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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDanske Bank's Money Laundering Tops $8 Billion, Browder Says
Shocking new discovery of $8 billion of moneylaundering connected to the Putin regime that went
through Danske Bank (some of it connected to the Magnitsky case).
Link to tweet
By Peter Levring and Frances Schwartzkopff
July 3, 2018, 2:18 PM EDT
Updated on July 4, 2018, 9:51 AM EDT
Anti-Kremlin campaigner preparing new criminal complaint
Lawmakers voice indignation over lack of punitive measures
Danske Bank A/Ss Estonian operations were used to launder as much as $8.3 billion, more than double previous estimates, according to Bill Browder, the fund manager who is leading a global campaign against the Kremlin over human-rights abuses.
As Browder presses his case, the disclosure could deepen the legal and reputational woes of Denmarks biggest lender, which was reprimanded by regulators in May for failing to monitor for money laundering but avoided prosecution.
The possible widening of Danskes misdeeds in Estonia follows the bribery indictment of Latvias central banker and U.S. allegations of money laundering there. Together, they highlight the risks of banking in the Baltic states, inviting tougher oversight of Russian money flows.
Its not clear what the consequences might be as the volume of this case is much bigger than anyone could have imagined, said Christian Thatje, an equity dealer at Sydbank A/S. This case brings a lot of uncertainty and investors dont like that.
Much more:
https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2018-07-03/danske-may-have-been-used-to-launder-8-3-billion-berlingske?__twitter_impression=true
Past leaks have shown that money made its way from Russia, Moldova and Azerbaijan through Danske Bank...
...........this news comes the day after monumentally corrupt Malaysian ex-prime minister Najib Razak is arrested...hes the ex-prime minister who Elliot Broidy allegedly tried to hit up for $75 million, return for Broidys getting the DOJ to stand down on their investigation of the 1MDB scandal. Yeah, no, it didnt work out.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/03/1mdb-trump-ally-elliot-broidy-tries-to-get-75-million-to-end-us-probe.html
At any rate, some big players in the transnational CORRUPTION game are feeling a little heat these last 48 hours, and darnit, who doesnt love that??!
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)Wow,as someone said,it was all a massive money laundering scheme run by a hand full of Oligarchs and Putin. Is Manafort the key? or is it Wilbur Ross and the Bank of Cyprus.
DAMANgoldberg
(1,278 posts)and then some. All of the major players in the money laundering game at that level know each other. They could be rivals or frenemies. Since the current occupant of the White House has known debt to these people and his crony network does too, nothing will surprise me on the links of this.
Follow the Money, always!
Leghorn21
(13,520 posts)upcoming years in PRISON, and I just saw an article today about how Ross shorted two more stocks than the original three he admitted to:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/02/wilbur-ross-shorted-two-additional-shares-as-commerce-secretary.html
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)as a result of this Money laundry operation are,Deuthe Bank,Danske Bank,Standard Charter,Northern Trust which I believe Richard Branson took over at the request of the Bank of England. Bank of Cyprus keeps popping up as a conduit for Ukrainian as well as Russian money routed into the World Banking system as well as the Bank of New York Mellon. All the Banks except Mellon have failed recent stress tests,funny thing,Mnuchin wants the Stress Test done away with. Hmmmm why?
Leghorn21
(13,520 posts)researchers, Wellstone: Sberbank and Alfa Bank (which *people say* is Mogilevichs baby)
I just googled Sberbank and found this:
Russias Sberbank posts sharp increase in quarterly profits
Higher earnings show US sanctions have yet to take a toll
https://www.ft.com/content/112484ec-63e8-11e8-a39d-4df188287fff
Now, while were on laundering - do you recall this tidbit from late April?:
NEW YORK (AP) President Donald Trumps personal attorney, whose business dealings are being investigated by the FBI, and the lawyers father-in-law have lent $26 million in recent years to a taxi mogul who is shifting into the legalized marijuana industry, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
Semyon Sam Shtayner, a longtime business associate of Michael Cohens father-in-law, created Nevada-based Cannaboss LLC the day before the 2016 election. A few months later, he took a majority position in a company that is provisionally licensed to cultivate medicinal marijuana and produce edibles, the records show.
