Thread by @MsMariaT

@ThomasS4217 "One of the [Ukrainian] president-elect’s biggest backers, oligarch Ihor KOLOMOISKY, is the subject of a financial crime investigation by the and the US Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Ohio, according to The Daily Beast and the Kyiv Post."

🙄

@ThomasS4217 "On Monday, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) said Kolomoisky and another oligarch, Hennadiy Boholiubov, used their ownership of Ukraine-based PRIVATBANK to funnel $5.5B in funds stolen from the institution through its Cyprus-based subsidiary."

@ThomasS4217 "Kolomoisky, who is seeking the return of $2B in capital following Privatbank’s nationalization in 2016, has denied the allegations. President-Elect Zelenskiy, whose comedy show aired on a network owned by Kolomoisky,"

@ThomasS4217 Joe Biden, PrivatBank, last few weeks of 2016:

https://twitter.com/MsMariaT/status/969984132200636417

@ThomasS4217 Billionaire Ukrainian Oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky Under Investigation by FBI [in Ohio]

(His actor/candidate just won Ukrainian presidency. He doesn't even live in Ukraine; lives in Israel)

thedailybeast.com/billionaire-uk…

@ThomasS4217 Ashcroft repping him in U.S.:

“Mr. Kolomoisky categorically denies that he has laundered any funds into the United States, period,” said Mike Sullivan, an attorney with the Ashcroft Law Firm who represents Kolomoisky."

@ThomasS4217 "The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Ohio is involved in the probe, as Kolomoisky has investments there, according to the Kyiv Post."

The spectacular rise and fall of Ihor Kolomoisky’s steel empire

STEEL.

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

@ThomasS4217 "Few people in Warren, Ohio or Mason County, West Virginia have ever heard of Ihor Kolomoisky. Yet both U.S. cities are home to steel plants that have been run by the Ukrainian oligarch for more than 10 yrs."

Had no idea this guy was in U.S. steel. He's media oligarch as well.

@ThomasS4217 "Kolomoisky used the plants as keystones of an attempt to corner the global ferroalloy market, building an empire that extended from the American Midwest to the Australian outback and back to the ferroalloy plants along the Dnipro River."

@ThomasS4217 "The buyouts led Kolomoisky’s companies to, at one point, control more than 40 percent of the world manganese trade and more than half of the United States’ output of silicomanganese – a crucial resource for forging structural steel."

@ThomasS4217 "But w/the recent fall in global commodities prices and the Ukrainian gov't intent on reining in oligarchs, Kolomoisky has been put on the retreat.

One of the main holding cs for the Dnipro, Ukraine, native’s U.S. factories has declared bankruptcy...."

@ThomasS4217 "...while [Kolomoisky's] his biggest Australian [MURDOCH BUDDY I BET] mining venture, which included operations in Ghana, was sold to Chinese investors in 11/16 – along with the company’s $400M debt."

🙄

@ThomasS4217 "Court filings reveal that Kolomoisky was divvying up/fighting over the rusting U.S. steel mills w/other Ukrainian oligarchs....One deal, involving Russian oligarch Roman ABRAMOVICH, bled into the sale of a Warren, OHIO steel mill."

@ThomasS4217 "Much of this is revealed through legal filings made by Vadim Shulman, a Krivyi Rih businessman and partner of Kolomoisky, who fell out with him over a deal gone wrong involving Warren, and who has filed subpoenas in several U.S. states..."

@ThomasS4217 Kolomoisky, whose network....is called Privat Group, is undergoing finc'l troubles that echo those of the communities where he ran factories. Many of his assets have...shut down or scaled back...as Privat Group undergoes....tremors in wake of the nationalization of PrivatBank..."

@ThomasS4217 "An employee of Felman Production, a West Virginia silicomanganese plant controlled by Kolomoisky, said that the company doesn’t receive enough money to operate safely."

