif moved to Turkey in 1993. He had owned the Turkish jewellery business Alset Dis Ticaret since 1979.^[1] In 1999, Arif partnered with the Rixos hotel chain to open the Labada luxury hotel in Antalya, Turkey.^[5]

Following the independence of Kazakhstan, Arif and his brother secured ownership of ACCP, a chromium plant in Aktobe that had headquarters in the British Virgin Islands.^[2] The brothers developed ties to the Kazakh Trio — Alexander Mashkevitch, Patokh Chodiev, and Alijan Ibragimov. They later established offshore real estate companies to fund high-end developments in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkey.^[2]

Later career[edit]

Bayrock Group[edit]

In 2001, Arif moved some of his businesses to the United States^[2] and founded the Bayrock Group, a real estate development company. He began developing property in Brooklyn, first redeveloping Loehmann’s Seaport Plaza, a waterfront shopping center in Sheepshead Bay.^[3] Arif was originally the sole employee of Bayrock, later hiring Felix Sater as managing director.^[4]

After moving the Bayrock Group to Trump Tower, Arif developed a relationship with billionaire businessman Donald Trump. Trump provided a licensing deal for the Trump SoHo hotel in a joint venture between the Bayrock Group and the Sapir Organisation.^[6] In 2007, Bayrock traded future profits from Trump SoHo and other projects in exchange for $50 million in financing from Icelandic company FL Group. The arrangement led Bayrock’s finance director to file racketeering lawsuits, alleging that money was diverted to people outside the company, including Salvatore Lauria, an associate of Sater’s.^[4]

Trump and Bayrock later developed the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Fort Lauderdale. Arif also worked to introduce Trump to investors from Russia.^[6] Through Bayrock, Arif collaborated with Trump on projects in Turkey, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Arizona, Colorado, New York, and Florida.^[4]

Personal life[edit]

Arif is believed to live in Turkey.^[4] In 2012, he had links to the ownership of Port Washington mansion.^[3]

The former Soviet commerce and trade official founded Bayrock. [TheDiplomat]. In the early 1990s, Arif emigrated from Kazakhstan to Turkey, where he developed a hotel chains. [TAI]. A couple years later he moved to New York, founded Bayrock, and eventually opened up an office in the Trump Tower in NYC. [TAI]. Arif appears to have links to Kazakhstan, and in particularly, the Eurasia Group. [TAI]. He also was accused of running a sex trafficking ring in Turkey. [TAI].

Sergei Millian

Summary: Since 2006, Millian headed the Russian American Chamber of Commerce (RACC). [FT]. He claims RACC represent its commercial members, but the FBI suspects it is a Russian intelligence front. [MotherJones]. Millian has regularly appeared on Russian state media, where he boasted that he marketed Trump properties to oligarchs in the former Soviet Union. [FT]. He implied that he paved the way for Russians to invest “hundreds of millions” in the Trump organization, and for dozens of Russians to buy Trump apartments. [FT].
Connections to Russian Gov.: Millian claims the RACC is funded solely from its commercial members — not the Russian government. [FT]. But the Financial Times found RACC members didn’t answer phones, and no RACC offices existed at its listed address. [FT]. The FBI suspects RACC is a Russian intelligence front. [MotherJones]. RACC organized trips for Russian governors to visit the US, and for US businessmen to visit Moscow. [FT].
Connections to Donald Trump: In 2007, Millian alleges he met Trump first in Moscow, and later in the US at the races. [FT]. Millian alleges that after this meeting, Trump’s lawyer granted Millian rights to sell Trump property to oligarchs in the USSR (including Russians), leading to “hundreds of millions dollars” from Russia flowing into Trump’s coffers. [FT]. At one point, RACC’s website stated that RACC had “signed agreements with the Trump Org.” to “jointly service the Russian clients’ commercial, residential and industrial real-estate needs.” [FT].
Now Trump and Millian Deny Connections: When Trump started his presidential campaign, Milian falsely denied he was connected to Trump, and the RACC removed the aforementioned text from its website. [FT]. Trump’s lawyer said that Trump and Millian never worked together. [ABC] Trump’s spokeswomen stated that Trump and Millian met in person only once, at a hotel opening almost a decade ago [FT].
Salacious allegations: In 2013, Milian told ABC that Trump liked visiting Russia for “both business and pleasure,” adding “he likes beautiful Russian ladies.” [ABC]. More recently, ABC reported that Millian was likely, and unwittingly, a source of the dossier’s most salacious allegations. [ABC]. Millian denies everything. [ABC].

Dmitry Rybolovlev.

“Rybolovlev is 10% owner in Bank of Cyprus–haven for Russian $–which Trump Comm Sec Wilbur Ross took over with ex-KGB, Putin oligarchs” @Khanoisseur

Barely over 40 and worth a Forbes-estimated $12.5 billion in 2008, Rybolovlev was not exactly a familiar name on the Palm Beach social circuit. A former medical student who became a stock broker as the country transitioned from socialism to a market economy in the 1990s, he invested in heavy industry. In 1995, then just 29 years old, he was chairman of the Russian fertilizer giant Uralkali. Dubbed “the fertilizer king,” he would become one of the world’s wealthiest men, peaking at No. 59 on the Forbes 500 list. (Today, he’s listed as the 148th wealthiest man.) Like many Russian oligarchs, his success unfolded in the shadow of violence. Caught up in the dangerous world of 1990s Russian industry, he began wearing a bulletproof vest and moved his family to Switzerland. In 1996, he was jailed for almost a year, accused of plotting the murder of a rival businessman. (Rybolovlev has said he was pressured in jail to sell shares of his company for his freedom, suggesting possible extortion; he was later acquitted.)

Today, Rybolovlev is better known for other things. There was his record-setting purchase of an $88 million Manhattan apartment for his 22-year-old daughter; his ownership of Monaco’s pro soccer team; and recent accounts in the New York Times and The New Yorker of claims that an art broker who helped him purchase works by the likes of Picasso and da Vinci overcharged him by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Back then, Rybolovlev was just starting to collect the treasures for which he is now famous. He and his wife, Elena, whom he married in 1987, were developing an appetite for grand properties, and planned to build a replica in Geneva of Marie Antoinette’s chateau at Versailles.

Louise Mensch is currently all up in his business in regard to some shenanigans with tail numbers on a fleet of private jets that resembles some back-alley shell game of FAA registrations and possible serial number swaps? Who knows what she’ll dig up, but he HAS been at a lot of the same airports as Dear Leader Trump…

Tamir Sapir

(Russian: Тимур Сапир, birth name Temur Sepiashvili, Georgian: თემურ სეფიაშვილი); 1946/1947 – September 26, 2014) was an American businessman and investor from the former Soviet republic of Georgia who made millions bartering fertilizer and oil with the Soviets in the 1980s; he took most of his money and put it into New York real-estate. He was included in The 400 Richest Americans List of September 2008 (#246), with a net worth of $1.9 billion. In March 2010, he ranked 721st on Forbes‘ list of billionaires, with a net worth of $1.4 billion.

Temur Sepiashvili was born to a Jewish family in Tbilisi.^[3] His father was a major in the Soviet Army.^[3] In the early 1970s he studied journalism at Tbilisi State University but left to earn money to support his family because of his father’s death.

