***BREAKING*** Leaked Documents Show Trump Commerce Sec Wilbur Ross Concealed Ties to Putin Cronies

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary in the Trump administration, shares business interests with Vladimir Putin’s immediate family, and he failed to clearly disclose those interests when he was being confirmed for his cabinet position.

Ross — a billionaire industrialist — retains an interest in a shipping company, Navigator Holdings, that was partially owned by his former investment company. One of Navigator’s most important business relationships is with a Russian energy firm controlled, in turn, by Putin’s son-in-law and other members of the Russian president’s inner circle.

Some of the details of Ross’s continuing financial holdings — much of which were not disclosed during his confirmation process — are revealed in a trove of more than 7 million internal documents of Appleby, a Bermuda-based law firm, that was leaked to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. The documents consist of emails, presentations and other electronic data. These were then shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists — a global network that won the Pulitzer Prize this year for its work on the Panama Papers — and its international media partners. NBC News was given access to some of the leaked documents, which the ICIJ calls the “Paradise Papers.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/leaked-documents-show-commerce-secretary-concealed-ties-putin-cronies-n817711

[Snake Plissken]

1. Is there anyone in Trump's administration who has ties to Americans?

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

4. haha, good question!!

[elfin]

5. Oddly, Betsy DeVos may be the only one.

Time will tell. Maybe Putin is in charge of Amway Moscow or something. She is a very dim bulb with way too much money, but she may be clear of anything criminal.

[OnDoutside]

15. Well she didn't get appointed because of her competence !

[RandomAccess]

16. Nope

I believe Richard DeVos has business connections in Russia. In addition:

This is an odd little story, but she's considered implicated here. The cause has been passed off as spam, but ... I don't think anyone but pro-Trump people have bought that completely:

Sources: FBI investigation continues into 'odd' computer link between Russian bank and Trump Organization
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/09/politics/fbi-investigation-continues-into-odd-computer-link-between-russian-bank-and-trump-organization/index.html

From May 4 until September 23, the Russian bank looked up the address to this Trump corporate server 2,820 times -- more lookups than the Trump server received from any other source.

As noted, Alfa Bank alone represents 80% of the lookups, according to these leaked internet records.
Far back in second place, with 714 such lookups, was a company called Spectrum Health.

Spectrum is a medical facility chain led by Dick DeVos, the husband of Betsy DeVos, who was appointed by Trump as U.S. education secretary.

Together, Alfa and Spectrum accounted for 99% of the lookups.

Here's a more speculative look at the situation (and IMO more likely but a lot of people here are downright allergic to such thinking, so -- ?? shrug, just ignore it if that includes you):
Spectrum Health’s Role in the Trump-Russia Server Scandal
https://teapainusa.wordpress.com/2017/07/10/spectrum-healths-role-in-the-trump-russia-server-scandal/


Finally, there's Betsy's brother, Erik Prince:
The founder of Blackwater is now part of the Trump-Russia story because of course he is.The Washington Post reports that Erik Prince, the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and the founder of the disgraced mercenary empire Blackwater, met a “Russian close to President Vladimir Putin” on January 11 in an attempt to set up a back channel between Donald Trump and Putin. The meeting took place in the tiny archipelago nation of Seychelles and was allegedly brokered by the United Arab Emirates. Although a spokesman for Prince admitted that a meeting took place, the spokesman also called the report a “complete fabrication.” (How it could be a “complete fabrication” if a meeting did, in fact, occur is unclear.)
https://newrepublic.com/minutes/141826/founder-blackwater-now-part-trump-russia-story-course-is

less gossipy-sounding coverage:
Blackwater founder held secret Seychelles meeting to establish Trump-Putin back channel
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/blackwater-founder-held-secret-seychelles-meeting-to-establish-trump-putin-back-channel/2017/04/03/95908a08-1648-11e7-ada0-1489b735b3a3_story.html


And of course, he's the chap who came up with that brilliant idea to turn the fighting in Afghanistan over to private contractors under the auspices of some "viceroy" (like him???)

Erik Prince's Plan to Privatize the War in Afghanistan
President Trump is meeting with his aides on Friday at Camp David—and some unorthodox ideas are on the table.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/afghanistan-camp-david/537324/


But to my knowledge, she doesn't have any DIRECT ties herself. She's just the one getting the appointment.

[TheOther95Percent]

2. Trump's MAGA

Trump's Make Administration Glib About Disclosure.

[malaise]

3. Cronies?Putin's son-in-law and daughter n/t

[ProudProgressiveNow]

6. K&R nt

[Codeine]

7. They spent fifty fucking years trying to tar liberals

with the Russia brush and now it turns out that party-wide they're more loyal to Putin and his cretinous band of plutocratic fucksticks than they are to their own nation.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. Classic projection. nt

[yortsed snacilbuper]

8. Mr. Ross led a private bailout of the Bank of Cyprus,

considered a favorite financial haven of wealthy Russians, after the economic crisis crippled the Cypriot banking system.

link

[Pepsidog]

10. Cozy up to Trump at your own peril.

Trump infects everything and everyone he touches. Lock them all up!!!

[Scurrilous]

11. K&R

[Dopers_Greed]

12. I wonder if Mueller is going to end up looking into this too

Dump and his cabal are neck deep in global criminal conspiracies

[FreeStateDemocrat]

13. 21 Democrats voted to confirm this POS including Feinstein & Kaine, shamefully disappointing!!!

https://decisiondeskhq.com/vote-tracker/confirmation-vote-of-wilbur-ross-as-commerce-secretary/

[SergeStorms]

14. It's almost as if....,

Trump received a list of people - from someone in the Kremlin - who were acceptable to - someone in the Kremlin - for his cabinet and major appointments within the government.

I'll have to give a little thought to whom that "someone" could be. VERY little thought.