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2 BILLION (with a B) fine for permitting money laundering

Discussion in 'Too Hot for Swamp Gas' started by tampagtr, Dec 13, 2022.

  1. tampagtr

    tampagtr VIP Member

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    Danske Bank. Russian money laundering. Wow

     
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  2. oragator1

    oragator1 Premium Member

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    1/18th of the union payout!
     
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  3. Trickster

    Trickster VIP Member

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    I think when Trump's tax returns are finally made public, we'll learn he's been laundering Russian money for years. I'm convinced that's why he fought disclosure tooth and nail. (But me being convinced has often been proven wrong.)
     
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  4. tampagtr

    tampagtr VIP Member

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    It's pretty obvious that he has just from public information. It may not be enough admissible evidence to indict, but it's obvious. Even money laundered for the Iranian Republican Guard.

    Edited to add link and quotes:

    Alan Garten told me that the Trump Organization had commissioned a risk assessment for the Baku deal, but declined to name the company that had performed it. The Washington Post article on the Baku project reported that, according to Garten, the Trump Organization had undertaken “extensive due diligence” before making the hotel deal and had not discovered “any red flags.”

    But the Mammadov family, in addition to its reputation for corruption, has a troubling connection that any proper risk assessment should have unearthed: for years, it has been financially entangled with an Iranian family tied to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the ideologically driven military force. In 2008, the year that the tower was announced, Ziya Mammadov, in his role as Transportation Minister, awarded a series of multimillion-dollar contracts to Azarpassillo, an Iranian construction company. Keyumars Darvishi, its chairman, fought in the Iran-Iraq War. After the war, he became the head of Raman, an Iranian construction firm that is controlled by the Revolutionary Guard. The U.S. government has regularly accused the Guard of criminal activity, including drug trafficking, sponsoring terrorism abroad, and money laundering. Reuters recently reported that the Trump Administration was poised to officially condemn the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization.




    The available evidence strongly suggests that Ziya Mammadov conspired with an agent of the Revolutionary Guard to make overpriced deals that would enrich them both while allowing them to flout prohibitions against money laundering and to circumvent sanctions against Iran. Based on Ziya Mammadov’s past, it seems reasonable to assume that his main motive was profit. Like most Azerbaijanis, he is a secular Shiite Muslim, and he has no known ties to hard-line factions in Iran. Why did the Darvishis want to work with the Mammadovs? It might have caught their attention that the Mammadovs had their own private bank—one that had unfettered access to the global financial system.

    The Baku project is hardly the only instance in which the Trump Organization has been associated with a controversial deal. The Trump Taj Mahal casino, which opened in Atlantic City in 1990, was repeatedly fined for violating anti-money-laundering laws, up until its collapse, late last year. According to ProPublica, Trump projects in India, Uruguay, Georgia, Indonesia, and the Philippines have involved government officials or people with close ties to powerful political figures. A few years ago, the Trump Organization abandoned a project in Beijing after its Chinese partner became embroiled in a corruption scandal. In December, the Trump Organization withdrew from a hotel project in Rio de Janeiro after it was revealed to be part of a major bribery investigation. Ricardo Ayres, a Brazilian state legislator, told Bloomberg, “It’s curious that the Trumps didn’t seem to know that their biggest deal in Brazil was bankrolled by shady investors.” But, given the Trump Organization’s track record, it seems reasonable to ask whether one of the things it was selling to foreign partners was a willingness to ignore signs of corruption.



    I'm going to observe the four paragraph rule. There's plenty more there in the piece showing why the construction had all the indicia of a classic money-laundering construction that the Trump family just took a cut from, and that there was no way not to understand it as a money laundering operation
    Donald Trump’s Worst Deal
     
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2022
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