WA Post: Money laundering -- Why the Trump Org Could be Trump's Undoing

[pnwmom]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-the-trump-organization-could-be-trumps-undoing/2017/08/08/82de9980-7c4c-11e7-a669-b400c5c7e1cc_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-d%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.21e0b039e2f7

But few laundries can match the efficiency of an eight-figure luxury condominium in New York or San Francisco or South Florida. It works like this: The holder of a great deal of tainted money sets up a shell company, funds it through the shadow banking system, then uses the shell to purchase exclusive property. Voila! No one knows where the money came from or who the buyer might be. But when the condo is eventually resold, the proceeds emerge from the spin cycle as clean as Eliot Ness.

SNIP

At the Trump International, on the southwest corner of Central Park, the Times noted that more than half of all condo sales were to hidden buyers. A more recent study by USA Today found that the number of veiled transactions involving the Trump Organization took a big jump as the boss man’s political fortunes rose. Since Trump captured the Republican nomination last summer, the share of hidden buyers of his branded properties has climbed to 70 percent, the newspaper found.

The president may be waking to the possibility that Mueller will drag this unseemly marketplace into the glare of public scrutiny. In a revealing interview with the Times last month, Trump signaled that he expects investigators to find some transactions that will undercut his claims to do no business with Russia. “I mean, it’s possible there’s a condo or something,” he said. “I sell a lot of condo units, and somebody from Russia buys a condo, who knows?”

Exactly. Who knows? Our president has been operating for years in an industry notorious for blurred lines between honest and dishonest money. Whether he and his family have managed to walk this tightrope without slipping is something only time, and Mueller, will tell.

[Botany]

1. Now why did Jeff Sessions settle the suit against Prevezon for pennies on the dollar?

House Democrats want to know why a major Russian money-laundering case was abruptly settled


Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday asking why the Department of Justice settled a major money-laundering case involving a real-estate company owned by the son of a powerful Russian government official whose lawyer met with Donald Trump Jr. last year.

Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, on Tuesday tweeted an email chain from June 2016 in which he entertained accepting damaging information from a "Russian government attorney" about Hillary Clinton as part of the Kremlin's support for his father's campaign.

That attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, represents the family of Pyotr Katsyv, the former vice governor of the Moscow region, whose son, Denis, owns the real-estate company Prevezon. The DOJ had been investigating whether Prevezon laundered millions of dollars through New York City real estate when the case was unexpectedly settled two days before going to trial in May.

"Last summer, Donald Trump Jr. met with a Kremlin-connected attorney in an attempt to obtain information 'that would incriminate Hillary,'" the Democrats wrote, citing the emails he published. "Earlier this year, on May 12, 2017, the Department of Justice made an abrupt decision to settle a money laundering case being handled by that same attorney in the Southern District of New York.

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-was-russian-money-laundering-case-dismissed-house-dems-2017-7

[riversedge]

28. Ah, yes, thanks for reminder.

[Gothmog]

2. Money laundering is where I think that they will get trump

[gratuitous]

3. "Since Trump captured the Republican nomination last summer . . ."

So, all these veiled transactions and hidden buyers were going on right under the Washington Post's nose during the general election campaign, but they've only just noticed it now that Trump's been in office for six months and things haven't turned out all that well?

Thanks for . . . well, not quite nothing, but pretty goddammed little, Washington Post.

[pnwmom]

4. No. The WA Post has written about Trump & money laundering before. n/t

[gratuitous]

8. Oh yeah I remember it well

Yeah, the Post was out there shouting it from the rooftops from June to November last year, about how all this suspicious activity was going on, and totally forcing the Trump campaign to respond and explain.

Wait. No, I didn't get kicked in the head by a horse. I don't remember the Post doing that when it might have mattered in the 2016 election.

[MiddleClass]

20. Washington Post, was all over the Hillary email story, you can't expect them to do 2 things at once

That would be multitasking, and taking precious attention from James Comey's scolding of Hillary.

