Thread by @karolcummins

‼️Firtash Boeing Titananium

Dmytro Firtash’s is an Ukrainian Oligarch. His wealth stems in large part from the lucrative natural gas trade in Ukraine, whose pipelines have long served as the key conduit for Russian gas supplies heading to Western Europe.

rferl.org/a/top-eu-court…

Firtash is also considered an important financier of the Party of Regions political party, and was involved in hiring Manafort, then a U.S. political consultant and lobbyist, in 2005 to help rebuild the party.
rferl.org/a/top-eu-court…

This was after its then-leader, Viktor Yanukovych, was defeated following the 2004 Orange Revolution.
rferl.org/a/top-eu-court…

Ukrainian prosecutors are currently investigating Firtash’s involvement in the notorious privatization of the monopoly provider Ukrtelecom, which was carried out without a competitive tendering process and accompanied by financial machinations.
eurozine.com/the-firtash-oc…

📌At the time, Firtash’s reputation was seriously damaged as his name kept cropping up in connection with Russian organized crime - Semion Mogilevich.
eurozine.com/the-firtash-oc…

📌Firtash, as documented by WikiLeaks files, once confided to the US ambassador that he had made use of Semion Mogilevich’s services to protect his business from attacks by competitors.
eurozine.com/the-firtash-oc…

The DOJ has identified Dmytro Firtash, as a former biz assoc of Manafort & an "upper-echelon [associate] of Semion Mogilevich a Ukrainian-born, Russian organized crime boss, believed to be the "boss of bosses" of most Russian Mafia syndicates in the world
nbcnews.com/news/us-news/d…

In 2008, according to court records, Manafort's firm was involved with Firtash in a plan to redevelop the Drake Hotel for $850 million. Firtash's company planned to invest more than $100 million.
nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna7…

📌Manafort’s partner on the deal was the former exclusive broker for Fred Trump's (Trump’s father) properties, Brad Zackson.

📌Firtash's investment company transferred $25 million into escrow to further the project.
nbcnews.com/news/us-news/d…

📌Also in 2008, Firtash acknowledged to the U.S. ambassador in Ukraine that he got his start in business with the permission of a notorious Russian crime lord, Semion Mogilevich, according to a classified DOS cable [released by WikiLeaks]
nbcnews.com/news/us-news/d…

📌Other cables say Firtash made part of his fortune through sweetheart natural gas deals between Russia and the Ukraine.
nbcnews.com/news/us-news/d…

📌Firtash was a major backer of Ukraine's Party of Regions, the pro-Russian party for which Manafort worked for many years.

📌Manafort's firm made more than $17M in gross revenue from the party in just two years, according to his recent FARA filing.
nbcnews.com/news/us-news/d…

‼️Firtash - Boeing Dreamliner - Titanium

Firtash has been wanted in Chicago since 2014 for his alleged role as the mastermind of an international titanium racket.
chicagotribune.com/news/chicagoin…

📌The case initially attracted int’l interest because of Firtash’s ties to Putin & Mogilevich.

📌It is significant in light of Manafort’s indictment on charges of failing to register as an agent of former pro-Russian Fmr Ukrainian President Yanukovych,
chicagotribune.com/news/chicagoin…

‼️More Backstory:

Firtash’s success was built on remarkable sweetheart deals brokered by associates of Russian leader Vladimir Putin (Semion Mogilevich) at an immense cost to Russian taxpayers,
reuters.com/article/russia…

📌Gazprom sold more than 20 billion cubic metres of gas well below market prices to Firtash over the past four years (since 2010) - about four times more than the Russian government has publicly acknowledged.
reuters.com/article/russia…

📌The price Firtash paid was so low, Reuters calculates, that companies he controlled made more than $3 billion on the arrangement.
reuters.com/article/russia…

‼️Titanium:

The Cyprus offshore company Tolexis Trading Limited, part of Group DF owned by exiled Ukrainian billionaire Dmytro Firtash retains one of its most valuable assets, the Zaporizhzhya Titanium and Magnesium Combine.

kyivpost.com/business/firta…

📌The only producer of titanium sponge in Ukraine and Europe is located in Zaporizhzhya, the provincial capital of 750,000 people located some 550 kilometers southeast from Kyiv.

📌Ergo Firtash [Mogilevich) controls the entire Titanium market.
kyivpost.com/business/firta…

In 2013, under the era of corrupt President Viktor Yanukovych, a Firtash ally, the state-owned Zaporizhzhya combine was privatized & became a limited liability company.

Firtash’s biz empire, enlarged during the reign of Yanukovych, remains largely intact.
kyivpost.com/business/firta…

📌While a 51 percent stake was still owned by the state, the remaining 49 percent was transferred to Firtash’s Tolexis Trading Limited, which won at that time the competition organized by the State Property Fund of Ukraine.
kyivpost.com/business/firta…

Under the terms of the signed contract, Firtash’s company had to contribute $110 million to the authorized capital of the plant solely for its modernization.

But as it turned out, that did not happen
kyivpost.com/business/firta…

The investigation found that despite the fact that during 2014-2015 Tolexis Trading Limited allocated $110M to the combine, only $1.2M , went for modernization.

