💰💦Grenell, Plahotniuc, Firtash & more.
In 2016, Grenell embarked on a smear campaign against a Moldovan prosecutor who was cooperating with an inv’n of large-scale 💰💦 op.
Grenell worked on behalf of a Moldovan political party & its oligarch leader.
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/miha…
In 2016, Grenell embarked on a smear campaign against a Moldovan prosecutor who was cooperating with an inv’n of large-scale 💰💦 op.
Grenell worked on behalf of a Moldovan political party & its oligarch leader.
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/miha…
Gofman’s story — and how he came to be targeted by Grenell — is something out of a spy novel, w/ the longtime prosecutor fleeing Moldova in a borrowed car to share details about the allegedly corrupt dealings by the leadership of his country with the FBI.
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/miha…
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/miha…
In 2014, Gofman was a deputy chief in the country’s Office of Prevention and Control of Money Laundering.
📌His unit began to uncover details of a massive bank fraud and money laundering operation involving the country’s leadership
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/miha…
📌His unit began to uncover details of a massive bank fraud and money laundering operation involving the country’s leadership
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/miha…
📌Millions of dollars from Moldova’s central bank, was siphoned into the US.
After being pushed out of the unit in 2014, purportedly for investigating the allegations, Gofman said that he tried to gain the attention of European officials, but failed.
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/miha…
After being pushed out of the unit in 2014, purportedly for investigating the allegations, Gofman said that he tried to gain the attention of European officials, but failed.
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/miha…
Known locally as the "theft of the century", the scandal saw the equivalent of an eighth of the country's gross domestic product disappear from banks between 2012-2014.
reuters.com/article/moldov…
reuters.com/article/moldov…
The investigation has identified around 40 people who either benefited from the fraud or facilitated it.
The funds have so far been traced to Cyprus, China, HK & Switzerland,
reuters.com/article/moldov…
The funds have so far been traced to Cyprus, China, HK & Switzerland,
reuters.com/article/moldov…
Vlad Plahotniuc, Moldova’s most-feared figure, a nominally pro-Western tycoon with a reputation so toxic that even his political friends usually try to keep their distance in public reportedly hired Grenell.
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/miha…
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/miha…
Grenell & Plahotniuc
🔑Interpol has had a case ID involving Plahotniuc’s activities throughout Western Europe since 2007 and think he is loosely associated with one of Russia’s biggest mafias, the Solntsevskaya Brotherhood. Plahotniuc denies this.
forbes.com/sites/kenrapoz…
forbes.com/sites/kenrapoz…
Plahotniuc is believed to have participated in a plot to siphon Moldova’s central bank reserves into shell companies & foreign bank accts, per Mihail Gofman.
Gofman is a former a deputy level official at a Moldovan money laundering investigative agency.
forbes.com/sites/kenrapoz…
Gofman is a former a deputy level official at a Moldovan money laundering investigative agency.
forbes.com/sites/kenrapoz…
Plahotniuc has also been a business partner with Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko in real estate deals in Moldova #Manafort
forbes.com/sites/kenrapoz…
forbes.com/sites/kenrapoz…
Pro-EU PDM, which is financially backed by politician Vladimir Plahotniuc, hired the Podesta Group
effective June 22, 2016.
The PDM will pay Podesta $600,000 for the work, as well as expenses, made in quarterly installments of $150,000.
odwyerpr.com/story/public/7…
effective June 22, 2016.
The PDM will pay Podesta $600,000 for the work, as well as expenses, made in quarterly installments of $150,000.
odwyerpr.com/story/public/7…
Gofman, tasked by the Moldovan gov’t to monitor int’l money laundering, says Plahotniuc allowed for Shor to take over & run three major banks into the ground. Sociala, Unibank and the biggest of them all, Banca de Economii (BEM) are now facing bankruptcy.
forbes.com/sites/kenrapoz…
forbes.com/sites/kenrapoz…
11/16: Moldovan flees to US to share details of $1 billion theft
Gofman gives U.S. officials info he claims links top Moldovan political leaders & possibly U.S. citizens to a $1 billion heist that gutted the tiny eastern European nation’s banking system.
apnews.com/7830a6de0f5a48…
Gofman gives U.S. officials info he claims links top Moldovan political leaders & possibly U.S. citizens to a $1 billion heist that gutted the tiny eastern European nation’s banking system.
apnews.com/7830a6de0f5a48…
In the United States, Gofman began to meet with U.S. officials, including the FBI and Homeland Security’s Global Illicit Financial Team.
forbes.com/sites/kenrapoz…
forbes.com/sites/kenrapoz…
📌Starting in August 2016, Grenell began to write a series of articles smearing/targeting Gofman.
Sound familiar? TeamTrump targets the anti-corruption officials. #Yavonovitch
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/miha…
Sound familiar? TeamTrump targets the anti-corruption officials. #Yavonovitch
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/miha…
📌Gofman said that the evidence he gave to the U.S. government eventually made its way to a trial attorney in the Money Laundering & Asset Recovery section of the DOJ’s Criminal Division.
No charges have been brought in the case.
Is Barr interfering?
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/miha…
No charges have been brought in the case.
Is Barr interfering?
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/miha…
Background 2016: U.S. Probes Moldovan Corruption Tied To $1 Billion Theft
blogs.wsj.com/riskandcomplia…
blogs.wsj.com/riskandcomplia…
Grenell was being paid by Plahotniuc, the Moldovan oligarch and target of Gofman’s allegations.