Snip
Its not clear whether Shtayner used any of the loans $6 million of which have come directly from Cohen since 2014 to finance his grow operation.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/cohen-and-father-in-law-taxi-mogul-loan-marijuana-business
The articles Ive seen on Cohens father-in-law, Fima Shusterman, only mention his taxi business - but google reveals that he also runs, or ran, a real estate business...there are no dates connected to these links, and virtually no info (grrrr) ...the outfit is simply called Shusterman Fima...*people say* that real estate is a really effective conduit for money laundering, eh??
https://www.corpdetails.com/us/new-york/816952-new-york/shusterman-fima
https://www.bizexposed.com/New_York-USA/B/Shusterman__Fima-New_York.php
There is so much we dont know, but these high-dollar corruption busts lately give me hope that we one day we will!?!
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)Besides the Weed Distribution,understand there Cabs involved as well. Chicago Trib had a story about Cohen and his Father in law involved with Cabs in Chi town as well. We do have a large group of Russian dudes working the Skin scene here in the valley. Nasty people,had a run in with one running a Rental Scam and was or he might be still playing the Porno movie scene.
Our HOA barred him from ever coming through the Gates. Nasty POS.
BTW,seems to be the same scam and being run out of Henderson.
When you have Casino's as your main Business,you are going to attract the worst people.
Leghorn21
(13,520 posts)Wwcd
(6,288 posts)Fascinating find Leghorn
Here's a Trump connection to consider.
Snip From your Post:
"
The possible widening of Danskes misdeeds in Estonia follows the bribery indictment of Latvias central banker and U.S. allegations of money laundering there...."
To This:
March 2018 Twitter Link:
Link to tweet
From The Guardian Article:
MARCH 2018
https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/29/trump-fbi-hotel-latvia-investigation-russia-links?__twitter_impression=true
FBI looked into Trump plans to build hotel in Latvia with Putin supporter
They wanted to build the Las Vegas of the Baltics.
"In 2010, a small group of businessmen including a wealthy Russian supporter of Vladimir Putin began working on plans to build a glitzy hotel and entertainment complex with Donald Trump in Riga, the capital of Latvia.
A senior Trump executive visited the city to scout for locations. Trump and his daughter Ivanka spent hours at Trump Tower with the Russian, Igor Krutoy, who also knows compatriots involved in arranging a fateful meeting at the same building during the 2016 US election campaign.
Then the Latvian governments anti-corruption bureau began asking questions.
The Guardian has learned that talks with Trumps company were abandoned after Krutoy and another of the businessmen were questioned by Latvian authorities as part of a major criminal inquiry there and that the FBI later looked into Trumps interactions with them at Latvias request."MORE....
More discussion at Puesto Loco's Twitter Link dated March 29, 2018
https://mobile.twitter.com/PuestoLoco/status/979403831653163008
..............
There would be no limit to the money they could launder thru the Latvian Casinos, "The Las Vegas of the Baltics
This may just be a small part of info in your fascinating thread.
Ya know, I knew pretty much nothing about the criminality of international mobsters, until Trump became our pResident.
Thanks for your good read Leghorn
Leghorn21
(13,520 posts)about it - and I have never seen this Igor Krutoy character mentioned before, either - and Igor knows compatriots involved in arranging a fateful meeting at the same building during the 2016 US election campaign - OH??
Well, Ill be keeping an eye out for Igor now - and its my understanding that there are investigations world-wide that are inch by inch taking down corrupt players EVERYWHERE -
And I like to remember, for instance, theres this casino on Saipan, it has been busted twice by the FBI - once in March of 17 and again in March of 18...its a tiny casino, yet more money passes through there than through the huge casinos in Macau...hmmm, why is that??! There was so much money passing through that little casino that it got the attention of the US Treasury Dept. some time ago...hmmmmmm, why is that?!?
I do believe ALL these bits and pieces are interconnected, and inch by inch, theyre all going down...and just thinking of this possibility is UTTERLY DELIGHTFUL
Hang tough, W!
