Newest
allegations of Trumps’ Russian ties – 2/24/2017
Russian Billionaire Could Be
Link Between Trump, Russia
Natural gas
titan Dmitry Firtash could be extradited to the U.S. to face corruption charges
after an Austrian court ruled against him Tuesday.
He was a business partner with a former
Donald Trump campaign manager. He’s a wealthy Russian oligarch who made
billions in natural gas—possibly with help from President Vladimir Putin—and
he was also tied to Ukraine’s Russia-friendly former President Viktor
Yanukovych.
It’s also possible he might be
a missing link to Trump and his campaign and administration’s alleged ties
to Russia. It doesn't end there: He may be headed to the United States to face
racketeering charges.
His name is Dmitry Firtash and an
Austrian appeals court ruled Tuesday that he could be extradited to the U.S.,
overturning a lower court’s ruling and flipping his fate over to Austria’s
Ministry of Justice, Bloomberg reported.
“It wasn’t for us to judge whether Mr.
Firtash was guilty, but only whether the extradition is allowed,” Judge
Leo Levnaic-Iwanski said. “This decision only means that another country will
make a decision whether he is guilty.”
Firtash, 51, was originally detained by
Austrian officials on an arrest warrant for money laundering charges in Spain,
according to Financial Times, and it will be up to the
justice ministry to decide between the U.S. and Spain. There were also reports
that Firtash reacted to the judge's verdict in "silent horror."
Firtash was arrested in Vienna in March
2014—shortly after Yanukovych was ousted from power by protesters—posted a $174
million bail and has remained in Austria ever since to await its courts’ ruling
on his fate.
In April 2014, the Justice Department handed down six indictments,
including one against the Ukrainian foreign national that alleged a conspiracy
was undertaken to pay $18.5 million in bribes to Indian government officials to
mine titanium along the country’s eastern coast. If it had been successful, the
mine could have resulted in $500 million in sales of titanium products,
including some sales to Chicago-based Boeing.
The charges in Spain stem from
allegations of money laundering in Catalonia, where he possibly funneled more
than $10.5 million through companies based in Cyprus and the
Virgin Islands with two other unnamed men, according to FT.
What does this have to do with Trump,
Putin and all the alleged ties to Russia? Well, Firtash was a former business
partner of Paul Manafort, who served as chairman for Trump’s campaign last year
and was also a political consultant in Ukraine while helping get Yanukovych
elected. The New York Times reported
in August that secret ledgers showed Manafort was paid $12.7 million from
Yanukovych’s political party between 2007 and 2012. Manafort left the Trump
campaign, however, the payments have not been confirmed.
And last week, anonymous sources with
information regarding the U.S. intelligence community’s investigation into the
Trump campaign’s “repeated” contact with Russian intelligence officials last
year also included Manafort’s calls with the Russians, the Times reported.
In a far-reaching and extensive report
on Firtash’s fate and possible links to Trump and Putin, Bloomberg last week detailed Manafort’s ties to Firtash. Former
Ukraine Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko alleged in a lawsuit filed in a U.S.
court in 2011 that the hotel and shopping mall Manafort and Firtash had planned
to build in midtown Manhattan was nothing more than a means to launder money.
It
just keeps getting more convoluted, the stuff of spy and mystery thrillers. Stay tuned!
No comments:
Post a Comment