Thread by @StringwallApp

“Shnaider’s rise to become one of Canada’s wealthiest men (he was on Forbes’ list of billionaires by the age of 36) was helped by Boris Birshtein, his father-in-law and mentor in business.”

ft.com/trumptoronto

“FT spoke with a former KGB officer who worked in the 1980s in the agency’s foreign intelligence arm. He explained how, as the Soviet Union was collapsing, the Communist party and the KGB scrambled to stash money abroad.”

“in the late 1980s, Birshtein was one of the western businessmen whose companies became linked with KGB figures involved with the agency’s efforts to build up international business interests.”

“Birshtein did recall agreeing in the mid-1980s to participate in a Soviet plan to set up international business ventures that was led by Georgi Arbatov, head of a prestigious Moscow think-tank. According to a defector’s account...Arbatov was also a KGB asset codenamed Vasili.”

“In 1991, shortly before the Soviet Union would finally collapse, Birshtein’s company hired Leonid Veselovsky as an economic adviser on a one-year contract.”

“But the former KGB officer told the FT that Veselovsky had also served as a senior officer in the KGB’s foreign operations arm and had been “the mastermind of KGB money laundering”.”

“... even after the F.B.I. committed more resources to the hunt, bureau officials faced difficulties in penetrating Iran for intelligence about the missing American [Bob Levinson].”
nytimes.com/2016/01/23/wor…

“As a result, they turned to businessmen and others willing to aid the search in exchange for favors from the United States, such as obtaining visas or having their names removed from watch lists.”
🤔 Not suspicious at all...

“Those recruited that way included Boris Birshtein, a Toronto-based businessman, and Madzhit Mamoyan, an ethnic Kurd who lives in Moscow.” 🤔🤔

Because what legitimate totally-not-associated-with-Russian-intelligence Canadian businessman hasn’t been called upon to free kidnapped CIA consultants from their Iranian captors, right? 🤷‍♂️

IMO, this is the interesting part: “in the summer of [2011], Mr. Birshtein went to see Douglas Coe, a lay minister and spiritual leader of the Fellowship Foundation, about Mr. Levinson. The businessman considered Mr. Coe a friend and religious mentor.”