Career[edit]

He took a job processing emigration applications for Soviet Jews^[3] and in 1973, he immigrated to Israel with his wife around the time of the Yom Kippur War.^[3] He changed his last name to Sapir while in Israel^{[citation needed]} and moved to the United States first to Louisville, Kentucky where he learned English and worked as a bus driver, janitor and a loader; and then to New York City where he worked as a taxicab driver.^[3] He then opened an electronics store with fellow immigrant Sam Kislin catering primarily to Russian clientele.^[3]

Sapir made contacts with the Soviet contingent to the United Nations in New York, and started trading electronics, clothing, and footwear for Soviet oil and oil products which he then sold to American companies.^[3][4] Investing the profits in Manhattan real estate in the 1990s, which was then in a slump,^[3] he became a billionaire by 2002.^[5] Sapir has been referred to as America’s “billionaire cabbie”.

Sapir brought a lawsuit in Russia against a Moscow oil refinery after it violated the terms of a contract by failing to transfer oil products for delivered equipment. Sapir won the case in 2005, but received none of the $28 million the Moscow company was ordered to pay.^[6]

Personal life[edit]

Sapir was married twice. His first marriage to Bella Sapir ended in divorce.^[7] He has five children: Alex Sapir (born 1980), Zina Sapir Rosen (born 1985, Married to Rotem Rosen), Ruth, Zita, Eli.^[8] His second wife was Elena Ponomareva.^[8] He was a member of the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan.^[8] He built the Congregation of Georgian Jews synagogue in Rego Park, Queens.^[9] He died on September 26, 2014, aged 67.^[10]

“Sapir, a Soviet emigre, drove cabs, sold electronics to KGB agents, became a billionaire, introduced Trump to Sater, Arif and Bayrock” @Khanoisseur

Semion Yudkovich Mogilevich^[1]

H/T to MWR DBM‏@mwr_dbm for much of this.

(Ukrainian: Семен Ю́дкович Могиле́вич, tr: Semen Yudkovych Mohylevych, [sɛmˈɛn ˈjudkɔwɪt͡ʃ mɔɦɪˈlɛwɪt͡ʃ]; born June 30, 1946) is a Ukrainian-born, alleged Russian organized crime boss, believed by European and United States federal law enforcement agencies to be the “boss of bosses” of most Russian Mafia syndicates in the world.^[2] Mogilevich is believed to direct a vast criminal empire and is described by the FBI as “the most dangerous mobster in the world.”^[3][4] He has been accused by the FBI of “weapons trafficking, contract murders, extortion, drug trafficking, and prostitution on an international scale.”^[5]

According to US diplomatic cables, he is said to control RosUkrEnergo, a company actively involved in Russia–Ukraine gas disputes, and a partner of Raiffeisen Bank.^[7]

Mogilevich, from FBI Top Ten list. He is engaged in weapons trafficking, contract killings, money laundering, etc.

Working with Sergei Mikhailov (Mikhas), Mogilevich is an important figure in the Solntsevskaya bratva, Russian OC.

Mogilevich has Israeli and Hungarian citizenships. USG has indicted him over fraud and money laundering.

Who he is: Mogilevich is perhaps the most powerful Russian Mafia boss. [TAI]. In 1998, his organization had about 250 members and laundered money, weapons and even nuclear material. [TAI]. Mogilvech also prides himself on pulling off complex financial fraud. [TAI]. He is a citizen of Ukraine, Russia and Israel. [TAI].
Notorious: The FBI had Mogilvech on its Ten Most Wanted List from 2009 to 2015, partly for a $150 million stock fraud. [TAI]. Mogilvech is the supposed head of Solntseveskaya Bratva, which was the world’s highest grossing crime group in 2014. [TAI].
Connections: Sater’s father worked for Mogilevich. [TAI]. Mogilevich also was a close business associate of Boris Birshtein. [TAI]. Mogilvech also ties to Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov and Anatoly Golubchik. [TAI]. David Bogatin and Vyacheslav Ivankov were important lieutenants in the the Mogilvech crime family. [TAI].

FELIX/MICHAEL SATER CONNECTION

Felix Sater (Sheferofsky) was in the news as he proposed a lifting of Russia sanctions by ways “peace plan” for Ukraine delivered to Flynn.

He was part of the Bayrock Group that developed the SoHo and Ft Lauderdale Trump properties, both failures, investors lost tens of millions.

His rap sheet is an assault and stock fraud. He had his record sealed until 2012 by the CIA/FBI so he can try to buy weapons in former USSR.

Felix had good connections with arms traffickers, as his father Michael Sater (Mikhail Sheferofsky) worked for Mogilevich.

Page 13 of the petition mentions ties to Mogilevich: http://c10.nrostatic.com/sites/default/files/Palmer-Petition-for-a-writ-of-certiorari-14-676.pdf …

Mikhail Sheferofsky took a guilty plea on 2 counts of extortion in 2006

Click on 30 (judgement):

Felix Sater is someone that President Donald Trump is confident he doesn’t know. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

MANAFORT – FIRTASH CONNECTION

Firtash was arrested in Austria on US warrant for bribing an Indian official. He is extradited to the US, and it is bad news for Trump camp.

Not widely known to Americans, the quickest way to become rich in the former USSR is to skim some money off the “the pipe”, oil-gas exports.

Firtash was an intermediary in the gas trade between Russia (Gazprom) and Ukraine.

Important role because selling gas directly to Ukraine would afford few opportunities for pilfering.

This is why you need people like Firtash. He was getting a huge discount from Gazprom, and was selling for above market price to Ukraine.

He made billions on the arrangement, but nobody was going to just give him the money, right? Firtash was a front.

Firtash’s boss was Semion Mogilevich, which is confirmed in the leaked US State Dep cables. Panama papers leaks also show connections.

Mogilevich was not the only beneficiary of the deal. Russian and Ukrainian players, like the Party of Regions that employed Manafort were.

No surprise that when Firtash was laundering the money using NYC real estate, Manafort was helping him. Manafort lives in Trump Tower in NYC, dabs in NY real estate, and was Trump’s campaign manager. What are the chances, right?

US State Department cables included reports that Mogilevich was involved in the businesses of Dmitry Firtash, a claim Firtash has denied — although he was the source for one of the cables. Firtash, as discussed in another part of this account, rose from a small-time food trader in Post-Soviet Ukraine to one of the leading industrialists of the country.

SHNAIDER – BIRSHTEIN CONNECTION

The infamous Trump Tower Toronto started shedding glass after opening in 2012, and in 2016 went into default. The person who invested most in this project was Alex Shnaider, St. Petersburg born Canadian, and billionaire owner of Midland Resources.

Alex started as Jewish immigrant from rags, and found his riches through his father in law, Boris Birshtein.

Fellow Canadian from Vilnius, Birshtein started metal trading company Seabeco in 1982, which miraculously sold lots of metal from USSR.

There are rumors of KGB connections of Birshtein, which helped him secure purchase contract for metals at half the market price.

The more serious allegations are that Birshtein worked with Russian mob boss Sergei Mikhailov, also based in Switzerland at the time.

Swiss investigators raided Mikhailov’s office in Geneva in 1996 and arrested him:

FBI report in Aug 1996, obtained by the FT stated Birshtein hosted “a summit meeting of Russian OC figures” at his office in Tel Aviv Oct’95

Besides Mikhailov, Mogilevich was present at the meeting, where the scheme of energy supply to Ukraine was discussed.http://willzuzak.ca/lp/clover01.html …

Birshtein was key to the setup because of close ties (aka bribes) to Olexander Volkov, a top advisor to then Ukrainian President Kuchma.

Now, back to Shnaider. After working for Seabeco, he opened his own business in [you guessed it!] Ukraine. Selling [you guessed it!] metals.