@ThomasS4217 Kolomoisky's "American Industrial Empire"

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

@ThomasS4217 "According to a U.S. court filing, the two businessmen, along with Kolomoisky partner Gennadiy Bogolyubov, saw the purchase as a chance to “break the plant down, and transport it to Ukraine where it would be reconstructed and thereafter carry on the steel-making business.”

@ThomasS4217 "Years later, Shulman would come to regret the venture. He later alleged in court that he had been cheated out of his stake through a campaign of insider lending that saddled him with tens of millions in debt, while Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov robbed the company."

@ThomasS4217 "Another of Kolomoisky’s U.S. companies, Optima Speciality Steel, filed for bankruptcy in 12/16 $260M in unpaid loans, taken out to finance expansion that saw Optima buy out five separate factories across four states."

@ThomasS4217 "Warren Steel, deep in debt, closed in early 2016. Woodie Woodie in Australia closed nearly simultaneously, as did one of Kolomoisky’s assets in Georgia.

Weeks before PrivatBank was nationalized, Consmin was sold to a Chinese firm at an undisclosed price."

@ThomasS4217 "The company had an inside loan balance of $737.5 million at the time of the most recent financial disclosure, two months before the sale.

Peter O’Connor, an Australian investment analyst, called the sale genius, saying the manganese market was recovering at the time."

@ThomasS4217 "It’s not clear that Privat’s nationalization hurt Kolomoisky...

Others argue that the bank’s web of inside loans has begun to catch up w/Kolomoisky.

“Kolomoisky outsmarted himself” said one insider.

But for the oligarch’s West Virginia workers, that comes as little comfort."

@ThomasS4217 Just a reminder that one of Kolomoisky's biz partners, is friends with Jared and Ivanka:

Abramovich:

https://twitter.com/MsMariaT/status/1085217251395960832

@ThomasS4217 Kolomoisky: Alleged contract killings. Funding Ukraine's far-right Azov Batallion:

2015: "In the battle between Ukraine and Russian separatists, shady private armies take the field"

blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2…

@ThomasS4217 When the Maidan protesters overthrew former Pres Yanukovich, they demanded that the new gov't clamp down on the oligarchs’ abuse of power. Instead, many became more powerful: Kiev handed KOLOMOISKY and mining tycoon Serhiy TARUTA gov posts in important east regions of Ukraine,"

@ThomasS4217 That name above, SERHIY TARUTA:

"Serhiy Taruta is here, in this piece today about the fake Ukrainian bank hearing that Woolsey was at (9/25/17):

The Allegedly Murderous Oligarch, the Duped CIA Chief, and the Trumpkin"

https://twitter.com/MsMariaT/status/978793809961078784

@ThomasS4217 Got you MFs:

"BOOM 💥 @tedcruz TRAITOR Files reveal that AggregateIQ—also known as “AIQ”—is the developer behind campaign apps created for Ted Cruz and Greg Abbott, as well as a Ukrainian steel magnate named Serhiy Taruta."

https://twitter.com/BGHeaven/status/978380868803813378

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz "What’s more, the files reveal that AggregateIQ—also known as “AIQ”—is the developer behind campaign apps created for TX Sen Ted Cruz and TX Gov Greg Abbott, as well as a Ukrainian steel magnate named SERHIY TARUTA, head OF the country’s Osnova party."

gizmodo.com/aggregateiq-cr…

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz So Kolomoisky and Taruta, had/has ? priv armies in Ukraine, cont'd:

"Many of these paramilitary groups are accused of abusing the citizens they are charged w/protecting. Amnesty Int'l reported that the Aidar battalion-also partially funded by KOLOMOISKY-committed WAR CRIMES..."

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz "...including illegal abductions, unlawful detention, robbery, extortion and even possible executions.

Other pro-Kiev private battalions have starved civilians as a form of warfare, preventing aid convoys from reaching separatist-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine..."

