Thread by @WendySiegelman

When Mitch McConnell helped lift Russian sanctions it benefitted an aluminum project in his state of KY involving Oleg Deripaska’s Rusal & Craig Bouchard's Braidy Industries

Bouchard and a colleague were involved in several deals in 2008-2010 w/Russian company Severstal - thread

In August Time reported on the plans by Braidy Industries CEO Craig Bouchard to build the largest aluminum mill in the US for $1.7 billion

In April Bouchard announced Rusal bought a 40% stake in the company for $200 million
time.com/5651345/rusal-…

The article notes the deal is "a new kind of Russian meddling in America, one that exploits the US free-market system instead of its elections”

However this isn’t new - Russian company Severstal has been investing huge amounts of $ in the US for a decade+
time.com/5651345/rusal-…

In this article I reported in 2005 SeverCorr, owned by Severstal, opened its first plant in Columbus MS & in 2008 invested $500Mil

Ex MS gov Haley Barbour’s firm BGR lobbied for Alfa Bank 2004-2015

Current gov Phil Bryant introduced Trump to Nigel Farage

https://twitter.com/WendySiegelman/status/863909528169009152?s=20

Before Braidy Industries CEO Craig Bouchard did his current deal with Deriapska’s Rusal in Kentucky, years prior Braidy had several business interactions with Russian company Severstal - that were significant in size and... interesting

In 2007, Bouchard’s former company Esmark bid $1.3 billion to buy ArcelorMittal’s Sparrows Point mill in MD.

The deal fell through and Severstal bought the mill for $810 mil
courier-journal.com/story/news/pol…

As a side note - a few years prior Wilbur Ross sold his company to Mittal for $4.5 billion and became a board director (so it seems likely he would have been aware of the failed bid by Bouchard and Severstal purchase of Sparrows Point)

https://twitter.com/WendySiegelman/status/883436462401781762?s=20

ArcelorMittal sued Bouchard’s company Esmark for driving the stock price down - then after Severstal bought Sparrows Point at a low cost in 2007, the next year Severstal bough Bouchard’s company Esmark for $775 million and $400 million in assumed debt
courier-journal.com/story/news/pol…

To recap: Bouchard bid to buy Sparrows Point from ArcelorMittal

Deal fell through & Severstal bought Sparrows Point at lower price

Then Severstal bought Bouchard’s company Esmark & its debt

Then - in 2010 Esmark repurchased 3 cos back from Severstal
esmarksteelgroup.com/esg/esmark-rep…

The person who led the repurchase in 2010 of three companies from Severstal was Thomas Modrowski, chief executive officer Esmark’s steel group
esmarksteelgroup.com/esg/esmark-rep…

Now Thomas Modrowski, who led Esmark's repurchase of 3 companies from Severstal in 2010, is the president of Braidy Atlas, the mill in partnership with Deripaska’s Rusal
recyclingtodayglobal.com/article/rusal-…

There's no indication of any link between the prior Severstal deals and the Rusal deal in KY - however, Braidy Industries CEO Craig Bouchard and Braidy Atlas president Modrowski have both now had significant transactions over the past decade with two separate Russian companies

An interesting side note - Severstal owner Mordashov was a business partner with Konstantin Nikolayev, alleged Maria Butina funder. Nothing indicates Mordashov is involved in Trump-Russia story, but Severstal has invested big $ in some key states for years

https://twitter.com/WendySiegelman/status/1021066504400457734?s=20

A shoutout to @BruceFwKY who is on the ground in KY covering this story and contacted me to discuss a timeline he's creating, which prompted me to dig into the various Severstal interactions and Brouchard and Thomas Modrowski involvement in deals with Rusal and Severstal

@BruceFwKY * Bouchard not Brouchard

@BruceFwKY Also it should be noted that this August story in the Washington Post mentioned that Bouchard had sold a previous steel company to another Russian company - so that was not news - but most of the information added above was not covered
washingtonpost.com/politics/how-a…

@BruceFwKY Here's a write-up by @ForwardKY which has been following Craig Bouchard, Matt Bevin, Oleg Deripaska, Rusal, and Mitch McConnell (and thanks for the shout out in the piece)
forwardky.com/interesting-si…