info
Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss
How Much Money Has Rand Paul Received From Russia? What About Matt Gaetz or Trump?
16 views
Skip to first unread message
All Trumpers Are Traitors
Jan 22, 2022, 10:49:22 AM1/22/22
to
GOP operatives funneling Russian money to Trump is the latest foreign
“straw” donor scheme
By Anna Massoglia
September 22, 2021 11:55 am
(Photo by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images)
The indictment of two Republican operatives on charges they allegedly
funneled money from a Russian national to the Trump campaign’s joint
fundraising committee is the latest in a string of high profile — and high
stakes — foreign straw donor schemes exposed by the Department of Justice.
Federal prosecutors claim Jesse Benton and Doug Wead accepted $100,000
from an unidentified Russian foreign national in exchange for getting the
person a meeting with then-candidate Donald Trump at a fundraiser in 2016.
Allegedly, the two funnelled $25,000 to the Trump campaign’s joint
fundraising committee and pocketed the other $75,000.
Benton, a former campaign manager for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Senate
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), worked for the pro-Trump super
PAC Great America PAC in 2016. In December 2020, Benton was pardoned by
Trump on charges tied to hiding bribes in a 2012 scandal. At the time,
Benton allegedly paid a vendor who then paid a subvendor, violating the
FEC’s ultimate vendor disclosure rules.
Wead was a White House adviser during former President George H.W. Bush’s
presidency and also worked for Paul as well as the Kentucky senator’s
father, former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). In 2019, Wead released a book
titled “Inside Trump’s White House.”
Although the indictment, made public Tuesday, does not name the foreign
national, Forensic News reported that evidence suggests the description of
“Foreign National 1” — the Russian who allegedly funded the straw
donations — matches Roman Vasilenko. The indictment’s description of
“Foreign National 2” shares similarities to Olga Kovalova, a Ukrainian-
born translator who has appeared at events with both Wead and Vasilenko.
As evidence, Forensic News pointed to Vasilenko’s ties to Wead and
unearthed a picture of Vasilenko posing with Trump at the 2016 fundraiser
mentioned in the indictment. A 2016 video also appears to show Vasilenko
and Wead at a 2016 fundraiser with Trump.
Tickets to the Philadelphia fundraiser mentioned in the indictment cost at
least $25,000, payable as a contribution to the Trump campaign’s joint
fundraising committee. As a foreign national, Vasilenko would have been
barred by federal law from making contributions to political groups or
campaigns to influence U.S. elections. Straw donations, where the source
of funding is obscured, are also illegal.
Wead’s longstanding relationship with Vasilenko and Kovalova is evident
from their digital footprints.
Life is Good, Vasilenko’s company that provides ‘self-help’ seminars on
how to “achieve financial prosperity,” lists Wead as a partner. A YouTube
video from 2009 shows Kovalova translating for Wead, who was also listed
on the Ukrainian born translator’s website.
Vasilenko and Wead were also both involved in Canyonville Academy, a
Christian boarding school where Wead was president until 2019. Wead
appointed Vasilenko to the school’s board in 2018.
The new indictment is not the first instance of the Justice Department
probing foreign contributions that boosted Trump.
Last week, Igor Fruman, a Soviet-born operative and assocate of Rudy
Giuliani, pleaded guilty to funneling political contributions from a
foreign national to pro-Trump super PAC America First Action.
Federal prosecutors recently announced that Giuliani, who also worked with
Fruman’s business partner Lev Parnas, is under investigation over whether
he may have acted as an unregistered foreign agent.
Parnas, Fruman and their U.S. partner, David Correia, were charged in the
illegal foreign straw donor scheme after allegedly funneling $325,000 from
Russian national Andrei Muraviev through shell companies to America First
Action.
Fruman’s guilty plea notably did not include an agreement to cooperate
with the government, and he could face up to five years in prison.
In February, Correia was sentenced to a year and a day in prison after he
pleaded guilty to conspiracy and making false statements about the illegal
foreign straw donor scheme.