Grenell did not disclose payments for advocacy work on behalf of Plahotniuc whom the U.S. later accused of corruption.
propublica.org/article/trumps…
Grenell did not disclose payments for advocacy work on behalf of Plahotniuc whom the U.S. later accused of corruption.
propublica.org/article/trumps…
Grenell was reportedly hired through his company, Capitol Media Partners.
The longtime Republican political consultant Arthur Finkelstein, now deceased, reportedly hired Grenell as a media consultant for the Moldova work.
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/miha…
The longtime Republican political consultant Arthur Finkelstein, now deceased, reportedly hired Grenell as a media consultant for the Moldova work.
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/miha…
A financial disclosure shows that Grenell received more than $5,000 from Finkelstein as a client of his.
Neither Finkelstein nor Grenell registered as foreign agents under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
documentcloud.org/documents/4388…
Neither Finkelstein nor Grenell registered as foreign agents under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
documentcloud.org/documents/4388…
Trump, Putin and the mob. Research collection. Part 2: #BudapestBridge and the Hungarian connection to Trump
Arthur Finkelstein and Hungary as #BudapestBridge. If you want to know more, I recommend you search for #BudapestBridge there.
medium.com/@JamesFourM/tr…
Arthur Finkelstein and Hungary as #BudapestBridge. If you want to know more, I recommend you search for #BudapestBridge there.
medium.com/@JamesFourM/tr…
Trump, Putin and the mob. Trump campaign connections.
Roger Stone’s mentor was Arthur Finkelstein. Also, “Arthur’s Boys” work on Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign.
Lee Atwater’s mentor was also Arthur Finkelstein.
medium.com/@JamesFourM/tr…
Roger Stone’s mentor was Arthur Finkelstein. Also, “Arthur’s Boys” work on Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign.
Lee Atwater’s mentor was also Arthur Finkelstein.
medium.com/@JamesFourM/tr…
Birnbaum was a protégé of Arthur J. Finkelstein.
The State Department banned Plahotniuc in January 2020, from entering the country. In a statement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cited Plahotniuc’s “corrupt actions,”
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/miha…
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/miha…
📌And designated Plahotniuc under an area of law that allows the government to render foreign government officials ineligible for visas due to “their involvement, directly or indirectly, in significant corruption.”
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/miha…
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/miha…
David H. Laufman, a former chief of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence section, said Grenell’s conduct would likely raise issues under FARA and for any security clearance investigation & could leave him vulnerable to blackmail.
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/miha…
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/miha…
💰The Firtash Case & Grenell
“During the situation that was going on with the Firtash case, Victoria called Ric Grenell because he was the ambassador to Germany and Vienna was in the same orbit there,”
thedailybeast.com/lev-parnas-dis…
“During the situation that was going on with the Firtash case, Victoria called Ric Grenell because he was the ambassador to Germany and Vienna was in the same orbit there,”
thedailybeast.com/lev-parnas-dis…
She [Toensing] basically asked Grenell, if he sees any pressure coming from DOJ to extradite Firtash, if he could let us know.
She told me he said he would.” Parnas said he didn’t know if Grenell ever shared information regarding Firtash with Toensing.
thedailybeast.com/lev-parnas-dis…
She told me he said he would.” Parnas said he didn’t know if Grenell ever shared information regarding Firtash with Toensing.
thedailybeast.com/lev-parnas-dis…
Grenell backchannel to Barr? 
Parnas told the Daily Beast that he was told to ask Grenell for advance notice if the Department of Justice were to move to extradite an indicted Ukrainian oligarch, Dmytro Firtash, from whom Giuliani hoped to get compromising information.
nymag.com/intelligencer/…
nymag.com/intelligencer/…
🔑Parnas also claims Grenell said he would comply. It would, to put it mildly, not be normal or legal for an ambassador to tip off a private citizen to a law-enforcement move.
nymag.com/intelligencer/…
nymag.com/intelligencer/…
📌It would also be odd, because Firtash was not in Germany, and so one wouldn’t have expected the U.S. ambassador there to know anything about criminal procedures involving him.
nymag.com/intelligencer/…
nymag.com/intelligencer/…
10/3/19: Trump has selected the U.S. amb to Germany, Richard Grenell, as the Trump adm’s envoy for ongoing “peace talks” between Serbian and Kosovan officials.
📌Note: Whitaker & Nunberg are busy bees in Kosovo
thehill.com/policy/interna…
📌Note: Whitaker & Nunberg are busy bees in Kosovo
thehill.com/policy/interna…
Kosovo & TeamTrump
An archived version of Grenell's personal website says, "Grenell has worked with clients based in the U.S. as well as Iran, Kazakhstan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, China, Australia, Timor-Leste, and throughout Europe."
cnn.com/2020/02/25/pol…
cnn.com/2020/02/25/pol…
In 2016, the Magyar Foundation of North America paid Grenell’s consulting firm, Capitol Media Partners, $103,750 for “public relations” services.
The foundation was funded and supervised by Hungary’s government led by Viktor Orban.
#BudapestBridge
propublica.org/article/trumps…
The foundation was funded and supervised by Hungary’s government led by Viktor Orban.
#BudapestBridge
propublica.org/article/trumps…
@threadreaderapp unroll please and thank you. #Grenell
‼️Grenell & Assange
Representatives for Assange’s defense team say they expect to introduce recordings and screenshots of communications of a close Grenell associate, including a secondhand claim that Grenell was acting on the president’s orders.
politico.com/news/2020/02/2…
Representatives for Assange’s defense team say they expect to introduce recordings and screenshots of communications of a close Grenell associate, including a secondhand claim that Grenell was acting on the president’s orders.
politico.com/news/2020/02/2…