His company with Eduard Shifrin, Midland, bought a steel mill in Zaporozhie, making him the youngest billionaire in Canada.

He tried to diversify into other businesses, like Trump Tower, but for some reason none worked out quite as well. I wonder why?…

Fun fact, or the fourth connection? Father of Dasha Zhukova is alleged to help Mogilevich traffic weapons from Ukraine.

Reference:

Find your own oligarch!

Panama Papers and offshore leaks databases

https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/

Search for:

Dmytro Firtash

Arbat Capital Group, Mogilevich’s company

Arigon, Mogilevich’s company

Galina Telesh, Mogilevich’s wife

Alexander Shnaider

Eduard Shyfrin (aka Shifrin), Shnaider’s partner

MIDLAND RESOURCES HOLDING LIMITED – company of Alex Shnaider and Eduard Shifrin

Alexander Mashkevitch

Alexander Antonovich Mashkevich (Hebrew: אלכסנדר משקביץ‎‎; also transliterated Alexandr Mashkevic; Russian: Александр Антонович Машкевич; born 23 February 1954) is a businessman and investor. He has major holdings and close political relationships in Kazakhstan. He holds both Kazakh and Israeli citizenship; according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, he usually travels on his Israeli passport and “rarely spends more than a week each month in Kazakhstan.”^[3]

Biography[edit]

Mashkevich was born in Frunze, Kyrgyz SSR, Soviet Union, in 1954. His father Anton, a doctor born in Lithuania, and his mother, Rakhel Yoffe, a lawyer born in Vitebsk, were evacuated to Kyrgyzstan in 1941.^[1] He is a graduate of Kyrgyz State University where he studied philology. Mashkevich started out an academic career but became a businessman during perestroika. Mashkevich, Patokh Chodiev, and Alijan Ibragimov form “the Trio,” a group of Kazakh businessmen who became billionaires.^[3] The Trio gained control of the recently privatized chromium, alumina, and gas operations in Kazakhstan (some of the largest ones in the world).^[4][5]

With his partners Chodiev and Ibragimov, Mashkevich helped to develop these assets, and is a major shareholder in Eurasian National Resources Corporation (ENRC), now one of the world’s leading natural resources groups. ENRC, based in London, operates a number of metals assets in Kazakhstan and Africa, having acquired numerous mining operations in Eastern Europe and Africa. In 2009, ENRC generated a $1,462 million profit on sales of $3.8 billion.

ENRC was floated on the London Stock Exchange in December 2007, with a market capitalisation on Admission of approximately £6.8 billion.

Mashkevich served as president of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) until 2011. The EAJC is one of the five regional branches of World Jewish Congress (WJC). In this capacity, he has visited a number of synagogues around the world and met with many prominent individuals. In 2002, Mashkevich had a private meeting with then-Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.^[6] In apparent consultation with Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, he asked his personal friend Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev to intervene with Iran concerning Israeli soldiers captured by Hizbullah.^[6] Also, while in Israel, Mashkevich “several times rather closely cooperated” with Kazakh Ambassador, now Deputy Foreign Minister, Kairat Abdurakhmanov.^[7]

Mashkevich is one of the owners of Alferon Management. Based in London, Alferon Management has acquired mining operations in different places: Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Kosovo, Russia, and other countries

The Eurasia Group: run by a trio of corrupt billionaires from Kazakhstan (Chodiev/Shodiyev, Ibragimov, and Mashevich). Since late 1980s, Trio worked to buy up Kazakhstan’s natural resources. [TAI] In doing so, the Trio became close to the autocratic ruler of Kazakhstan (Nursultan Nazarbayev). [TAI ;TheGuardian]. The Group also worked with Bayrock to help finance Trump projects. [TAI]. The US has previously prosecuted the Trio for laundering, bribery, and racketeering. [TAI]. The Trio owns the offshore company “International Financial Limited” which the Belgian media suspect of laundering money. [TAI].

Alex Shnaider

Shnaider moved with his family to Israel when he was four, and then to Canada when he was 13. He was educated at York University in Toronto (BA Hons Economics 1991).^[2]

Midland Group

In 1994 Shnaider co-founded Midland Group – originally a steel producer – with former business partner Eduard Shifrin. The company operated in Ukraine before government-owned steel factories were privatised. In 1999 Midland Resources began buying shares in the Zaporizhstal steel mill. By 2001, Shnaider’s consortium had bought 93 per cent of the mill for $70 million.

Sports investments

Shnaider bought Jordan Grand Prix from Eddie Jordan in February 2005 for approximately US$50 million, and renamed it Midland F1 Racing for the 2006 Formula One season. On 9 September 2006, the team was sold to Spyker Cars.^[3]

In December 2007 Shnaider bought Israeli soccer team Maccabi Tel Aviv for an estimated 12 million euros.^[4] On 4 August 2009, Shnaider sold the club to Canadian property developer Mitchell Goldhar, after investing $20 million in the club.^[5] Goldhar took on Shnaider’s 80 per cent stake in the club by agreeing to take on its financial commitments; he also paid $750,000 to the Maccabi Tel Aviv sports foundation for its 20 per cent stake.

Real estate

Shnaider partnered with Donald Trump in the construction of the Trump International Hotel and Tower, which is in Toronto. Donald Trump is a minority shareholder in the project. Shnaider has reportedly decided to keep the penthouse suite for himself, at an estimated value of $20 million.^[1]

In March 2010, Shnaider invested in a property consortium that bought Toronto’s King Edward Hotel for $50 million. The asset was purchased in a distressed sale from Lehman Brothers.^[6] Shnaider originally invested alongside three other real estate companies, Skyline International Development Inc., Dundee KE Inc., and Serruya Realty Group Inc. However, on 1 August 2012 Omni Hotel and Resorts CEO James D. Caldwell also took a stake in the hotel; and on 24 November 2015, Omni Hotels and Resorts announced that it had bought the other parties out and fully owned the hotel.^[7]

In 2011 Shnaider formed a Delton Retail fund, a property group, with N3 Real Estate, owned by Dutch businessman A.D.G van Dam.^[8]

On 30 December 2015 Shnaider invested NIS 39 million in Mishorim Development Ltd., a real estate company controlled by developer Gil Blutrich.^[9] Shnaider had already invested alongside Blutrich in the King Edward Hotel, which Blutrich invested in via Skyline International Development Inc., a Mishorim subsidiary.

Personal life

Shnaider is married to Simona Shnaider (née Birshtein) and lives in North York.^[10]

Schnaider is President of the Jewish Russian Community Centre of Ontario.^[11]

Born in Russia, he emigrated to Toronto when he was a teenager. [TAI]. He became a billionaire w/ his company Midlands Resources Holding Ltd. [TAI]. Schnaider’s father-in-law Boris Birshtein owns the company Seabeco, and had close ties to the Russian mafia via Semion Moglivech, the powerful mob boss. [TAI]. It appears that some of Schnaider’s success was due to Birtshtein and perhaps even the Russian mafia. [TAI]. In 2012, Schnaider financed a 70 story Trump Tower in Canada. [TAI]. In 2016, the Tower failed and was foreclosed on. [TAI]. FL Group gave him a 45.8 million Euro loan around 2008. [TAI].

Aras Agalarov

Russian billionaire who financed Trump’s 2013 Moscow Beauty Pageant. [USAToday].

(Azerbaijani: Araz İsgəndər oğlu Ağalarov) (born 8 November 1955) is an Azeri businessman, developer, public figure and author of Russia: Reflections on the Way to the Market (1998).