The trial for Parnas and another alleged co-conspirator, Ukrainian-born
California cannabis investor Andrey Kukushkin, is set to open Oct. 13.
Other groups supporting Trump have also come under scrutiny for alleged
foreign money.
Federal prosecutors reportedly began probing allegations of foreign
donations to Trump’s inaugural committee and pro-Trump super PAC
Rebuilding America Now in 2018. The inquiry reportedly examined whether
foreign nationals from Middle Eastern nations — including Qatar, Saudi
Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — funneled money through straw donors
to disguise their donations to the super PAC and Trump’s inaugural
committee. That committee was chaired by Tom Barrack, who was arrested in
July on charges he secretly acted in the U.S. as an agent for the UAE.
Want first access to OpenSecrets' investigations and data features? Learn
about Article Alert.
In 2018, Republican lobbyist Sam Patten pleaded guilty to helping funnel
foreign money to Trump’s inaugural committee from a Ukrainian oligarch.
Patten was a longtime partner of Konstantin Kilimnik, a Ukrainian
businessman with ties to Russian intelligence who previously worked for
Trump’s 2016 campaign chair Paul Manafort.
California financier and Trump inaugural donor Imaad Zuberi was sentenced
to 12 years in prison in February after pleading guilty to violating the
Foreign Agents Registration Act and making illegal contributions after he
failed to register as a foreign agent while working for the Sri Lankan
government and lobbying high-level U.S. government officials. Zuberi,
along with his firm Avenue Ventures, gave $900,000 to Trump’s 2017
inaugural committee and admitted he “helped facilitate” donations from
foreign sources.
The Justice Department reportedly probed whether another $100,000 donation
to Trump’s inauguration came from Jho Low, a fugitive Malaysian financier
accused of stealing billions in the 1MDB scandal, and who allegedly
transferred roughly $21 million to the Fugees’ Pras Michel as part of the
straw donor scheme.
The Justice Department also scrutinized Low’s $1.5 million in transfers to
a firm called LNS Capital shortly before the firm’s head, Larry Davis,
made political contributions to the Trump campaign’s joint fundraising
committee.The Justice Department has not released a conclusion on whether
or not Low was the source of funding behind those contributions.
The Malaysian financier’s contributions reached politicians on both sides
of the aisle, with foreign money allegedly going to support former
President Barack Obama as well as Trump.
Federal prosecutors claim Low funneled more than $1.8 million through
straw donors to a super PAC and joint fundraising committee supporting
Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.
George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman and lobbyist known for
serving as a witness in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation
into 2016 Russian interference, also allegedly steered foreign money
across the political spectrum — funneling money to both Trump and Hillary
Clinton in the 2016 election.
Nader was indicted for charges related to funneling more than $3.5 million
through straw donors to political groups supporting Clinton’s 2016
presidential bid in a purported attempt to build influence with her inner
circle. During that period of time, Nader was working as an adviser to the
United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
After Trump won the 2016 election, the payment processing company owned by
one of Nader’s straw donors, who allegedly facilitated the donations to
Clinton, gave $1 million to Trump’s inauguration and later met Trump in
the Oval Office.
Foreign straw donor schemes are not limited to presidential elections and
recent cases have exposed attempts to funnel foreign money into
congressional races and even local elections.
In April, the Justice Department released court documents revealing that
Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagoury agreed to pay the U.S.
government $1.8 million to resolve allegations in a straw donor scheme
routing illegal foreign contributions to U.S. campaigns.
Chagoury’s longtime spokesperson Mark Corallo, was the Trump legal team’s
spokesperson during the Mueller investigation as well as a personal
spokesperson for Giuliani associates Victoria Toensing and Joseph
diGenova.
In January 2020, East Bay real estate developer James Tong was sentenced
to 15 months in prison for funneling around $38,000 in illegal donations
to Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) through a network of straw donors,
including at least one foreign national who was legally barred from making
political contributions.
