Thread by @MsMariaT

Rohrabacher staffer (pic’d w/Farage & Stone in thread) on trip to Iceland, 9/16. WHY? No explanation in posts. Side notes: Wikileaks founded in Iceland 2007. Trump/FL Group deal, Iceland 2007. Tchenguiz (SCL maj investor) was accused of breaking Icelandic bank.🤔 @carolecadwalla

https://twitter.com/msmariat/status/945836658607321088

@carolecadwalla (10/31/17) "...Tchenguiz and Kaupthing said on Tuesday they had settled a 2.2B pound lawsuit brought by the RE mogul after a botched Serious Fraud Ofc investigation into the Icelandic bank’s collapse during the credit crisis."

reut.rs/2zlSs4L

@carolecadwalla "Iranian-born Vincent and his brother Robert, two of Britain’s most high-profile property entrepreneurs, have said the SFO investigation into the 2008 collapse of Kaupthing [an ICELANDIC bank] caused lasting damage to their reputations and businesses."

WHY Rohrabacher's staffer to Iceland 9/16. He doesn't say.
@TimOBrien says look in Iceland:

"That's where a shady Trump assoc got some of his $$$. And where some investigators heard Russian footsteps."

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

@TimOBrien "Felix Sater...a career criminal with American and Russian mob ties...helped reel in funds of murky origin that Bayrock and Trump used for projs such as the Trump Soho hotel in Manhattan. And one of Bayrock's biggest..backers was an Icelandic investment bank, the FL GROUP.

@TimOBrien "Iceland would seem like an unlikely place for U.S. Justice Dept investigators to look as they probe Trump connections with Russia and related matters. Yet there are trails to pursue there."

@TimOBrien When Sater convinced FL to invest in Bayrock in 2007, ICELAND was a FONT OF EASY MOEY caught up in a financial binge so frenzied that it would cause the country's economy to implode in 2008."

@TimOBrien Fast-fwd a bit, to a judge:

"When I asked her during an interview in her Brussels ofc about ways in which the FL GROUP, Bayrock and RU money might have intersected, she brightened: "I have been waiting almost 10 YRS for a journalist to walk into my ofc & ask me these questions."

"Joly [the judge] said that she had to prod the Icelandic gov't to commit resources to an investigation that implicated many of the country's most powerful political and business leaders...."

"... ([The judge] also likes to point out how many Icelanders -- along with a former prime minister -- surfaced as owners of off-shore accounts in the Panama Papers document trove: "600.")"

"[S]he says she needed greater cooperation from authorities in other countries to uncover the source of the funds...that didn’t happen.

"There was a huge amt of $$$ that came into these banks that wasn't entirely explained...Only MAFIA-LIKE groups fill a gap like that."

RU #MOB

"The late Boris Berezovksy, once one of the wealthiest and wiliest of Russia's oligarchs....He told a SkyTV interviewer in 2009 that if you wanted to look for where "Putin and his cronies" might be laundering money, well, "the BEST EXAMPLE, definitely, is ICELAND."

"A prominent European financier who met with Felix Sater when Sater was doing deals with Bayrock and the Trump Organization told me that Sater bragged about his own relationship with Berezovsky. "

Berezovsky ended up DEAD, BTW (3/18):

thehill.com/blogs/blog-bri…

"Berezovsky wasn't the only Russia connection Sater bragged about. A former Bayrock insider, Jody Kriss, said in a series of interviews and in a lawsuit that Sater claimed that funds the FL GROUP invested in TRUMP-Bayrock projects were TIED TO PUTIN. "

"Even if Putin had nothing to do with FL, FL had a A LOT to do w/Bayrock – it agreed to invest $50M in the developer. And Bayrock was the FUTURE PRESIDENT'S BIZ PARTNER. Where Bayrock’s & FL’s $$$ came from, exactly, may be a useful question for the Justice Dept...to answer."<e>

@RoxEK1954 points out, the first "Summit" between Putin/Trump, was sched'd IN ICELAND:

"The pres-elect's team reportedly told The Sunday Times Trump's first trip abroad following his 20 January inauguration would be...in Reykjavik, Iceland...with Putin."

businessinsider.com/trump-putin-ic…

Just a bit of recap - not saying these things are connected, just circling back:

Rohrabacher staffer goes to Iceland. He makes sure people see him do it, yet doesn't say WHY he's there.

Trump elected. First trip abroad set for Iceland to meet w/Putin. (Ends up in SA instead.)

Do you have anything you'd like to drop here, @knowledgevendor ? 🤔

@knowledgevendor Anyone know of any other congress-critters that sent staffers to Iceland before Trump's election? If so, please drop a line here ✌🏽🤓

@knowledgevendor A THREAD re Jody Kriss' lawsuit (Kriss was mentioned upthread) if anyone interested:

https://twitter.com/MsMariaT/status/877554268672110592

@knowledgevendor (2/18): "Kriss resolves racketeering case against Bayrock, Felix Sater"

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…