Born in Baku, Agalarov was educated at the Azerbaijan Polytechnical Institute. He moved with his family to Moscow in 1998, where he co-founded Crocus International along side his father-in-law, Iosif Yefgenevich, which specializes in trade fairs, where he still makes most of his money.

Agalarov then opened the first Crocus Inter store, which became a retail business that includes malls offering housewares. This moved him into property development, where he built the Crocus City Mall, the largest shopping centre in Moscow. Adjacent to this he then built the largest trade center in Russia on the outskirts of Moscow, Crocus Expo, and has since developed a luxury housing development.

Agalarov has served as a liaison between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.^[2] According to an interview, they once discussed the construction of a Trump Tower in Russia.^[3]

As of January 2017, he had an estimated net worth of US$1.32 billion, most of which is derived from his real estate ventures.^[4]

Personal life[edit]

Agalarov is married and has two children, his son Emin Agalarov is a businessman and singer/songwriter. Emin was married to Leyla Aliyeva, the daughter of the current President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev until they divorced in May 2015. Agalarov has two twin boy grandchildren from his son’s marriage.

Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov

The World’s 10 Most Wanted

(Russian: Алимжан Турсунович Тохтахунов, b. 1 January 1949 in Tashkent) is a Russian businessman, suspected criminal, and former sportsman. He is accused in relations with organized crime and bribing of figure skating judges in the 2002 Winter Olympics.^[1] His nickname is thought to be “Taiwanchik,” which refers to his distinctly Asiatic as opposed to European facial features.

Tokhtakhounov was born to an Uyghur family in Tashkent, Uzbek SSR, in 1949. In early years he was an amateur football player, playing for junior team of Pakhtakor in some seasons. His attempts to continue his career in CSKA Moscow failed and he soon ceased to play. Tokhtakhounov was twice imprisoned: in 1972 and in 1985 for Parasitism.

In early 90’s he left Russia and settled in Paris, France. There he was soon accused in committing illegal business deals and smuggling of hardware from Germany. He was also reported having relations with Russian mafia, including ethnic Georgian mobster Tariel Oniani.

In 2002 Tokhtakhounov was accused in bribery of ice skating judges in the 2002 Winter Olympics. He was arrested in Italy by USA request, but the Italian court denounced the extradition bid and freed Tokhtakhounov.

In Russia he was investigated concerning the legality of his Russian citizenship.

He is notably close to professional Russian Tennis players. For instance, a 2002 article in the Belgium daily La Libre Belgique ^[2] reported on interviews of Russian players following Tokhtakhounov’s arrest in Italy. Yevgeny Kafelnikov defended his “friend”, Marat Safin refused to discuss a topic that was “not his problem” while Anna Kournikova commented “I have heard of this man. But I don’t think I should talk about it. I am Russian and I will have to go back there”. Pressed to say whether Tokhtakhounov could be called a mobster, she answered, “One might say that.”

The United States has a current arrest warrant out for him on fraud-related charges.^[3] In 2010, Alimzhan featured in the 2010 documentary Thieves by Law.^[4] He lives openly in Russia.^[5]

In 2013, Tokhtakhunov was charged with running an illegal gambling ring based from the United States

The Russian mobster boss who, from the safety of Russia, oversaw an illegal gambling ring out of the 51st floor of Trump tower. [TAI]. Forbe’s listed him as one of the World’s Ten Most Wanted Criminals in 2008. [TAI]. The FBI believes his organization has ties to that of Semion Mogilevich’s. [TAI] In Trump’s 2013 Miss Universe Contest in Moscow, Trump honored Tokhtakhounov as an VIP. [TAI].

Bayrock

Summary: In 2001, Tevfik Arif a former Soviet commerce official founded Bayrock, a New York property development company. [TheDiplomat]. A couple years later, Bayrock hired Felix Sater, who would become Arif’s right-hand man. [FT]. From roughly 2005 to 2007, Bayrock worked with the Trump organization to develop real estate around the world (including failed projects in Russia and the former USSR). [FT]. Bayrock also helped Trump finance projects with money from Russian oligarchs close to Putin. [NYTimes; Forbes]. Finally, Bayrock and Trump allegedly helped Kazakh and Russian officials launder money via buying and selling luxury apartments with shell corporations. [Forbes].
Financing from Russian Oligarchs: To finance some Bayrock-Trump projects, Sater and Arif, introduced Trump to Russian oligarchs. [NYTimes]. In a deposition, Trump said he had planned on these investors financing Trump Towers in Moscow, Kiev, Istanbul, Poland, and Warsaw. [NYTimes].
Failed SoHo Development: Around 2006, Bayrock and the Trump Organization started working on the SoHo development in NYC. [NYTimes]. The development was very unsuccessful and devolved into a series of lawsuits. [NYTimes]. One of these lawsuits claimed suspicious sources in Russia and Kazakhstan invested $50 million in the SoHo development and three other Bayrock projects via an Icelandic firm with ties to Russian oligarchs close to Putin. [NYTimes]. Trump, Donald Jr., and Ivanka had advanced knowledge of this investment. [FT].
Money Laundering and Soho Development: Another lawsuit, brought in 2016, alleges that Bayrock and Sater helped corrupt Kazakh and Russian officials launder $250 million by buying and selling luxury apartments in the SoHo development w/ shell corporations. [FT]. The lawyers bringing this suit claim that new information shows Trump participated in the scheme. [Forbes]. Former Bayrock & Trump Organization empoyees now worked directly for one of these corrupt Kazakh officials, Mr. Khrapunov. [FT].
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/2/17/1634738/-Evidence-of-Trump-s-Connections-with-Kremlin-Expanded-Now-with-Citations-Links

Rotem Rosen is an Israeli born New York real estate mogul, director of ASRR Capital and an executive member of the Sapir Organization since 2010. He served as the Chief Executive Officer of AFI USA from 2005 to 2009. Rosen is known as the “right hand man” of real estate magnate Lev Leviev.

New York Magazine

Oct 24, 2007

Lev Leviev’s $525 million purchase last week of the Times Building on West 43rd Street represents a coming-out party for the Soviet-born, Israel-based Lubavitcher diamond merchant. He now owns huge swaths of Brooklyn and a growing number of Manhattan trophies—and he’s just getting started. “We are going to expand dramatically in the next year,” says Rotem Rosen, the chief of the American branch of Leviev’s holding company, Africa-Israel.

In 2007, he married fellow real estate heavyweight, Zina Sapir, daughter of Tamir Sapir, founder of the Sapir Organization. While the majority of Rosen’s real estate portfolio consists of property in New York, such as former Morgans Hotel Group’s Mondrian Soho, ASRR Capital purchased its first Miami office building in October 2015 for $13.3 million. Trump and Kushner attended his son’s bris.

Mikhail Kalugin

DOSSIER CLAIM: Russian diplomat Mikhail Kalugin was withdrawn from Washington, D.C. on short notice because of his involvement in the presidential election operation might be exposed. This claim is POSSIBLE BUT UNVERIFIED. Mikhail Kalugin was indeed sent back to Russia from his post in the U.S., but the Russian government claims that this was done as part of a “planned rotation.” Sources “with knowledge of a multi-agency investigation into the Kremlin’s meddling” confirmed that Kalugin was indeed “under scrutiny” when he was withdrawn to Russia.

Mikhail Kalugin’s name – albeit misspelled ‑ first surfaced publicly in January in a former British spy’s jarring but largely uncorroborated dossier of intelligence collected for Trump’s U.S. political opponents. The 35 pages of opposition research quoted Russian sources claiming that Trump campaign associates had colluded with the Kremlin, including in the public release of Democrats’ emails that proved embarrassing to Clinton at a time when polls found her leading Trump.