In 2017, Mexican foreign national Jose Susumo Azano Matsura was sentenced
to three years in prison for funneling around $600,000 in illegal foreign
contributions to candidates in the 2012 San Diego mayoral campaign through
straw donors as part of an effort to buy influence.
While the number of foreign straw donor cases pursued by the Justice
Department has mushroomed in recent years, foreign straw donor schemes are
nothing new.
In 1996, the Justice Department opened a task force to investigate
allegations of campaign fundraising abuses and attempt to shine light on
evidence that illegal foreign contributions to Democrats were laundered
through domestic straw donors during the 1996 election cycle.
Despite the influx of foreign straw donor cases, the Federal Election
Commission’s Office of Inspector General recently revealed that the FEC
does not even have a written policy on how to verify that donors are not
foreign nationals, warning of “significant national security risks” of
foreign money flowing into U.S. elections.
“straw” donor scheme
By Anna Massoglia
September 22, 2021 11:55 am
(Photo by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images)
The indictment of two Republican operatives on charges they allegedly
funneled money from a Russian national to the Trump campaign’s joint
fundraising committee is the latest in a string of high profile — and high
stakes — foreign straw donor schemes exposed by the Department of Justice.
Federal prosecutors claim Jesse Benton and Doug Wead accepted $100,000
from an unidentified Russian foreign national in exchange for getting the
person a meeting with then-candidate Donald Trump at a fundraiser in 2016.
Allegedly, the two funnelled $25,000 to the Trump campaign’s joint
fundraising committee and pocketed the other $75,000.
Benton, a former campaign manager for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Senate
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), worked for the pro-Trump super
PAC Great America PAC in 2016. In December 2020, Benton was pardoned by
Trump on charges tied to hiding bribes in a 2012 scandal. At the time,
Benton allegedly paid a vendor who then paid a subvendor, violating the
FEC’s ultimate vendor disclosure rules.
Wead was a White House adviser during former President George H.W. Bush’s
presidency and also worked for Paul as well as the Kentucky senator’s
father, former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). In 2019, Wead released a book
titled “Inside Trump’s White House.”
Although the indictment, made public Tuesday, does not name the foreign
national, Forensic News reported that evidence suggests the description of
“Foreign National 1” — the Russian who allegedly funded the straw
donations — matches Roman Vasilenko. The indictment’s description of
“Foreign National 2” shares similarities to Olga Kovalova, a Ukrainian-
born translator who has appeared at events with both Wead and Vasilenko.
As evidence, Forensic News pointed to Vasilenko’s ties to Wead and
unearthed a picture of Vasilenko posing with Trump at the 2016 fundraiser
mentioned in the indictment. A 2016 video also appears to show Vasilenko
and Wead at a 2016 fundraiser with Trump.
Tickets to the Philadelphia fundraiser mentioned in the indictment cost at
least $25,000, payable as a contribution to the Trump campaign’s joint
fundraising committee. As a foreign national, Vasilenko would have been
barred by federal law from making contributions to political groups or
campaigns to influence U.S. elections. Straw donations, where the source
of funding is obscured, are also illegal.
Wead’s longstanding relationship with Vasilenko and Kovalova is evident
from their digital footprints.
Life is Good, Vasilenko’s company that provides ‘self-help’ seminars on
how to “achieve financial prosperity,” lists Wead as a partner. A YouTube
video from 2009 shows Kovalova translating for Wead, who was also listed
on the Ukrainian born translator’s website.
Vasilenko and Wead were also both involved in Canyonville Academy, a
Christian boarding school where Wead was president until 2019. Wead
appointed Vasilenko to the school’s board in 2018.
The new indictment is not the first instance of the Justice Department
probing foreign contributions that boosted Trump.
Last week, Igor Fruman, a Soviet-born operative and assocate of Rudy
Giuliani, pleaded guilty to funneling political contributions from a
foreign national to pro-Trump super PAC America First Action.
