Thread by @karolcummins

Destination Vienna:

Connecting Trump, Giuliani, Parnas, Fruman & a notorious Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash, described by our DOJ as an “upper-echelon [assoc] of Russian organized crime.” #Mogilevich

Media wake up! @cnn @msnbc @WSJ @nytpolitics

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

🔑The scandal surrounding U.S. President Donald Trump and his associates, including Trump’s private lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, now involves one of Ukraine’s most notorious oligarchs, connected to Mogilevich, the reported kingpin of the Russian mafia.

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

Parnas & Firman worked for Firtash before Parnas joined the Ukrainian’s legal team.

Parnas, Reuters also reported, served as a translator for lawyers representing Firtash (Toensing & diGenova)

reuters.com/article/us-usa…

Fun fact: Parnas got his start in real estate, selling Trump condos for Donald Trump’s father, Fred, then worked in shipping in the former Soviet Union. He moved to Florida in the mid-1990s.

washingtonpost.com/politics/how-t…

Giuliani also told Reuters that Parnas and Fruman had been to Vienna three to six times in the past two months

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

Although the Austrian Supreme Court ordered Firtash to be extradited, he hired Trump-linked lawyers (Toensing & diGenova in July to seek a fresh review of the five-year-long extradition process.

Barr linked too, see #PassportGate

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

Firtash’s lawyers accepted a Sept. 4 affidavit from discredited ex-Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who blamed Biden for his firing in 2016 and claimed that Biden sought to block Firtash’s return to Ukraine.

📌Shokin & Firtash hate Biden - get it?

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

🔑Dmytro Firtash: The Oligarch Who Can’t Come Home BECAUSE OF JOE BIDEN—Get it?

@SenateGOP & @HouseGOP are doing Firtash/Trump a huge favor by promoting Firtash/Trump’s political smear campaign against Joe Biden.

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

Ex-Security Service of Ukraine chief Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, KNOWN FOR LOYALTY TO FIRTASH, called for a full investigation of Ukraine’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election Biden family’s role in the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

🔑Firtash has enormous influence in Ukraine, even from exile.

🔑He has a gas distribution monopoly in Ukraine whose companies owe the state at least $2 billion for natural gas received, allegations his Group DF company dismisses as rumors.🙄

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

Firtash Gas Distribution

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1180922044323524608?s=21

Firtash is recognized as a friend of Russian President Putin, Ukraine’s top enemy because of the Kremlin’s relentless war on Ukraine.

US Department of Justice court filings describe Firtash as an “upper-echelon [associate] of Russian organized crime,” 

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

“He is considered to be one of the close associates of (Semion) Mogilevich, who is the head of Russian organized crime, who is Putin’s best friend,” said Giuliani.

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

“Lanny Davis (Cohen’s atty) gets $80k a month from this guy [Firtash] who’s considered to be one of the high-level, Russian organized crime members or associates.” says Giuliani.

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

🔑Firtash made a fortune serving as an intermediary selling Russian gas to Ukraine.

🔑His RosUkrEnergo company [RUE] – owned jointly with Russia’s gas giant Gazprom – was Ukraine’s sole supplier of Russian gas between 2004 and 2009.

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

🔑Independent energy experts call RosUkrEnergo one of the most unnecessary and corrupt schemes in the natural gas sector.

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

🔑Wikileaks files in 2008 suggest that Firtash was able to receive help entering the gas trade by colluding with Russian crime boss Mogilevich, who once was among the 10 most wanted people by the FBI.

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

2015: Reputed Philly mobster bumped from FBI's 'Ten Most Wanted' list

Semion Mogilevich remains on the lam, wanted for $150M fraud scheme

The FBI stated Mogilevich remains a part of an active investigation "intended to ultimately apprehend him ...”

phillyvoice.com/reputed-philly…

🔑Firtash’s television channels, including Inter, are among the most-watched in Ukraine.

🔑He controls a substantial part of the titanium market and has vast chemical plant holdings.

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

📌Recently, the Anti-Monopoly Committee of Ukraine ordered a break-up of his monopoly in the nitrogen fertilizer sector.

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

🔑

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1147231676830900224?s=21

Firtash has a connection with Paul Manafort, the imprisoned former campaign manager of Trump & the former political adviser to Yanukovych

Manafort & Firtash wanted to go into a joint real estate venture worth $850M, but the project never happened.

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

🔑The $64,000 question is did Firtash instruct Trump to hire Manafort as his campaign manager?

“I can tell you he’s a real specialist,” says Manafort’s friend Dmitry Firtash, “He won three elections in Ukraine. He knew what he was doing.”

time.com/5003623/paul-m…

In December 2015, Arsen Avakov, Ukraine’s interior minister, threatened Firtash with arrest upon arrival.

