Russian Lawyer in Meeting at Trump Tower Is Charged in Case That Shows Kremlin Ties
Source: New York Times
Natalia V. Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who in 2016 met with Trump campaign officials in Trump Tower, was charged on Tuesday in a separate case that showed her close ties to the Kremlin.
Ms. Veselnitskaya was charged by federal prosecutors in New York with seeking to thwart a Justice Department civil fraud investigation into money laundering that involved an influential Russian businessman and his investment firm.
The case was not directly related to the Trump Tower meeting. But a federal indictment returned in Manhattan seemed to confirm that Ms. Veselnitskaya had deep ties to senior Russian government officials.
The indictment charges that after the Justice Department asked the Russian government to assist its investigation, the Russian government refused, responding with a letter that purported to exonerate Russian officials and the firm's personnel.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/08/nyregion/trump-tower-natalya-veselnitskaya-indictment.html
WaPo story -
By Devlin Barrett and
Matt Zapotosky
January 8 at 10:37 AM
A Russian lawyer whose role at a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower has come under scrutiny from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III was charged Tuesday in a separate case with obstructing justice in a money-laundering investigation. Natalia Veselnitskaya became a central figure in the Mueller probe when it was revealed that in June 2016, she met with Donald Trump Jr., after an intermediary indicated she had dirt on Hillary Clinton. But the charges unsealed Tuesday say she made a "misleading declaration" to the court in a civil case.
Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. and others at Trump Tower in Manhattan on June 9, 2016, represented Prevezon Holdings in a civil case in which the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan sought millions of dollars in forfeiture from the company and others. The department had alleged in a civil complaint that a Russian criminal organization ran an elaborate tax refund scheme, stealing the identities of targeted companies and filing sham lawsuits to incur fake losses for refund purposes.
Those involved made about $230 million in tax refunds, prosecutors said, and filtered the money through shell companies and eventually into Prevezon, a Cyprus-based real estate corporation. Prevezon, prosecutors said, laundered the funds into real estate, including by investing in high end commercial property and luxury apartments in Manhattan.
The parent company of the victim firms hired attorneys to investigate after learning of the sham lawsuits, including Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, and they uncovered the fraud scheme, in which Russian government officials were complicit, prosecutors said. Magnitsky was then arrested and died in custody. On the day he died, prosecutors said, he was beaten by guards with a rubber baton, and an ambulance crew called to treat him was deliberately kept outside of his cell until he was dead. The incident sparked the U.S. to pass the Magnitsky Act, which allowed the U.S. to sanction officials found to have committed human rights violations in Russia.
More: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-lawyer-at-trump-tower-meeting-charged-in-separate-case/2019/01/08/0f0303a0-1356-11e9-b6ad-9cfd62dbb0a8_story.html
Leghorn21
(13,527 posts)Thank you!
mickswalkabout41
(145 posts)Mother fucker. Tic fucking toc.
Botany
(70,651 posts)Grifting, lying, cheating, and treasonous bastards. Why are they still in power?
czarjak
(11,335 posts)George II
(67,782 posts)...what Mueller has on her, too?
To quote donnie jr., "if what you say is true, I love it!"
PatSeg
(47,763 posts)We need to purge this country of Putin's agents. I fear that it is far worse than we've imagined.
Scarsdale
(9,426 posts)dangerous to this country than the immigrants fleeing their countries. The Russians seem to have access to the higher forms of government, especially the tRumps.
neohippie
(1,142 posts)This is all related to the case Phreet Bahara was working on when he was fired by Trump and then after years of mounting a case the DOJ suddenly decided to give the Russians a favorable settlement
Something is definitely rotten in New Amsterdam when it comes to Russians laundering money in real estate deals
https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/07/12/doj-settled-massive-russian-fraud-case-involving-lawyer-who-met-with-trump-jr/
The civil forfeiture case was filed in 2013 by Preet Bharara, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York who was fired by Trump in March. The case alleged that 11 companies were involved in a tax fraud in Russia and then laundered a portion of the $230 million they got into Manhattan real estate.
The forfeiture case was heralded at the time as a significant step towards uncovering and unwinding a complex money laundering scheme arising from a notorious foreign fraud, Bharara said. As alleged, a Russian criminal enterprise sought to launder some of its billions in ill-gotten rubles through the purchase of pricey Manhattan real estate.