Federal prosecutors recently announced that Giuliani, who also worked with
Fruman’s business partner Lev Parnas, is under investigation over whether
he may have acted as an unregistered foreign agent.
Parnas, Fruman and their U.S. partner, David Correia, were charged in the
illegal foreign straw donor scheme after allegedly funneling $325,000 from
Russian national Andrei Muraviev through shell companies to America First
Action.
Fruman’s guilty plea notably did not include an agreement to cooperate
with the government, and he could face up to five years in prison.
In February, Correia was sentenced to a year and a day in prison after he
pleaded guilty to conspiracy and making false statements about the illegal
foreign straw donor scheme.
The trial for Parnas and another alleged co-conspirator, Ukrainian-born
California cannabis investor Andrey Kukushkin, is set to open Oct. 13.
Other groups supporting Trump have also come under scrutiny for alleged
foreign money.
Federal prosecutors reportedly began probing allegations of foreign
donations to Trump’s inaugural committee and pro-Trump super PAC
Rebuilding America Now in 2018. The inquiry reportedly examined whether
foreign nationals from Middle Eastern nations — including Qatar, Saudi
Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — funneled money through straw donors
to disguise their donations to the super PAC and Trump’s inaugural
committee. That committee was chaired by Tom Barrack, who was arrested in
July on charges he secretly acted in the U.S. as an agent for the UAE.
Want first access to OpenSecrets' investigations and data features? Learn
about Article Alert.
In 2018, Republican lobbyist Sam Patten pleaded guilty to helping funnel
foreign money to Trump’s inaugural committee from a Ukrainian oligarch.
Patten was a longtime partner of Konstantin Kilimnik, a Ukrainian
businessman with ties to Russian intelligence who previously worked for
Trump’s 2016 campaign chair Paul Manafort.
California financier and Trump inaugural donor Imaad Zuberi was sentenced
to 12 years in prison in February after pleading guilty to violating the
Foreign Agents Registration Act and making illegal contributions after he
failed to register as a foreign agent while working for the Sri Lankan
government and lobbying high-level U.S. government officials. Zuberi,
along with his firm Avenue Ventures, gave $900,000 to Trump’s 2017
inaugural committee and admitted he “helped facilitate” donations from
foreign sources.
The Justice Department reportedly probed whether another $100,000 donation
to Trump’s inauguration came from Jho Low, a fugitive Malaysian financier
accused of stealing billions in the 1MDB scandal, and who allegedly
transferred roughly $21 million to the Fugees’ Pras Michel as part of the
straw donor scheme.
The Justice Department also scrutinized Low’s $1.5 million in transfers to
a firm called LNS Capital shortly before the firm’s head, Larry Davis,
made political contributions to the Trump campaign’s joint fundraising
committee.The Justice Department has not released a conclusion on whether
or not Low was the source of funding behind those contributions.
The Malaysian financier’s contributions reached politicians on both sides
of the aisle, with foreign money allegedly going to support former
President Barack Obama as well as Trump.
Federal prosecutors claim Low funneled more than $1.8 million through
straw donors to a super PAC and joint fundraising committee supporting
Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.
George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman and lobbyist known for
serving as a witness in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation
into 2016 Russian interference, also allegedly steered foreign money
across the political spectrum — funneling money to both Trump and Hillary
Clinton in the 2016 election.
Nader was indicted for charges related to funneling more than $3.5 million
through straw donors to political groups supporting Clinton’s 2016
presidential bid in a purported attempt to build influence with her inner
circle. During that period of time, Nader was working as an adviser to the
United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
After Trump won the 2016 election, the payment processing company owned by
one of Nader’s straw donors, who allegedly facilitated the donations to
Clinton, gave $1 million to Trump’s inauguration and later met Trump in
the Oval Office.
Foreign straw donor schemes are not limited to presidential elections and
recent cases have exposed attempts to funnel foreign money into
congressional races and even local elections.