Kalugin was “withdrawn from Washington at short notice because Moscow feared his heavy involvement in the US presidential election operation . . . would be exposed in the media,” the former British MI6 officer Christopher Steele reported. “ . . . His replacement, Andrei Bondarev however was clean.”

Now back in Moscow, an indignant Kalugin recently denied the allegations in an email to McClatchy, saying he wanted “to stop once and for all the continuous stream of lies and fake news about my person.”

Alfa Bank

the corporate treasury of the Alfa Group, is the largest private commercial bank in Russia.^[3] It was founded by Russian businessman Mikhail Fridman, who is still the controlling owner today. It is headquartered in Moscow. It operates in seven countries, providing financial services to over 40,000 active corporate customers and 5.3 million retail clients.^[4] Alfa Bank is particularly active in Russia and Ukraine, ranking among top 10 largest banks in terms of capital in both countries

As primary stakeholder in both Glencore and therefore the “consortium”, the QIA effectively ‘owns’ the 19%. The principals are obfuscated by use of shell companies, traceable to the same Cayman Islands address of Schwarzman‘s. Rudy Giuliani’s former firm White & Case negotiated the transaction, and Sberbank/Alfa bank financed it with cover from Italy’s Intesa bank to obfuscate funding.

Fri Jun 18, 2010

Sberbank is near a deal to refinance a $1.5 billion loan owed to state bank VEB by Altimo, the telecoms arm of Russia’s Alfa Group, Sberbank chief executive German Gref said on Friday.”I don’t know if the deal is signed yet,” Gref told Reuters.The loan is secured by Altimo’s one-quarter stake in Megafon, TeliaSonera’s TLSN.STRussian mobile venture. Altimo also owns a stake a rival operator, Vimpelcom VIP.N.

Sept 17, 2010

Russia’s largest lender Sberbank and biggest private rival Alfa Bank raised a total of $2 billion in Eurobonds as strong demand enabled them to secure lower yields than originally expected.The issues follow an oversubscribed $2 billion sovereign placement from Ukraine the previous day.
State-controlled Sberbank placed a $1 billion Eurobond maturing in March 2017 with a yield of 5.4 percent, slightly lower than the preliminary guidance, a source close to the organisers of the issue told Reuters. Alfa Bank launched a seven-year issue for the same amount at 7.875 percent, a banking source and a fund manager said.
“Only on the external market can you get a lot and for a long time … Another reason for (the issues) is the rising demand for foreign currency loans from companies,” said Pikulev. Sberbank could use the newly-acquired to cash to refinance loans for the world’s largest aluminium producer RUSAL, Alfa Group’s telecoms arm Altimo, metals giant Norilsk Nickel, and also possibly oil major LUKOIL said Maxim Raskosnov at VTB Capital.

February 6, 2013

Julius Baer Group Ltd., Switzerland’s third-largest wealth manager, hired three bankers as part of an expansion of services for Russian clients. Alexey Dolgikh and equity trader Rufat Askerov joined from OAO Sberbank, Russia’s largest lender, Jan Vonder Muehll, a spokesman for the Geneva-based bank said today. Alexander Muratov, who previously worked at Russian lender Alfa Bank, was also hired.
“We have been expanding our Russian desks in Zurich, Geneva, Vienna, Monaco and Singapore recently,” Vonder Muehll said in reply to e-mailed questions.

Feb 13, 2015

Fitch Downgrades Russian Alfa Bank, Lowers Sberbank’s and GPB’s VRs. The downgrade of Alfa’s ratings reflects the weakening of the Russian operating environment, and Fitch’s view that it is appropriate to maintain a one-notch differential between the ratings of the bank and the Russian sovereign. The Negative Outlook reflects Fitch’s view that economic recession (Fitch expects GDP to contract by 4% in 2015), higher funding costs, rouble devaluation, rising inflation and a potential increase in loan impairment are likely to put pressure on Alfa’s credit profile in 2015.
Fitch Ratings has downgraded the Long-term Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) of Russia’s Alfa Bank to ‘BB+’ from ‘BBB-‘. The Rating Outlook remains Negative. At the same time, the agency has downgraded the Viability Rating (VR) of Sberbank to ‘bbb-‘ from ‘bbb’ and of Gazprombank (GPB) to ‘bb-‘ from ‘bb’.

October 5, 2016

The first transactions between major banks based on masterchain technology of the Bank of Russia have been conducted in Russia. The transactions were carried out using Cinimex’s prototype, a service for exchanging data about clients of various banks. Masterchain is based on the Etherium technology.
The prototype allowed the development of the platform in the interests of financial market participants, which will enable the creation of new services in the future. Major financial organisations, including Qiwi, Sberbank, Alfa Bank, Otkritie Bank, and Tinkoff Bank, contributed to the creation of the platform. The Bank of Russia coordinated the process.

Nov 11, 2016

Two of Russia’s largest banks, Sberbank and Alfa Bank, say they have been hit by cyber attacks in recent days.Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab said the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks represented the first major wave of such attacks on Russian banks this year and that at least five of the country’s largest banks had been targeted.
Russia has been on high alert for cyber threats after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said last month that Washington would retaliate against alleged Russian hackers “at the time of our choosing” following what the United States said was a campaign of cyber attacks against Democratic Party organizations.The source of this week’s attacks was unknown, however, and neither of the two Russian banks, nor Kaspersky, linked them to Biden’s comments.

Viktor Vekselberg

owns a 6.2% stake in the Bank of Cyprus, (with Rybolovlev also as a partner,) where Wilbur Ross, the US Sec Commerce is the Vice Chairman.

One of Russia’s wealthiest oligarchs, head of Renova Group. Wealth coming from the largest aluminum co. in the world.
In 2003, the Renova Group, along with Access Industries (owned by Leonard Blavatnik) and the Alfa Group (owned by Mikhail Fridman, German Khan, and Alexei Kuzmichov) announced the creation of a strategic partnership to jointly hold their oil assets in Russia and Ukraine, forming the AAR consortium. In the same year, they merged AAR with British Petroleum‘s Russian oil assets in a 50-50 joint venture named TNK-BP, the largest private transaction in Russian history.^[11] Acting as a chairman of the executive board of TNK, Vekselberg was instrumental in negotiating and closing the transaction.
Sold TNK-BP to Russian state owned Rosneft in 2013. The deal was worth $56B, of which $28B went Vekselberg and his partners. Vekselberg got $7B.
Vekselberg then invested heavily in Switzerland. Companies like Sulzer, Oerlikon, Schmolz & Bickenbach, Züblin. Vekselberg later also acquired Gawker, which became the icon for Kremlin front media ops.
In 2009 Fined $38M by Swiss authorities for violating securities law while purchasing Sulzer in 2006-07.
The real story starts with a meeting at Rus Gov, where the agenda states that Hungary wants to sell the building and Rus Gov want to buy it. In 2008 he bought a building in Moscow from the Hungarian Gov for $21M, and sold to Russian gov for $116M, in a completely patched up deal. Vekselberg was brought in as an intermediary to ensure large margin to be looted. Hungarian officials Tátrai Miklós, Marta Horvathne Fekszi and Arpad Szekely were detained in 2011. On the Russian side, a criminal investigation was started in August 2013.^[26]
Vekselberg is now overseeing a vast restructuring of his assets: the division of property with partner Leonard Blavatnik, the merger of Renova’s aluminium assets with those of Oleg Deripaska, and the integration of various electricity and telecommunications investment.