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz "Some of Ukraine’s priv battalions have blackened the country’s int'l reputation w/their extremist views. The Azov battalion, partially funded by TARUTA & KOLOMOISKY, uses the Nazi Wolfsangel symbol as its logo, and many of its members openly espouse neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic views"

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz "The battalion members have spoken about “bringing the war to Kiev,” and said that Ukraine needs “a strong dictator to come to power who could shed plenty of blood but unite the nation in the process.”

Kolomoisky, who is funding this - his guy is president of Ukraine now.

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz The fake Ukraine bank hearing in the bowels of the Senate, was a favor for Kolomoisky and Taruta:

"This story starts in Kyiv, Ukraine, on 6/19/14. That’s when a woman named Valeriya Gontareva became the chair of the country’s powerful central bank...."

thedailybeast.com/the-allegedly-…

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz "One of the biggest changes she oversaw was a government takeover of the country’s biggest commercial bank, Privatbank. The oligarch Ihor KOLOMOISKY (who The Wall Street Journal once described as “feisty”) co-founded it. "

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz When Gontareva presided over the bank’s nationalization, its accounts were missing more than $5 BILLION, according to the Financial Times, in large part because the bank lent so much money to people with connections to Kolomoisky."

(Yup, see further up in thread)

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz "Int'l finc'l institutions applauded the state takeover,” wrote FT. “It has been widely seen as the culmination of Ukraine’s efforts since 2014 to clean up a dysfunctional banking sector dominated by oligarch-owned banks.”

The bank’s founders [Kolomoisky & Co] weren’t pleased."

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz "After the bank takeover, Gontareva received numerous threats. One protester PUT A COFFIN OUTSIDE HER DOOR, according to Reuters. On 4/10/17, she announced at a press conference that she was resigning from her post."

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz "Five months later, in Washington D.C., something odd happened:

American lobbyists hosted an event, ostensibly on anti-corruption issues, in the basement of the Capitol Building. The event vilified Gontareva..."

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz "Organizers distributed literature featuring a grim close-up of her face, calling her a threat to Ukraine’s economic security, and asking if she was “CINDERELLA OR WICKED STEPMOTHER?”

Serhiy Taruta, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, is named as the author of the report."

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz @PortlusGlam

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz " In 2008, Forbes est'd his net worth at $2.7B. According to a diplo cable pub'd by WIKILEAKS, American gov officials believed Taruta played a role in the sale of a maj stake in the sale of one of Ukraine’s largest steel groups—valued at $2B—to a powerful Russian businessman."

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz "Taruta was a close ally of politician Yulia Tymoshenko at the time, and the cable said she and Taruta wanted to keep the deal “hidden from public view” to avoid criticism."

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz "The event’s organizers are adamant that they did not plan for it to look like a fake congressional hearing. But Ukrainian reporters who attended the event COVERED IT THAT WAY. Former Rep Connie Mack...sported the pin that members of Congress wear...."

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz "James Woolsey, former CIA director, attended and spoke briefly to the group.

Woolsey’s spokesperson, Jonathan Franks, later said he was duped.

“Amb Woolsey was deliberately misled about the nature of this event when he agreed to attend,” Franks told The Daily Beast."

UH-HUH.

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz Rep. Ron Estes, a freshman from Kansas, booked the room for Mack and Co. His office later told The Daily Beast this won’t happen again.

"[Connie] Mack and Matt Keelen, a lobbyist whose firm’s website boasts of his “well fostered relationships” in the Trump admin,"

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz "...both disclosed in federal reg forms that they put on the event for a SHELL COMPANY based in the British Virgin Islands called Interconnection Commerce SA."

🙄🚩🚩🚩

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz Two Ukrainian news outlets covered the event. One of those outlets, ChannelOne, described it as a hearing of the nonexistent “U.S. Congressional Committee on Financial Issues.”

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz The other Ukrainian news outlet that covered the event was UkraNews, which—according to the Objective Project, which monitors media ownership in Ukraine—belongs to DMITRY FIRTASH."

LOL, Lanny Davis' Ukrainian/RU Mob client.

