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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWho's Enabling Putin's Enablers?
A: The Carlyle Group and Friends.Whos Enabling Putins Enablers?
BY SAM PIZZIGATI
CounterPunch, March 29, 2022
Where would Vladimir Putin be without the Russian oligarchy? Without Russias oligarchs, political leaders of the Western world have concluded, Putin would be tottering. Western leaders have made squeezing Russias richest a central piece of their strategy to end Putins Ukraine cross-border assault.
These same Western leaders, unfortunately, have failed to take seriously what ought to be an equally pressing question: Where would Russias oligarchs be without the West, without the Wall Streeters, wealth managers, and assorted other high-finance riff-raff paid millions, as Institute for Policy Studies analyst Chuck Collins puts it, to help billionaires sequester trillions?
Western leaders have essentially been ignoring this question almost ever since the old Soviet Union collapsed. And now were paying the price. Those Ukraine sanctions against Russias oligarchs? They come with a huge loophole. The Western worlds opaque web of tax havens and anonymous corporations is essentially rendering much of those sanctions ineffective.
Snippe
The U.S. wealth defense industry, we need to remember, hasnt just been helping Russian oligarchs hide their fortunes. Americas money-handlers have for years been helping them pile up ever grander fortunes. Theyve steered the illicit funds of Russian oligarchs into U.S. real estate, investment funds, and even factories, says Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jake Bernstein, a senior reporter on the 2016 bombshell Panama Papers tax avoidance exposé.
The Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has used a network of banks, law firms and advisers in multiple countries, the New York Times just reported, to invest billions in American hedge funds. Along the way, he tapped the expertise and contacts of U.S. high-finance giants ranging from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to BlackRock and the Carlyle Group.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/03/29/whos-enabling-putins-enablers/
BootinUp
(47,084 posts)Kid Berwyn
(14,798 posts)Excerpt
Oct. 17, 2013
Trump tells David Letterman that hes done a lot of business with the Russians and says they are smart and tough and that they dont look so dumb right now. He calls Putin a tough guy and says that he met him once.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2017/03/politics/trump-putin-russia-timeline/
gab13by13
(21,264 posts)Let's not forget the Federalist Society. Yes we have American oligarchs.
Kid Berwyn
(14,798 posts)Helping the 1% own 99% of wealth.
Revealed: the $2bn offshore trail that leads to Vladimir Putin
A massive leak of documents shines new light on the fabulous fortunes of the Russian presidents inner circle
Putins best friend: the cellist who holds the key to his fortune
Icelands PM faces snap election over revelations
What are the Panama Papers?
Panama Papers: global reaction live
by Luke Harding
The Guardian, April 3, 2016
A network of secret offshore deals and vast loans worth $2bn has laid a trail to Russias president, Vladimir Putin.
An unprecedented leak of documents shows how this money has made members of Putins close circle fabulously wealthy.
Though the presidents name does not appear in any of the records, the data reveals a pattern his friends have earned millions from deals that seemingly could not have been secured without his patronage.
The documents suggest Putins family has benefited from this money his friends fortunes appear his to spend.
The files are part of an unprecedented leak of millions of papers from the database of Mossack Fonseca, the worlds fourth biggest offshore law firm. They show how the rich and powerful are able to exploit secret offshore tax regimes in myriad ways.
The offshore trail starts in Panama, darts through Russia, Switzerland and Cyprus and includes a private ski resort where Putins younger daughter, Katerina, got married in 2013.
Continues...
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/panama-papers-money-hidden-offshore
For the wealthy and the criminal classes, greed is the universal language.
Response to Kid Berwyn (Original post)
Chin music This message was self-deleted by its author.
Baked Potato
(7,733 posts)Kid Berwyn
(14,798 posts)Whether ones a mafia kingpin or a corporate raider, money not only makes the world go round, its a problem solver.
pecosbob
(7,533 posts)Use a credit union if you can.
Kid Berwyn
(14,798 posts)I knew they had money, but no idea they were so connected.
The Real Deal: The Ultimate New Business Cold Call
NYSE's Richard Grasso and the Ultimate New Business "Cold Call"
Monday, 18 February 2002, 10:13 am
Column: Catherine Austin Fitts
Lest you think that my comment about the New York Stock Exchange is too strong, let's look at one event that occurred before our "war on drugs" went into high gear through Plan Colombia, banging heads over narco dollar market share in Latin America.
In late June 1999, numerous news services, including Associated Press, reported that Richard Grasso, Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange flew to Colombia to meet with a spokesperson for Raul Reyes of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC), the supposed "narco terrorists" with whom we are now at war.
The purpose of the trip was "to bring a message of cooperation from U.S. financial services" and to discuss foreign investment and the future role of U.S. businesses in Colombia.
Some reading in between the lines said to me that Grasso's mission related to the continued circulation of cocaine capital through the US financial system. FARC, the Colombian rebels, were circulating their profits back into local development without the assistance of the American banking and investment system. Worse yet for the outlook for the US stock market's strength from $500 billion - $1 trillion in annual money laundering - FARC was calling for the decriminalization of cocaine.
To understand the threat of decriminalization of the drug trade, just go back to your Sam and Dave estimate and recalculate the numbers given what decriminalization does to drive BIG PERCENT back to SLIM PERCENT and what that means to Wall Street and Washington's cash flows. No narco dollars, no reinvestment into the stock markets, no campaign contributions.
It was only a few days after Grasso's trip that BBC News reported a General Accounting Office (GAO) report to Congress as saying: "Colombia's cocaine and heroin production is set to rise by as much as 50 percent as the U.S. backed drug war flounders, due largely to the growing strength of Marxist rebels"
CONTINUED...
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0202/S00069.htm
For some reason, ALL of Corporate McPravda missed this story.
pecosbob
(7,533 posts)to counter the flow of U.S. gold into French banks due to the Vietnam conflict.
WhiteTara
(29,692 posts)or apprehending these people. Can we go all the way to Koch, and Bush the Meaner's crew, et al? Do we stop at the mid level tfg and cronies or go for broke and clean up all the way to Mogilovich? Really, where do we draw the line?