Gambling Ring [all from one motherjones article].

Summary: In April 2013, federal agents busted up an international gambling ring run by Russian mobsters out of the entire 51st floor in Trump Towers in NYC. [motherjones]. The US government believes the operations were overseen from Russia by the powerful mobster Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov. [motherjones]. In late 2013, Trump held his Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow. [motherjones]. At the pageant, he treated Tokhtakhounov as a VIP, along with other Russian oligarchs. [motherjones].
Trincher and Golubchik In Trump towers, Vadim Trincher and Anatoly Golubchik handled the ring’s day-to-day operations. [motherjones]. Their indictment stated that they helped run an international gambling business catering to oligarchs in the former USSR and throughout the world. [motherjones]. US attorneys also believe that Trincher and Golubchik helped launder about $100 million dollars from the former Soviet Union to the US. [motherjones].
Successful Prosecutions: Both Trincher and Globuchik were sentenced to five years in prison and each fined more than 20 million dollars in cash, investments and properties. [motherjones]. Tokhtakhounov, in Russia, was not prosecuted. [motherjones].

Other Connections to the Russian Mob [all from one TAI article].

Summary: Trump’s connections to the Russian mob don’t stop with the international gambling ring that was operating out of the 51st floor in Trump Tower. [TAI]. Shnaider a Canadian-Russian billionaire with alleged ties to the Russian mafia, financed a seventy story Trump Tower in Canada in 2012. [TAI]. It was foreclosed on in 2016. [TAI]. Trump personally rented five condos to a lieutenant in the Russian mob. [TAI]. And finally, another lieutenant in the mob lived in the Trump Tower during the 1990s and had a phone book with the private telephone and fax numbers of the Trump Organization. [TAI].

Maria Butina [DailyBeast]

Summary: Maria Butina is a Russian pro-gun advocate who worked for a powerful Russian government official with ties to the FSB, and by all appearances, the Trump campaign. On a couple occasions she bragged that she helped the campaign communicate with Russia. She also bragged she keeps in contact with a member of the Russian Duma.
Other Evidence She Worked for the Trump Campaign: Butina attended an early campaign rally in Las Vegas. She also is a friend to Paul Erickson, who was an adviser to Romney’s campaign, and attended Trump’s inaugural address. Butina also attended Trump’s invitation-only Freedom Ball after his inauguration.
Ties to the Russian Government: Butina served as a special assistant to Alexander Torshin when he was deputy governor of Russia’s central bank. Torshin served on the Russian Duma for more than a decade.
Torshin’s Ties to Russian Spies: Torshin was a member of Russia’s mighty National Anti-Terrorism Committee alongside the director of the FSB and ministers of defense, interior and foreign affairs. A former superior to Torshin claims is close to Russian intelligence agencies and may currently be working for them. Torshin also has ties to the Russian mob, and recently became very wealthy.
Sheriff David Clarke’s NRA trip to Moscow is raising eyebrows on the House intel committee. Clarke’s disclosure forms reported the December 2015 trip — which coincided with an anniversary event for RT attended by retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein — was partially paid for by a Russian group called The Right To Bear Arms. The Daily Beast has previously reported on that group, which is led by Maria Butina — a former central Russian bank staffer and furniture store owner in Siberia who came to the U.S. last year as a graduate student.

Konstantin “Kostya” Kilimnik

This Manafort protégé has had conversations with fellow operatives in Kiev about collecting unpaid fees owed to Manafort’s company by a Russia-friendly political party called Opposition Bloc, according to operatives who work in Ukraine.

A Russian Army-trained linguist who has told a previous employer of a background with Russian intelligence, Kilimnik started working for Manafort in 2005 when Manafort was representing Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, a gig that morphed into a long-term contract with Viktor Yanukovych, the Kremlin-aligned hard-liner who became president of Ukraine.

Kilimnik eventually became “Manafort’s Manafort” in Kiev, and he continued to lead Manafort’s office there after Yanukovych fled the country for Russia in 2014, according to Ukrainian business records and interviews with several political operatives who have worked in Ukraine’s capital. Kilimnik and Manafort then teamed up to help promote Opposition Bloc, which rose from the ashes of Yanukovych’s regime. The party is funded by oligarchs who previously backed Yanukovych, including at least one who the Ukrainian operatives say is close to both Kilimnik and Manafort.

Kilimnik says he briefed the former campaign chairman for U.S. President Donald Trump on Ukraine during last year’s presidential race. The comments by Konstantin Kilimnik, in an exclusive interview with RFE/RL, add to the swirl of intrigue surrounding Manafort, a shadowy political operative who helped bring Viktor Yanukovych to the Ukrainian presidency and who is now under FBI investigation for allegedly communicating with Russian intelligence officials during the 2016 U.S. campaign. Kilimnik, a dual Russian-Ukrainian citizen, himself studied at the Russian military’s main university for languages, which has led to speculation that he has ties to Russian military intelligence.

In the February 22 interview, Kilimnik denied any ties to Russian intelligence. But he said that he and Manafort spoke during the 2016 election “every couple months.””I was briefing him on Ukraine,” he said.

WikiLeaks

In October 2010, Assange told a major Moscow newspaper that “The Kremlin had better brace itself for a coming wave of WikiLeaks disclosures about Russia”.^[246][247]Assange later clarified: “we have material on many businesses and governments, including in Russia. It’s not right to say there’s going to be a particular focus on Russia”.^[248]
10 Nov 2010 Russia’s FSB threatens Wikileaks, saying: Preliminary analysis shows that there is no threat posed to Russia by Julian Assange’s resource. You have to understand that if there is the desire and the right team, it’s possible to shut it down forever
01 Dec 2010 WikiLeaks cables condemn Russia as a corrupt “mafia state”, reporting that the Kremlin is heavily involved in bribery and corruption.
02 Dec 2010 Julian Assange is interviewed by Time magazine: Asked if he wanted to expose the secret dealings of China and Russia the way WikiLeaks has done with the U.S., Assange said, “Yes, indeed. In fact, we believe it is the most closed societies that have the most reform potential.”
09 Dec 2010Russia suggests that Julian Assange should be awarded the Nobel peace prize.
In December 2010, Assange’s lawyer, Mark Stephens, told The Andrew Marr Show on BBC Television that WikiLeaks had information it considered to be a “thermo-nuclear device” which it would release if the organisation needs to defend itself against the authorities.^[245]
20 Jan 2011Julian Assange is issued a Russian visa, and Russia Today says that he is planning to visit the country soon.
The Russia bombshell leaks never materialize, but from this point forward Wikileaks is effectively an arm of the Russian GRU military intelligence organization.