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz "Fed prosecutors in Chicago are seeking Firtash’s extradition to the U.S. to put him on trial for racketeering. Manafort, former Manafort deputy Rick Gates, and Firtash worked on a deal in 2008 to buy New York’s Drake Hotel—for a cool $850M—but the deal fell through."

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz "Anders Aslund of the Atlantic Council, an expert on oligarchs’ politicking, didn’t quite believe it. Aslund said he believes the driving force behind the event was IHOR KOLOMOISKY..."

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz "....the Ukrainian oligarch whose cronies lost all that money when Privatbank was nationalized. Kolomisky would have millions of reasons to detest Gontareva, the object of the fake hearing’s ire, according to Aslund."

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz "This was entirely Kolomoisky,” he said. “Kolomoisky is crooked and clever. He is a person who makes biz by doing BANKRUPTCY rather than making profits.”

Kolomoisky has faced allegations of involvement in CONTRACT KILLINGS, which he denies." LOL.

thedailybeast.com/the-allegedly-…

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz Yeah, so that guy, contract-killler guy, Kolomoisky, just hand-picked a president off his TV show.

Congrats! ✌🏽

"Igor Kolomoisky’s main TV channel, 1+1, generously devoted air time to shows and news featuring Zelensky before and during his campaign."
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz He's under investigation, here, in OH:

https://twitter.com/MsMariaT/status/1120881364763496448

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz Meanwhile, his hand-picked president will put the former president's cronies under investigation, back at the top of this thread.

🙄 SMDHRN.

<eot>

https://twitter.com/ThomasS4217/status/1120833617725480960

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz I think I broke the thread (if there's one thing I excel at, it's breaking threads. 😁). Cont'd here:

https://twitter.com/MsMariaT/status/1120870445647945728

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz @screaminggina @emlas: were you aware a Ukrainian oligarch - Serhiy Taruta, was using AIQ?

Recap for others: Taruta's biz partner is the the media and steel oligarch - Kolomoisky - who just got himself a new Ukrainian president, from the TV show on his own TV network.

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz Interesting comment about Kolomoimsky on @DustinGiebel 's TL:

"Seems to explain Kolomoyski's sudden move from has-an-extradition-treaty-with-the-US Geneva to doesn't-have-an-extradition-treaty-with-the-US Israel."

https://twitter.com/noclador/status/1115153767542996994

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz @DustinGiebel To make it even more cray, Serhiy Taruta, campaigned for Tymoshenko (that Manafort literally got locked up):

"Former Donetsk go and unintentional Woody Allen impersonator Serhiy Taruta signs agrmt w/Tymoshenko. His campaign will now campaign for her..."

https://twitter.com/ianbateson/status/1106909368145141760

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz @DustinGiebel (7/7/17) John Tedrowe Bonner, III, is on a #FARA for Sergiy Taruta aka Sergey Taruta / Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine:

#FunWithFARA

efile.fara.gov/docs/6443-Exhi…

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz @DustinGiebel Here's Connie Mack's lobbying reg on Interconnection Commerce (the mysterious BVI shell co, above):

https://twitter.com/MsMariaT/status/1068564960945430528

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz @DustinGiebel Oh, hello there! 👋🏽

Interconnection Commerce SA (Connie Mack's client) in the Offshore Leaks database:

Linked in BVI and LATVIA - don't Russians wash their money in Latvian Banks? 🙃

offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/207208

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz @screaminggina @emlas @OversightDems @HouseJudiciary

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz @DustinGiebel Recall, Connie Mack and Matt Keelen...(above)

"...both disclosed in federal reg forms that they put on the event for a SHELL COMPANY based in the British Virgin Islands called

https://twitter.com/MsMariaT/status/1120877170652352512Interconnection

Commerce SA."

https://twitter.com/MsMariaT/status/1120877170652352512

@ThomasS4217 @tedcruz @DustinGiebel I smell Yuri Vanetik here @brazencapital . Connie Mack, Ukraine, multiple meetings with Behrends and Rohrabacher in 2018, contributing to Rohrabacher before he lost.