But Instead of proceeding with the trial as scheduled, the Trump Justice Department settled the case two days before it was due to begin. By then, Bharara had already been axed by the president. Bhararas assistant did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Princess Turandot
(4,790 posts)The evidence in this matter came from emails, via which Veselnitskaya worked with a Russian prosecutor to create a response to the allegations against her own client. That report was then falsely presented as exculpatory evidence that cleared her client, independently discovered/provided by the Russian government.
No word on where exactly they obtained the emails. They are described as coming "emails from an account used by Veselnitskaya", sent to "the personal email account of a Russian prosecutor".
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: Fabricating evidence submitting false and deceptive declarations to a federal judge in an attempt to affect the outcome of pending litigation not only undermines the integrity of the judicial process, but it threatens the ability of our courts and our Government to ensure that justice is done. We take seriously our responsibility to protect the integrity of the judicial proceedings in this District, and we will not stand idly by while outside influences seek to corrupt and pervert that process.
Special Agent-in-Charge Angel M. Melendez said: Russian Attorney Natalya Veselnitskaya is now a wanted person in the United States for intentionally misleading U.S. investigators, regarding Prevezon Holdings role in the $230 million dollar tax fraud scheme perpetrated by a criminal organization that included in its ranks corrupt Russian officials. This investigation brought to light how Veslnitskaya secretly schemed with a senior Russian prosecutor to provide false information to U.S. law enforcement in an attempt to influence the legal proceedings in the Southern District of New York. The determined efforts of HSI New Yorks El Dorado Task Force and the U.S. Attorneys Office reflect how seriously we take the rule of law in the United States. Veselnitskaya is now on notice and will have to answer for her futile actions.... More: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/russian-attorney-natalya-veselnitskaya-charged-obstruction-justice-connection-civil
riversedge
(70,454 posts)neohippie
(1,142 posts)Link to tweet
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/azeenghorayshi/prevezon-mueller-investigation-td-bank
Nine months after securing the money, Prevezon and its owner, Denis Katsyv, were accused by US prosecutors of laundering illicit funds through New York City real estate including the Manhattan property connected to the TD Bank loan.
The records of this transaction, which have never been publicly reported, were unearthed by the US Treasury Departments financial crimes unit during investigations by Congress and special counsel Robert Mueller, both of whom are digging into Russias interference in the 2016 election. As part of those inquiries, authorities have turned to bank records as key pieces of evidence.
The documents are not only shaping the Russia investigation, they are also beginning to reveal a deeper pattern of behavior by Kremlin associates, who for years have moved their funds across the globe and tapped Western banks to wash their money. As a result, US authorities are learning more about the financial behavior of central figures such as Paul Manafort, the accused Russian agent Maria Butina, the billionaire real estate developer Aras Agalarov, and others.
In this case, TD Banks internal records show that before the loan closed, there were questions about Prevezon Alexander, a subsidiary of the sprawling real estate company headquartered in Cyprus but bank officials failed to alert their colleagues about a damning report and allowed the deal to go forward.
A lot more at the linked story
BumRushDaShow
(130,020 posts)...and notably in real estate.
Real estate.
They_Live
(3,247 posts)was already known well over year ago. Perhaps this is more of a confirmation.
neohippie
(1,142 posts)That just happened, the rest of the details were known, but it's just more Trump Russia, money laundering connections and of course Magnitsky act sanctions.
Removing those sanctions, has been a huge motivation for Putin, to have done much of what we now know
BumRushDaShow
(130,020 posts)and not just last year, but for decades... This type of stuff has been going on for a long time but no one bothered or was able to complete an investigation through to the indictment/charging phase to this degree. IIRC, much of this laundering was going on right there in NYC in plain sight. But the politicos (local/state/federal) there found ways to do a wink wink. Although to be fair, they did spend time going after the Italian mob (and as we see, the vacuum was filled by the Russian mob).
Hekate
(91,020 posts)Things are coming right along.
BumRushDaShow
(130,020 posts)Link to tweet
TEXT
Benjamin Wittes
✔
@benjaminwittes
Boom!https://nyti.ms/2GYoFDS?smid=nytcore-ios-share
1,519
11:05 AM - Jan 8, 2019
pecosbob
(7,549 posts)KatyBR
(183 posts)Just a few months ago. Putin must be getting the heads up:
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/409961-russian-deputy-ag-linked-to-lawyer-in-trump-tower-meeting
Judi Lynn
(160,682 posts)Starts around :50, I believe.