He said that Firtash “wants to return [to UKR], because we don’t have an extradition treaty,”

📌Reminder, Joe Biden prevented Firtash’s return.

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

🔑Giuliani & co’s pals Shokin and his successor Yuriy Lutsenko are highly discredited Ukrainian prosecutors, with reputations for protecting corruption rather than prosecuting it.

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

In January 2019, Parnas and Fruman introduced Giuliani first to Shokin and later to Lutsenko

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

In July, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project reported that Fruman and Parnas were introduced to Kolomoisky by Alexander Levin, a pro-Trump businessman, on the pretense that they wanted to talk about their plan to sell gas to Ukraine.

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

According to The Wall Street Journal, Parnas, who helped Giuliani find contacts in Ukraine, was employed by Toensing and diGenova’s firm to serve as an interpreter related to their representation of Firtash.

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1180870472403050496?s=21

Parnas has a record of interacting with Ukrainian oligarchs. 

He and Fruman met with oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who is close to President Volodymyr Zelensky and whose 1+1 TV channel helped him get elected.

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

The meeting took place days after Zelensky was elected president. He also met with Kolomoisky on Sept. 10.

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

Zekensky & the Oligarch Kolomoisky

Some have wondered if Zelensky is a front for the oligarch to whom he is tied through television, but both deny any political connection. Others worry about Zelensky’s business ties in Russia.

nationalinterest.org/blog/skeptics/…

Both Zelenskiy and Kolomoisky say their relationship is strictly professional, and centered on the comedian's TV work. Both say no undue influence is being exerted by the oligarch, whose businesses range from banking and energy to aviation.

reuters.com/article/us-ukr…

Brunson pointed to Kolomoisky’s role in funding the ultra-far-right Azov battalion, a group of Ukrainian fighters alleged to have ties to American white supremacists, per RFE/RL;

thedailybeast.com/billionaire-uk…

The State Department has called its political wing a “nationalist hate group,” and human rights workers say it may be a haven for neo-Nazis.  

thedailybeast.com/billionaire-uk…

“He [Kolomoisky] was one of the first oligarchs who began to act like a warlord,” Brunson said.

Kolomoisky has a host of enemies. He’s been accused of commissioning contract killings.

thedailybeast.com/billionaire-uk…

And in 2016, Ukraine’s central bank nationalized Kolomoisky’s PrivatBank b/c it didn’t have enough cash.

Billions of dollars disappeared from its coffers b/c it lent so much to Kolomoisky associates.

Gontareva presided over the bank’s nationalization.

thedailybeast.com/the-allegedly-…

🔑It was a flashpoint in Kolomoisky’s relationship with Poroshenko, and many speculate the oligarch backs Zelensky in part because hopes to depose the president who oversaw the takeover of his bank.

thedailybeast.com/billionaire-uk…

In July, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project reported that Fruman and Parnas were introduced to Kolomoisky by Alexander Levin, a pro-Trump businessman, on the pretense that they wanted to talk about their plan to sell gas to Ukraine.

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

🔑However, Kolomoisky said in an interview that the two wanted him to help them arrange a meeting between Giuliani and Zelensky.

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

🔑OCCRP also found ties between Giuliani’s fixers and Volodymyr Galanternik, an influential yet secretive businessman accused of criminal activity by journalists and anti-corruption activists.

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

He along with Alexander Angert are friends and business partners of Odesa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov. Galanternik’s wife is a close friend of Fruman’s ex-wife and the two often post photographs together with their husbands.

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

🔑The mayor of Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa, Gennadiy Trukhanov, has long denied having any remaining connections to the city’s 1990s-era “oil mafia” or its leader, Aleksander Angert.

🔑London Apartments Show Ongoing Ties of Odesa Mayor to Oil Mafia - OCCRP

🔑Even long after becoming Odesa’s mayor, Trukhanov still maintains ties with his old criminal associates.

🔑Trukhanov is under investigation by Ukrainian officials, who are looking into the possible theft of millions of dollars in public money.

occrp.org/en/paradisepap…

🔑Odesa Mob Rule: Leaders in Black Sea port have unchecked powers #RUmob

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

🔑Local anti-corruption activists say Angert, the alleged ringleader, along with Galanternik and Trukhanov have turned Odesa into their private fiefdom, awarding the most lucrative land and municipal contracts to their own companies.

kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

Get it folks?

#TeamTrump is deeply embedded in the Russian Mafia, serving their corrupt interests (while perusing their personal financial interests) and thus working against the best interest of the United States.

How beholden is Trump to Firtash, Putin & Mogilevich?

Giuliani Putin Glazyev

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1177691363782955008?s=21

‼️Rudy Giuliani’s Year of Living Dangerously

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1178393938647863296?s=21

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