Wwcd
(6,288 posts)Notice that the push was on for the Vegas of the Baltics.
Seems they were all set to go with the Trump hotel & casinos, Donald & daughter Ivanka even went to Latvia to scope out the location..
Then they all held a meetup at the NY Trump Towers & the whole thing came to a halt when they found out the FEDS were listening in on the convo with their Russian mobster pals.
Latvia Casino money laundering plans were put in hold.
I recall reading about the Saipan Casino but it had been lost in the daily drama of Trump.
The banks involved, & there a A LOT of them, is a very serious deal & I agree that there are but a few players at the top that drive the whole machine .
Biggest mobster in the world is Semion Mogilevich.
Semion Yudkovich Mogilevich 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. Wikipedia
This is why he is the mob boss of the world.
1/2 hour documentary tells how he got there & how fked anyone is who crosses him.
Semion is Putun's boss.
Leghorn21
(13,520 posts)(also long ago) that by the time young Putin got into the KGB, Mog. had already exerted his wicked ways over that agency, and was basically running the show...( I cant prove it, of course!)
And it is said that Felix Saters father was a Mogilevich underboss...which of course, again, I cannot prove...in spite of massive googling sessions, I can find no trace of his current whereabouts, or if hes even still alive - ? Lil Donnie, of course, has NEVER HEARD OF FELIX SATER hahahahaahhaaa
Heres some info on the Saipan busts...nope, I cant prove that casino has anything to do with anything, but meanwhile we wait patiently to see if it plays into this transnational mobster takedown!!
March 2018:
U.S. federal agents raided a Saipan office of Imperial Pacific International Holdings Ltd. last week, according to people familiar with the matter.
The investigators took documents from the office, said the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss a non-public matter. The Federal Bureau of Investigation participated in the raid, one of the people said.
snip
Imperial Pacific has attracted broad attention in the gaming industry for the volumes being recorded at its Saipan casino, which are far larger on a per-table basis than those at the grandest resorts in Macau.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-14/saipan-casino-operator-is-said-to-be-raided-by-u-s-agents
March, 2017:
FBI personnel, accompanied by uniformed police officers, arrived Thursday morning at a local office used by Imperial Pacific International Holdings Ltd., the Hong Kong-based company that owns the Best Sunshine Live casino, local residents said. They stayed for several hours, with local police blocking access to the building.
snip
In 2015, the company opened Best Sunshine Live in a mall between a laundromat and a cellphone shop. From its sleepy storefront, Best Sunshine Live has posted per-table revenues far greater than those at the largest resorts in Macau, Asias gambling capital.
Those cash flows attracted interest from the U.S. Treasury unit that monitors suspicious financial flows, a person familiar with the matter said in November. A spokesman for the unit declined to comment for this article.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-30/fbi-agents-visit-office-of-saipan-casino-run-by-trump-protege
In depth article on Saipan, February 2018:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-02-15/a-chinese-company-has-conquered-a-piece-of-america
-James Woolsey is a board member of the Best Sunshine Live casino...former FBI director Louis Freeh and Ed Rendell, a former Pennsylvania governor and Democratic National Committee chairman, sit on an advisory committee, as does Haley Barbour
Mark Brown, trump protege, ran the casino from sometime in 2015 until December 2017:
https://calvinayre.com/2018/01/08/casino/imperial-pacific-chairman-mark-brown-gone/
Wwcd
(6,288 posts)Many many people have been suckered into it.
Yet, on the other hand, many many knew better than to be suckers to Semion's crime syndicate.
With those names on the casino board of directors, its no wonder Gore, Kerry & Clinton never became President of the USA.
They were up against the global mofia org that only grew in size & purpose.
The entire Repub party in Congress has been compromised.
Every gang throughout time, global or small local punks, operates on the premise of theft & money laundering thru drugs, gambling, weapons, prostitution & human trafficking, property &/or building territory.
They are all fronts for moving money, undetected as possible.
This one we face today is a massive organization & now owns the gift of media mesaging, the internet, that the old time mobsters never had.
I'm off to read your links & search for anything on the 'suspiciously disappeared' links in your post.
No wonder they were erased.
Later..