In 2013, the organisation assisted Edward Snowden (who is responsible for the 2013 mass surveillance disclosures) in leaving Hong Kong. Sarah Harrison, a WikiLeaks activist, accompanied Snowden on the flight. Scott Shane of The New York Times stated that the WikiLeaks involvement “shows that despite its shoestring staff, limited fund-raising from a boycott by major financial firms, and defections prompted by Mr. Assange’s personal troubles and abrasive style, it remains a force to be reckoned with on the global stage.”^[262]

Other Allegations of Russian influence

In 2012 when Wikileaks began to run out of funds, Assange began to host a television show on Russia Today, Russia’s state-funded news network.^[342] Assange has never disclosed how much he or Wikileaks were paid for his tv-show.^[342]
In August 2016, after Wikileaks published thousands of DNC emails, it was claimed that Russian intelligence had hacked the e-mails and leaked them to Wikileaks. At the time, DNC officials made such claims, along with a number of cybersecurity experts and cybersecurity firms.^[331][332]
In October 2016, the U.S. intelligence community announced that it was “confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations”.^[17] The U.S. intelligence agencies said that the hacks were consistent with the methods of Russian-directed efforts, and that people high up within the Kremlin were likely involved.^[17]
On 14 October 2016, CNN reported that “there is mounting evidence that the Russian government is supplying WikiLeaks with hacked emails pertaining to the US presidential election.”^[333] WikiLeaks has denied any connection to or cooperation with Russia.^[333] President Putin has strongly denied any Russian involvement in the election.^[233][234]
In September 2016, the German weekly magazine Focus reported that according to a confidential German government dossier, WikiLeaks had long since been infiltrated by Russian agents aiming to discredit NATO governments. The magazine added that French and British intelligence services had come to the same conclusion and said Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev receive details about what WikiLeaks publishes before publication.^[334][335] The Focus report followed a New York Times story that suggested that WikiLeaks may be a laundering machine for compromising material about Western countries gathered by Russian spies.^[336]
On December 10, 2016, several news outlets, including The Guardian and The Washington Post, reported that the Central Intelligence Agency concluded that Russia intelligence operatives provided materials to Wikileaks in an effort to help Donald Trump’s election bid. The Washington Post article stated: “The CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, according to officials briefed on the matter.”^[337] The Guardian article reported, “individuals linked to the Russian government had provided WikiLeaks with thousands of confidential emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and others.”^[338]
Wikileaks has frequently been criticized for its absence of whistleblowing on or criticism of Russia.^[21]

Defections

Within WikiLeaks, there had been public disagreement between founder and spokesperson Julian Assange and Daniel Domscheit-Berg, who on 25 September 2010, told Der Spiegel that he was resigning, saying “WikiLeaks has a structural problem. I no longer want to take responsibility for it, and that’s why I am leaving the project.”^{[273][274][275]} Domscheit-Berg wanted greater transparency in the articles released to the public.
Herbert Snorrason, a 25-year-old Icelandic university student, resigned after he challenged Assange on his decision to suspend Domscheit-Berg and was bluntly rebuked.^[275]
Iceland MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir also left WikiLeaks, citing lack of transparency, lack of structure, and poor communication flow in the organisation.^[282] According to the periodical The Independent (London), at least a dozen key supporters of WikiLeaks left the website during 2010.^[283]

Allegations of anti-Americanism and partisanship

Short of simply disclosing information in the public interest, Wikileaks has been accused of purposely targeting certain states and people, and presenting its disclosures in misleading and conspiratorial ways to harm those people.^[317] Writing in 2012, Foreign Policy‘s Joshua Keating noted that “nearly all its major operations have targeted the U.S. government or American corporations.”^[318] In the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Assange only exposed material damaging to the Democratic National Committee and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. According to Harvard political scientist Matthew Baum and College of the Canyons political scientist Phil Gussin, Wikileaks strategically released e-mails related to the Clinton campaign whenever Clinton’s lead expanded in the polls.^[16] Following the dump of e-mails hacked from the Hillary Clinton campaign, Donald Trump told voters, “I love WikiLeaks!”^[319]

Criticism of Wikileaks’ promotion of conspiracy theories

Wikileaks has popularised conspiracies about the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton, such as tweeting an article which suggested Clinton campaign chairperson John Podesta engaged in satanic rituals, which was later revealed to be false^{[317][320][18]} implying that the Democratic Party had Seth Rich killed,^[19] suggesting that Clinton wore earpieces to debates and interviews,^[321] claiming that Hillary Clinton wanted to drone strike Assange,^[322] promoting conspiracy theories about Clinton’s health,^{[323][324][20]}and promoting a conspiracy theory from a Donald Trump-related internet community tying the Clinton campaign to child kidnapper Laura Silsby.^[325]

Qatar Investment Authority

As primary stakeholder in both Glencore and therefore the “consortium”, the QIA effectively ‘owns’ the 19%. The principals are obfuscated by use of shell companies, traceable to the same Cayman Islands address of Schwarzman‘s. Rudy Giuliani’s former firm White & Case negotiated the transaction, and Sberbank/Alfa bank financed it with cover from Italy’s Intesa bank to obfuscate funding.

The Qatar Investment Authority (Arabic: جهاز قطر للإستثمار) (QIA) is Qatar‘s state-owned holding company that can be characterized as a National Wealth Fund. It specializes in domestic and foreign investment. The QIA was founded by the State of Qatar in 2005 to strengthen the country’s economy by diversifying into new asset classes. The fund is a member of the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds and is therefore signed up to the Santiago Principles on best practice in managing sovereign wealth funds.^[2]

Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo bank said it would provide a loan for up to 5.2 billion euros ($5.4 billion) to help commodities trader Glencore and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund buy a 19.5 percent stake in Russian oil company Rosneft . The consortium, of which Qatar Investment Authority and Glencore each own 50 percent, is buying the stake from the Russian state for 10.2 billion euros. A spokesman for Intesa Sanpaolo said on Tuesday Italy’s biggest retail bank was underwriting the loan in full.
Financial regulators in Rome are examining whether Intesa Sanpaolo’s financing of a €10.2bn investment in Russian oil group Rosneft complies with sanctions. Glencore, the commodities group, and the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar are taking a 19.5 per cent stake in Rosneft. Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest bank by market capitalisation, is providing most of the $7.4bn of finance for the deal.Rosneft is subject to EU and US sanctions following Russia’s seizure of Crimea in 2014.
On Sunday, December 11, 2016, Reuters reported that Russia signed a deal with Glencore, a commodities trader based out of London, and the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Qatars government-owned holding company that conducts foreign investments, to sell a 19.5 percent stake in oil major Rosneft. The privatization deal was called the largest in Russias history by Rosneft Chief Executive Igor Sechin.
On January 10, according to a Russian news publication known as RBC, 19.5 percent of Rosneft shares were moved to a Singapore-based company known as QHG Shares Pte Ltd, which Rosneft confirms owns 19.5 percent of its shares as of February 1, 2017. This company represents a consortium of Glencore and QIA.
Among them is a little known organization based out of the Cayman Islands known as QHG Cayman Limited, which along with several other companies makes up the financial backing for the Rosneft deal in December. More of QHG Caymans filing history can be found with the UK Companies House Filing Records.
The Blackstone Group, for which Mr. Schwarzman serves as co-founder and CEO, acquired Intertrust, a Dutch trust firm, in 2012. Intertrust has a series of assets located in the Cayman Islands, including Walkers Management Services (WMS). Walkers shares an address with and registered a Limited Liability Partnership called QHG Cayman Limited on December 16, 2016, only nine days after the Rosneft deal took place and just before the assets were moved to QHG Shares Pte. Ltd.
“Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MI) said it would provide a loan for up to 5.2 billion euros ($5.4 billion) to help commodities trader Glencore (GLEN.L) and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund buy a 19.5 percent stake in Russian oil company Rosneft (ROSN.MM).
The consortium, of which Qatar Investment Authority and Glencore each own 50 percent, is buying the stake from the Russian state for 10.2 billion euros.”
Due to weak global prices for the assets Glencore owned, particularly coal and copper producers, and for the commodities in which Glencore traded, the company showed a net operating loss of $676 million for the first half of 2015. As of September 2015 the value of its stock had fallen significantly.^[21] Concerns financial analysts cited to explain the falling stock price included a weak global commodity market and Glencore’s high level of debt,^[22] $30 billion. The company was reducing debt by selling off stock and assets.^[21]The Qatar Investment Authority is its biggest shareholder.^[14]
So essentially QIA owns the entire deal. As primary stakeholder in both Glencore and therefore the “consortium”, the QIA effectively ‘owns’ the 19%. The principals are obfuscated by use of shell companies, traceable to the Cayman Islands. There is speculation that Trump associate Steve Schwarzman of the Blackstone Group is involved, and a potential missing link in the Rosneft-Trump scandal.
On Sunday, December 11, 2016, Reuters reported that Russia signed a deal with Glencore, a commodities trader based out of London, and the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Qatars government-owned holding company that conducts foreign investments, to sell a 19.5 percent stake in oil major Rosneft. The privatization deal was called the largest in Russias history by Rosneft Chief Executive Igor Sechin.
On January 10, according to a Russian news publication known as RBC, 19.5 percent of Rosneft shares were moved to a Singapore-based company known as QHG Shares Pte Ltd, which Rosneft confirms owns 19.5 percent of its shares as of February 1, 2017. This company represents a consortium of Glencore and QIA.
Among them is a little known organization based out of the Cayman Islands known as QHG Cayman Limited, which along with several other companies makes up the financial backing for the Rosneft deal in December. More of QHG Caymans filing history can be found with the UK Companies House Filing Records.
The Blackstone Group, for which Mr. Schwarzman serves as co-founder and CEO, acquired Intertrust, a Dutch trust firm, in 2012. Intertrust has a series of assets located in the Cayman Islands, including Walkers Management Services (WMS). Walkers shares an address with and registered a Limited Liability Partnership called QHG Cayman Limited on December 16, 2016, only nine days after the Rosneft deal took place and just before the assets were moved to QHG Shares Pte. Ltd.
Under the structure of the Rosneft transaction, Qatar is to invest €2.5bn and Glencore €300m for equal stakes in a special purpose vehicle that is buying a 19.5 per cent stake in the oil group from Rosneftegaz, its government-owned parent company. Glencore has said the transaction “is in compliance with applicable sanctions laws”. A company spokesman declined to comment on whether it had been approached by UK regulators in connection with any examination of compliance with sanctions against Russia.

