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Jun 13, 2022, 7 tweets

"Russian mafia boss still at large after FBI wiretap at Trump Tower"

by Brian Ross & Matthew Mosk (March 21, 2017)

#tokhtakhounov #taiwanchik
abcnews.go.com/US/story-fbi-w…

"There, indeed, was an FBI wiretap involving Russians at Trump Tower. For two years ending in 2013, the FBI had a court-approved warrant to eavesdrop on a sophisticated Russian organized crime money-laundering network that operated out of unit 63A in Trump Tower in New York."

"Five months after the April 2013 indictment and after Interpol issued a “red notice” for Tokhtakhounov, the fugitive appeared near Donald Trump in the VIP section of the Moscow Miss Universe pageant. Trump had sold the Russian rights for Miss Universe to [Aras Agalarov]."

"'He is a major player,' said Mike Gaeta, the FBI agent who led the 2013 FBI investigation of Tokhtakhounov and his alleged mafia money laundering and gambling ring, in a 2014 interview with ABC News." [Anyone have a link to this interview?]

Hmm...David Corn of Mother Jones seems to have been the first "journalist" to report that Tokhtakhounov had attended Miss Universe 2013 in Moscow.

[Note the date: September 14, 2016]

The way Corn tells it, Tokhtakhounov initially said he hadn't attended, but later recanted after being shown photos and media reports.

archive.ph/OMrdG
archive.ph/lIoHT

Editor's note: Why would an alleged Russian criminal and INTERPOL fugitive like Tokhtakhounov agree to an on-the-record telephone interview with an American news agency? 🤔

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