In April, the Justice Department released court documents revealing that
Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagoury agreed to pay the U.S.
government $1.8 million to resolve allegations in a straw donor scheme
routing illegal foreign contributions to U.S. campaigns.
Chagoury’s longtime spokesperson Mark Corallo, was the Trump legal team’s
spokesperson during the Mueller investigation as well as a personal
spokesperson for Giuliani associates Victoria Toensing and Joseph
diGenova.
In January 2020, East Bay real estate developer James Tong was sentenced
to 15 months in prison for funneling around $38,000 in illegal donations
to Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) through a network of straw donors,
including at least one foreign national who was legally barred from making
political contributions.
In 2017, Mexican foreign national Jose Susumo Azano Matsura was sentenced
to three years in prison for funneling around $600,000 in illegal foreign
contributions to candidates in the 2012 San Diego mayoral campaign through
straw donors as part of an effort to buy influence.
While the number of foreign straw donor cases pursued by the Justice
Department has mushroomed in recent years, foreign straw donor schemes are
nothing new.
In 1996, the Justice Department opened a task force to investigate
allegations of campaign fundraising abuses and attempt to shine light on
evidence that illegal foreign contributions to Democrats were laundered
through domestic straw donors during the 1996 election cycle.
Despite the influx of foreign straw donor cases, the Federal Election
Commission’s Office of Inspector General recently revealed that the FEC
does not even have a written policy on how to verify that donors are not
foreign nationals, warning of “significant national security risks” of
foreign money flowing into U.S. elections.
All Trumpers Are Traitors
Jan 22, 2022, 11:36:36 AM1/22/22
to
All Trumpers Are Traitors
Jan 22, 2022, 10:34:24 PM1/22/22
to
All Trumpers Are Traitors
Jan 25, 2022, 11:21:08 PM1/25/22
to
All Trumpers Are Traitors
Jan 26, 2022, 2:23:56 PM1/26/22
to
All Trumpers Are Traitors
Feb 3, 2022, 10:42:39 PM2/3/22
to
bruce bowser
Jan 25, 2023, 2:00:38 PM1/25/23
to
"From 2016 until his retirement two years later, [Charles F.] McGonigal served as the Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the Counterintelligence Division of the FBI’s New York Field Office, and it was in that capacity that McGonigal crossed paths with — and got on the payroll of — sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
Sanctioned before he was indicted, Deripaska emerged as a key figure in the Mueller report, in which his name appears at least 64 times. He was connected to former President Donald Trump’s ex-campaign chair Paul Manafort. Mueller alleged that Manafort instructed his deputy Rick Gates to share campaign information with suspected Russian intelligence operative Konstantin Kilimnik. Gates “expected” that information would be shared with Deripaska, according to the report."
‘The Big Guy’: Ex-FBI Counterintel Chief Allegedly Received ‘Concealed Payments’ from Sanctioned Russian Oligarch Seen in Mueller Report
Law & Crime - Jan 23, 2023
-- https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/the-big-guy-ex-fbi-counterintel-chief-allegedly-received-concealed-payments-from-sanctioned-russian-oligarch-seen-in-mueller-report/
Sanctioned before he was indicted, Deripaska emerged as a key figure in the Mueller report, in which his name appears at least 64 times. He was connected to former President Donald Trump’s ex-campaign chair Paul Manafort. Mueller alleged that Manafort instructed his deputy Rick Gates to share campaign information with suspected Russian intelligence operative Konstantin Kilimnik. Gates “expected” that information would be shared with Deripaska, according to the report."
‘The Big Guy’: Ex-FBI Counterintel Chief Allegedly Received ‘Concealed Payments’ from Sanctioned Russian Oligarch Seen in Mueller Report
Law & Crime - Jan 23, 2023
-- https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/the-big-guy-ex-fbi-counterintel-chief-allegedly-received-concealed-payments-from-sanctioned-russian-oligarch-seen-in-mueller-report/
0 new messages