QIA has purchased $3.78 billion in Manhattan properties since 2014, including 111 West 33rd Street, 501 Seventh Avenue and 250 West 57th Street.^[44]
QIA owns a 44% stake in its partnership with Brookfield Property Partners on a new mixed-use development delivering in 2019 that will include five separate buildings.^[45]
In April 2015, the Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar purchased four apartment units for roughly $45 million at a development within the United Nations Plaza.^[46]
In January 2014, the Qatari government bought a 20,500-square-foot townhouse for $100 million in Manhattan’s Upper East Side to be redeveloped into its consulate. From 2012-2013, Qatar’s prime minister at the time, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, purchased $285 million in apartments on Manhattan.^[47]

Intesa Sanpaolo

Italy’s second-largest bank advised Russia on the sale of 19.5 percent in the oil company Rosneft
As primary stakeholder in both Glencore and therefore the “consortium”, the QIA effectively ‘owns’ the 19%. The principals are obfuscated by use of shell companies, traceable to the same Cayman Islands address of Schwarzman‘s. Rudy Giuliani’s former firm White & Case negotiated the transaction, and Sberbank/Alfa bank financed it with cover from Italy’s Intesa bank to obfuscate funding.

is a banking group resulting from the merger between Banca Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI based in Torre Intesa Sanpaolo, Turin, Italy. It has clear leadership in the Italian market and a minor but growing international presence focused on Central-Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (97% of the bank’s revenue from Europe and 86% of all loans to customers come from business in Italy).^[6] When it was formed in 2007 it overtook Unicredit Group as the largest bank in Italy with 13 million customers and $690 billion worth of assets.^[7] By 2010 its assets had grown to $877.66 billion 26th highest among all of the world’s companies.^[8][9] The company is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index.^[10]

As of January 2016, it is the first banking group in Italy by market capitalization,^[11] but second by total assets (using 2014 data).^[12]

Italy’s second-largest bank will advise Russia on the sale of 19.5 percent in the oil company Rosneft, worth about 700 billion rubles ($10.5 billion) now, the Economy Ministry’s press service said, confirming comments the minister, Alexei Ulyukayev, made to reporters in Bratislava, Slovakia, on Tuesday. Russian banks will also most likely participate in the deal, Ulyukayev said, without elaborating on the plans or timing. Last month, Russia chose New York-headquartered White & Case LLP to serve as a legal adviser in the sale.
Financial regulators in Rome are examining whether Intesa Sanpaolo’s financing of a €10.2bn investment in Russian oil group Rosneft complies with sanctions. Glencore, the commodities group, and the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar are taking a 19.5 per cent stake in Rosneft. Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest bank by market capitalisation, is providing most of the $7.4bn of finance for the deal.Rosneft is subject to EU and US sanctions following Russia’s seizure of Crimea in 2014.
EU officials examining the investment have contacted national agencies in Italy and Britain, where Glencore has its main stock market listing, because member states are responsible for implementing and policing European sanctions.“The matter is under consideration in Rome,” said a European diplomat who is familiar with the case. An Italian official confirmed that the deal was being scrutinised.
Under the structure of the Rosneft transaction, Qatar is to invest €2.5bn and Glencore €300m for equal stakes in a special purpose vehicle that is buying a 19.5 per cent stake in the oil group from Rosneftegaz, its government-owned parent company. Glencore has said the transaction “is in compliance with applicable sanctions laws”. A company spokesman declined to comment on whether it had been approached by UK regulators in connection with any examination of compliance with sanctions against Russia.
Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo bank said it would provide a loan for up to 5.2 billion euros ($5.4 billion) to help commodities trader Glencore and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund buy a 19.5 percent stake in Russian oil company Rosneft . The consortium, of which Qatar Investment Authority and Glencore each own 50 percent, is buying the stake from the Russian state for 10.2 billion euros. A spokesman for Intesa Sanpaolo said on Tuesday Italy’s biggest retail bank was underwriting the loan in full.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-24/russia-picks-intesa-for-rosneft-sale-as-sanctions-hurt-market

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-glencore-rosneft-intesa-sp-idUSKBN14N1KZ

Trump & Russia

An Exhaustive Timeline 1987-2018

Team Russia [Красная Машина]

Felix Sater

Later career[edit]

Bayrock Group[edit]

Personal life[edit]

Sergei Millian

Career[edit]

Personal life[edit]

Alexander Mashkevitch

Biography[edit]

Alex Shnaider

Midland Group

Sports investments

Real estate

Personal life

Aras Agalarov

Personal life[edit]

Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov

Bayrock

Gambling Ring [all from one motherjones article].

Other Connections to the Russian Mob [all from one TAI article].

Maria Butina [DailyBeast]

Other Allegations of Russian influence

Defections

Allegations of anti-Americanism and partisanship

Felix Sater

Later career[edit]

Bayrock Group[edit]

Personal life[edit]

Sergei Millian

Career[edit]

Personal life[edit]

Alexander Mashkevitch

Biography[edit]

Alex Shnaider

Midland Group

Sports investments

Real estate

Personal life

Aras Agalarov

Personal life[edit]

Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov

Bayrock

Gambling Ring [all from one motherjones article].

Other Connections to the Russian Mob [all from one TAI article].

Maria Butina [DailyBeast]

Other Allegations of Russian influence

Defections

Allegations of anti-Americanism and partisanship

Share this: