“When Le Pen needed cash for her party, an obscure Russian bank helped. 4 years later, the bank has gone bust...Former Ru military officers are demanding money. And the party’s treasurer sends $165k every few months to a woman in Moscow.” washingtonpost.com/world/national…
“Instead, the $12.2 million loan dragged her party into the shadowy underworld of Russian cross-border finance, putting it in league with people accused of having ties to Russian organized crime, money laundering and military operations.”
“Schaffhauser, looking for a loan for Le Pen, said he reconnected with Babakov through a mutual contact in the Russian Orthodox Church and arranged a meeting in mid-2014.”
“For Schaffhauser, the bank’s European license was a green light...Popov had been facilitating transactions in Iran and working with a businessman the U.S. Treasury Dept. recently hit with sanctions for allegedly being an “overseer” in a Russian organized-crime syndicate.”