📌The rest was allegedly withdrawn through offshore accounts, as the Ukrainska Pravda
kyivpost.com/business/firta…

📌On March 12, 2019 the Supreme Court of Ukraine was about to make a final decision. However, the judge took a break until March 15, and then took a sick leave before ultimately making the decision in favor of the oligarch.🤔
kyivpost.com/business/firta…

📌Boeing -Titanium

Boeing was in a tight spot. Just as it was preparing to roll out its innovative 787 Dreamliner, the plane that was supposed to lead the Boeing into the future — a shortage of strong but lightweight titanium parts threatened production.

nytimes.com/2018/12/30/wor…

In 2006, as titanium prices rose, Boeing asked McKinsey & Company to evaluate a proposal, potentially worth $500 million annually, to mine titanium in India through a foreign partnership financed by an influential Ukrainian oligarch—Firtash.
nytimes.com/2018/12/30/wor…

📌McKinsey says it advised Boeing of the risks of working with Firtash and recommended “character due diligence.”

📌McKinsey described what it said was the potential partner’s strategy for winning mining permits. It included bribing Indian officials.
nytimes.com/2018/12/30/wor…

Firtash’s plan McKinsey noted, “respect traditional bureaucratic process including use of bribes.”

McKinsey also wrote that the partner had identified 8 “key Indian officials” named in the PP slide, whose influence was needed for the deal to go through.
nytimes.com/2018/12/30/wor…

📌Nowhere in the PowerPoint slide did McKinsey advise that such a scheme would be illegal or unwise.
nytimes.com/2018/12/30/wor…

The story of McKinsey’s role in the episode has remained hidden from public view for 12 years.

The firm’s ultimate recommendation and how its client, Boeing, responded remain something of a mystery, cloaked in the secrecy of grand jury proceedings.
nytimes.com/2018/12/30/wor…

📌But McKinsey’s reference to illegal acts has thrust the firm into a tangled international battle over the extradition of Mr. Firtash, who has been charged in the United States with bribing Indian officials in anticipation of getting titanium for Boeing.
nytimes.com/2018/12/30/wor…

📌When Boeing went looking for titanium in 2006, it tentatively agreed to buy the metal through a company controlled by Mr. Firtash, who had made billions of dollars brokering gas sales to Ukraine from Russia and former Soviet republics.
nytimes.com/2018/12/30/wor…

📌The deal did not end well.
The mining venture never materialized, but Mr. Firtash was indicted on charges of directing $18.5 million in bribes to Indian officials for mining permits.
nytimes.com/2018/12/30/wor…

Chicago feds recently revealed the tantalizing detail that they have “thousands of intercepts” of Firtash and his alleged co-conspirators in the titanium scheme.
chicagotribune.com/news/chicagoin…

Adding to his revelation that the U.S. secretly recorded a phone call in which Firtash discussed a co-defendant's trip to Chicago to meet with Boeing executives,
chicagotribune.com/news/chicagoin…

Bhachu said the government has "tens of thousands" of documents and "thousands of intercepts" that can be used against Firtash.
chicagotribune.com/news/chicagoin…

Neither McKinsey nor Boeing have been charged in the case, and Boeing has not been accused of paying bribes.

But several employees of the two companies are believed to have testified before a grand jury.
nytimes.com/2018/12/30/wor…

‼️The Hunt for Titanium

Titanium is a strategic defense material, managed under law by the DOD & its use & procurement is subject to US defense mandates & laws
dla.mil/HQ/Acquisition…

‼️Uses of titanium sponge?

* Landing gear, springs, rotors (helicopter), fittings, and attachments

* Structural components for airplanes, satellites, and spacecraft

* Gas turbine engines

* Chemical processing
dla.mil/HQ/Acquisition…

🌳The Fight to Extradite

In June 2013, a federal grand jury in Chicago secretly indicted Mr. Firtash and five others, including an Indian official, on bribery charges.

nytimes.com/2018/12/30/wor…

Until a Russian billionaire, Vasily Anisimov, posted Firtash’s $174 million bond. Mr. Anisimov is an associate of Mr. Putin’s friend Arkady Rotenberg.

So began a highly unusual four-year tug of war between two allies — the United States and Austria.
nytimes.com/2018/12/30/wor…

Extradition requests between the United States and other Western nations are almost never rejected, said Lanny J. Davis, one of Mr. Firtash’s (& Michael Cohen’s) lawyers and a former special counsel to President Bill Clinton.
nytimes.com/2018/12/30/wor…

🚩Oct 2018: The European Union’s top court turned away an appeal by Dmytro Firtash, the latest twist for the Ukrainian oligarch whose extradition from Austria the United States has been fighting for since his 2014 arrest in Vienna.
rferl.org/a/top-eu-court…

Dan Webb, one of Mr. Firtash’s lawyers and a former United States attorney in Chicago, said his client had nothing to do “with the creation or presentation of the PP slide proposing bribery and used by U.S. prosecutors to support extradition of Firtash.”
nytimes.com/2018/12/30/wor…

For its part, Boeing said in a statement that it had cooperated with the Justice Department and was “not accused of any wrongdoing.”
nytimes.com/2018/12/30/wor…

📌Side note: Russia’s VSMPO-Avisma (VSMO.MM), the world’s largest titanium producer, and U.S. planemaker Boeing (BA.N) have launched a new manufacturing unit in Russia’s Urals region of Sverdlovsk
reuters.com/article/us-vsm…

‼️Firtash Order Unsealed 6/21/19 Motions to dismiss DENIED. Venue US affirmed.

https://twitter.com/file511/status/1142483468095565824?s=21

@threadreaderapp unroll please and thank you

#Firtash
#Boeing

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1142649621178511360?s=21

📌Note: BRUCE OHR

📌Finally, the F.B.I. agent spoke. No deal, he said; Mr. Mogilevich must surrender. Mr. BRUCE OHR said little, but his unwillingness to negotiate was signal enough:

The Justice Department would not compromise with the Russian mafia.

nytimes.com/2018/08/27/us/…