Thread by @DawsonSField

Is George pointing us at Obama's Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs Amos Hochstein?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_Hoch…

https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19/status/1191606361357869056

Biden connections, Ukrainian connections, and since May he has been pushing the Giuliani & Sondland are putting pressure on President Zelenskiy narrative.

He sits on the board of Naftogaz, another Ukrainian natural gas company. Not sure of the source of rumors that Secretary Perry tried to replace him with a Republican...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naftogaz

After he left a variety of position as a congressional staffer, he became a lobbyist for domestic & foreign oil companies.
Including lobbying for President Obiang of Equatorial Guinea. Why do these Swampy deals always require dictators who steal from their people & launder it?

Lieutenant General Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has ruled Equatorial Guinea since 1979, meaning he has to have outside political support from nations who want to keep the energy flowing!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teodoro_O…

It's relationship with the US has been weird.
It involves probably the only Ambassador PNG's (persona non grata) for witchcraft!

But they have also declared Obiang a deity too!

But then a combination of neocons, the war on terror & the lobbying by Amos brought Equatorial Guinea back into the US's good graces!

Of course he is particularly corrupt, earning his country a top listing on the most corrupt nations in the extractive industries list!
Connected of course to money laundering banks & big oil: ExxonMobile, Hess, Marathon

Obiang's relationship with Riggs Bank to launder assets into the US lead to the collapse of the bank!

Of course anyone who follows me won't be surprised to learn that the Glencore features in this story of corruption. Yep Marc Rich's Glencore who often serves as the middleman between these transactions. #ButNothingsHappening
rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a…

US DOJ investigations into Glencore's dealings with Equatorial Guinea & other corrupt nations have lead to several Glencore executives leaving the company.

cnbc.com/2019/06/03/reu…

I have certainly covered these cases before. But without @GeorgePapa19 tweet this morning, I had never recognized that Obama's Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs had been the lobbyist responsible for helping Equatorial Guinea!
threadreaderapp.com/thread/1136277…

@GeorgePapa19 If you were wondering how Obiang came to power, you probably would not be surprised that it was a US backed coup in 1979. Variety of motives involved, such as replacing Cuban influence with US influence! So likely the CIA played a leading role in this coup
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Equa…

Then in 2004, there was another attempted coup lead or at least financed by Margaret Thatcher's son Mark. He has a history of involvement in Swampy arms deals including one between BAE & Saudia Arabia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_That…

The mercenary officer who lead the coup plot says that MI6, CIA, & South African intel knew of & approved the plan. Lots of money to be made with regime change!

telegraph.co.uk/news/8830120/M…

Some nations even started negotiations for those spoils with intended new President of Equatorial Guinea. Maybe those negotiations didn't go as planned or different factions liked their existing deals better!

Because someone at CIA allegedly sabotaged the coup & kept Obiang in power & the corrupt money & oil flowing!
I am having trouble pinning down a timeline on Hochstein's work for Obiang but it looks like it was during the time of the aborted coup plot.
bbc.com/news/av/world-…

Did his lobbying for Equatorial Guinea lead to a cancellation of the regime change to replace Obiang?
Maybe we will see but he also represented a variety of other clients. Marathon, Conoco-Philips, even worked oil deals with Khadaffi!huffpost.com/entry/new-obam…

One of his roles was to lobby for an exemption for Khadaffi in the bill that would let terror victims sue state sponsors of terrorism.
And who sponsored this bill to help out Hochstein's client? Senator Joe Biden!

Wonder if investigations into these deals is what made the Swamp want to get rid of Khadaffi? Or did they just want to negotiate some better deals?

Of course Hochstein & Biden continued to work together on Ukrainian energy issues.

https://twitter.com/MissMaga2016/status/1192074080155054082?s=20

Found some data in the FARA database, but it's not my expertise.
But in Sept. 2004 Cassidy & Associates contracted for 1 year of PR work & lobbying for Equatorial Guinea. Hochstein was that lobbyist running the account!
Seems they wanted "friends & allies" inside the Beltway

Fortunately, they even gave us a list of the friends they wanted to make...

How much luck they had, we cannot say...

I find it ironic that the cause of this was the reputational damage caused by the collapse of the bank they were laundering their cash through!

Sounds like the coup attempt in March has really scared the Equatorial Guinea regime. Who were not looking to pay up to the Swamp to avoid any future crisis escalating in a similar way!

Looks like Amos Hochstein was confident that this strategy would work!
It must have, worked President Obiang is still in power 15 years later!

Now of course Riggs Bank imploded during 2004, money laundering, corruption, but they had trouble prosecuting because of the banks links to the CIA.

slate.com/news-and-polit…

Made even more interesting that it was the Wall Street Journal's Glenn Simpson who exposed the CIA's operations at Riggs Bank.

Seems many of the CIA's favorite foreign assets banked at Riggs! Pinochet & his friends.
Saudi Ambassador to the US Prince Bandar bin Sultan too!

Bandar felt it necessary to let the US Treasury Sec. know about his work for the CIA, I guess that would have been in coordination with CIA Saudi station chief John Brennan.

Apparently getting Riggs off the hook for laundering money for the CIA was major factor in PNC's purchase of Riggs after it went belly up!

Some of the problems even related to liability for 9/11 & laundering of funds to the Al Qaeda & other groups.
But Glenn Simpson's story that the CIA was behind it & that the bank would get immunity in a deal made the sale palatable to Wall Street.
old.post-gazette.com/pg/05006/43778…