Where do you think the Washington Post is a national newspaper or something.

Obvious, but

[ffr]

5. IT'S MUELLER TIME!

[Mr. Ected]

6. The beauty of this is that it was a crime committed in the State of New York

And therefore Trump and his associates are subject to a state lawsuit for racketeering.

Trump's pardon power is circumscribed by federal law. He cannot pardon himself, or Mr. Trump, Jr., or his brother Eric, or his daughter Ivanka, or her husband Jared, or anyone else that is eventually ensnared by NYAG Eric Schneidermann.

No matter how much he riles up his base and attempts to confound and confuse them with his own brand of fake news and lies, the judicial system pays no heed. Evidence of a crime is evidence of a crime, even if the National Enquirer regularly disputes it.

[dalton99a]

10. +1

[Rural_Progressive]

11. Pretty sure the republicans

are big fans of states' rights so they'll undoubtably be fine with this.....sure they will.

[aeromanKC]

13. Why was Preet Bharara fired again?

Kinda makes you wonder why Preet Bharara was fired. HHmmm????

[ancianita]

17. I can't wait.

[Skittles]

7. he has been laundering money for the Russian mob for decades

and he had the GALL to complain about Hillary's emails

WTF

[Kathy M]

12. "he has been laundering money for the Russian mob for decades " how do we know this

for sure / reality ..........

[Botany]

16. FYI

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/13/donald-trumps-worst-deal

[MiddleClass]

22. The vagina monument. Now this is irony

[pnwmom]

19. Every time a mobster bought one of his condos for cash, dirty money was being laundered. n/t

[dalton99a]

9. The greatest money launderer that God ever created.

[zentrum]

15. Not really. Much of

...the new mega real estate changes you're seeing in all major cities world wide are with laundered money. Money from China, Arabia, and of course Russia. And probably the USA too. These people see shell company real estate as a cash register in the sky. Major way for oligarchs in developing economies to move and hide their money from their own governments and from bank regulation. And they often get tax breaks along the way.

Heard on NPR that the corruption of Russians Oligarchs was immense and Putin really went after them in his climb to power. So they said to him what will it take to call you off and he said: Half. They give 50% of all their laundry to him and he protects them. The report said it's made him perhaps the richest man alive. Into the trillion category.

Trump is chump change compared.

[zentrum]

14. Hope Mueller

...has 24 security around him and his family and his staff and their family. At this point, it's the Russian mob who doesn't want any more scrutiny.

Hope Schneiderman has security too.He's been on this for months.

[ancianita]

18. This isn't the FBI's first rodeo in dealing with international mobsters. They've learned. nt

[zentrum]

30. I guess I feel

...the Russians are more lethal than the usual mobs.

Hope you're right.

[kentuck]

21. That is exactly what he has been doing...

...and he hasn't paid taxes on it either. Dirty Don.

[MiddleClass]

24. The Don of money laundering

[L. Coyote]

23. RICO, forfeiture, bankruptcy, jail

In no particular order

[Mr. Ected]

25. I'll take Income Tax Evasion for 20 to life, Alex

I'm willing to bet he didn't report all his income on any of that laundered money.

[L. Coyote]

33. 40 counts

Income tax evasion all his life.

[guillaumeb]

26. Russians, Chinese, cartel members, mafia members.

All people who pay cash.

[mgardener]

27. And if NY state gets in on the action...

He can't be pardoned.
Or his kids.
Who knew he was such a fashion icon.....
His hair will match his new clothes, orange.

[underpants]

29. As obvious as this seems we have to remember these are big money people

and they don't like their system being screwed up. Think "too big to sue" and the Riggs bank.

[Blue Owl]

31. Filthy rich, eh Donald?

[lindysalsagal]

32. Just re-read that article and replace "trump" with any other politician's name.

We've become de-sensitized to Trump's scandals. We need to remember to be shocked by his criminal exploits.