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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump's Russian Laundromat
here is a great piece from the New Republic about Trump's financial relationship with the Russian mafia, as a way to launder their illicit monies
https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian-laundromat-trump-tower-luxury-high-rises-dirty-money-international-crime-syndicate
If the transaction seemed suspiciousmultiple apartments for a single buyer who appeared to have no legitimate way to put his hands on that much moneythere may have been a reason. At the time, Russian mobsters were beginning to invest in high-end real estate, which offered an ideal vehicle to launder money from their criminal enterprises. During the 80s and 90s, we in the U.S. government repeatedly saw a pattern by which criminals would use condos and high-rises to launder money, says Jonathan Winer, a deputy assistant secretary of state for international law enforcement in the Clinton administration. It didnt matter that you paid too much, because the real estate values would rise, and it was a way of turning dirty money into clean money. It was done very systematically, and it explained why there are so many high-rises where the units were sold but no one is living in them. When Trump Tower was built, as David Cay Johnston reports in The Making of Donald Trump, it was only the second high-rise in New York that accepted anonymous buyers.
In 1987, just three years after he attended the closing with Trump, Bogatin pleaded guilty to taking part in a massive gasoline-bootlegging scheme with Russian mobsters. After he fled the country, the government seized his five condos at Trump Tower, saying that he had purchased them to launder money, to shelter and hide assets. A Senate investigation into organized crime later revealed that Bogatin was a leading figure in the Russian mob in New York. His family ties, in fact, led straight to the top: His brother ran a $150 million stock scam with none other than Semion Mogilevich, whom the FBI considers the boss of bosses of the Russian mafia. At the time, Mogilevichfeared even by his fellow gangsters as the most powerful mobster in the worldwas expanding his multibillion-dollar international criminal syndicate into America.was built, as David Cay Johnston reports in The Making of Donald Trump, it was only the second high-rise in New York that accepted anonymous buyers.
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But even without an investigation by Congress or a special prosecutor, there is much we already know about the presidents debt to Russia. A review of the public record reveals a clear and disturbing pattern: Trump owes much of his business success, and by extension his presidency, to a flow of highly suspicious money from Russia. Over the past three decades, at least 13 people with known or alleged links to Russian mobsters or oligarchs have owned, lived in, and even run criminal activities out of Trump Tower and other Trump properties. Many used his apartments and casinos to launder untold millions in dirty money. Some ran a worldwide high-stakes gambling ring out of Trump Towerin a unit directly below one owned by Trump. Others provided Trump with lucrative branding deals that required no investment on his part. Taken together, the flow of money from Russia provided Trump with a crucial infusion of financing that helped rescue his empire from ruin, burnish his image, and launch his career in television and politics. They saved his bacon, says Kenneth McCallion, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Reagan administration who investigated ties between organized crime and Trumps developments in the 1980s.
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Trump's Russian Laundromat (Original Post)
kwassa
Aug 2017
OP
Historic NY
(37,457 posts)1. He's heading to the laundry for 3 days soon.
FM123
(10,054 posts)2. I can't wait to see him take a tumble in the dryer
malaise
(269,237 posts)4. Off to thee greatest page for thee
LOCK HIM UP!
spanone
(135,911 posts)5. K&R...