Thread by @RussellSieg

Let's take a look at transnational organized criminals and their enablers in the archives!

1st up - Semion Mogilevich!

August 21, 1999 - The Robbery of Nations

#TOCarchives

In the dying days of the Soviet Union, powerful officials set up a web of foreign banks & front companies to hide their illicit wealth overseas

All Soviet diplomatic & trade channels used to facilitate the flight capital's laundering

the post-Soviet gov't hired Kroll Associates to track down the disappeared money - or did they help hide it?

Swiss authorities arrested Pavlo Lazarenko, former Ukraine PM traveling on Panama passport

Yevhym Zviagelsky, 1 of predecessors as PM, fled to Israel in 1994

Lazarenko was PM in 1996 when $72M went to Cyprus firm Somolli Enterprises, then deposited in his Swiss bank accounts

Friday August 20, 1999

The NYT reported that the bank accounts being scrutinised had been linked to Semyon Mogilevich, a Russian businessman*

*Top Notch reporting by the financial paper of record!

Officials at Bank of New York stressed there were no allegations of wrongdoing by the bank, lol

and there had been no loss of customer funds or the bank's own funds*

*Just $10 Billion laundered from Russian organized crime... so is that like a victimless crime?

SDNY: GLOMAR

Mary Jo White served at SDNY and SEC so she could later defend sexual abuse enablers and opioid peddlers?

Quite a career.

October 30, 1999: Questions over Kuchma's Adviser Cast Shadows

I had heard Kuchma was corrupt, but I didn't know it was this obvious

Olexander Volkov, one of his campaign & administration's top guys has a bunch of bank accounts the Solntsevskaya syndicate used to launder money

Boris Birshtein
Seabeco
MAB International
Sergei Mikhailov
Semion Mogilevich

and at all times, the Swiss are helpful in transferring the illicit funds & acquitting the guilty

December 23, 1999: Russian link to funding of US Parties

Ah, commodities trader Sam Kislin 's dirty US political donations to both parties (Giuliani & Schumer) - this was mentioned in Friedman's 2000 magnum opus Red Mafiya

Jacob Bogatin and his brother David Bogatin

How did Trump ever get elected POTUS?

Much more here in this still seminal Friedman piece from 1998
villagevoice.com/1998/05/26/the…

David Bogatin and 5 condos in TT

and a massive gasoline bootlegging scheme, of course:
newrepublic.com/article/143586…

July 27, 2005: Kiev Probes Suspected Role of Organised Crime in Gas Supply

I wonder why Mogilevich gave media interviews in 1999-2001?

Jan. 5, 2006: Pact Will Help Secretive Group Tighten Grip Over Ukraine

Wolfgang Putschek (Austrian investment banker who co-manages RosUkrEnergo) said Raiffeisen Zentralbank thoroughly screened Centergas's owners & that they had "no ties whatsoever" to OC or Mr. Mogilevich

Lol

April 27, 2006: RosUkrEnergo Hits at Critics by Naming Owners

50% is owned by Dmytro Firtash / Ivan Fursin

50% is owned by Gazprom, the Russian energy group

There, are you happy now?!?

PwC, the gas company's auditors, said Centragas Holding, which has the 50% stake

is 90% owned by Firtash, and 10% owned by Fursin

Firtash was previously involved in 2 other gas traders:

Highrock Holdings & Eural Trans Gas, together w/ Zeev Gordon, an Israeli lawyer, who also represents Semion Mogilevich!

Gordon was a nominal shareholder of Eural in 2002-2004 & set up Israeli subidiary of Highrock in 2001

April 28, 2006: Secretive Gas Tycoon Looks at a Public Life

ready for his big reveal, dishing to the FT ahead of an IPO! 😂

"I have met Mogilevich a few times. But I have never been in any partnership with him and have never done any business with him."

End of story, eh?

Putin thanked Tony Blair for signalling he would not intervene to block possible investments by Russian energy companies in Britain.

*Gulp*

London is now Moscow-West 😬

April 28, 2006: Gazprom's Secretive Ukrainian Partner Tells of Lone Struggle to Build Business

I was but a poor orphan, penniless, until I started selling meat, butter, and second-hand cars to Turkmenistan...

Just out of curiousity, what is 1st mention of "Putin" in FT archives?

July 27, 1998 - byline from Chrystia Freeland (future Canadian MP, Deputy PM, Minister of Finance): Yeltsin Seeks to Tighten Control of Security Forces

Putin named successor to sacked Kovalyev as head of FSB

adjacent article about Black Sea to Caspian Sea pipeline also looked interesting - a very interesting and corrupt time in the former Soviet countries...

Amazing what you can do with a library card these days! ❤️

July 14, 2006 FT Investigation - this is a good one! 👀

Hryhory Nemyria, a member of Parliament in Tymoshenko's bloc, told FT:

There should be full disclosure of the people behind RosUkrEnergo and how it obtained its position

Ukraine Ambassador William Taylor:
There is this shadowy, apparently unknown organisation that plays a major

role (delivering gas to Ukraine). This is one of (the new government's) big decisions they'll have to make right away. If the new gov' decides it wants to reconsider this deal, we have indicated we will support that.

Carlos Pascual, Taylor's predecessor, called RosUkrEnergo's

ownership structure "murky"

An FT Investigation found that Mr Firtash had connections with several of Mr Mogilevich's associates in 2001-2004. When he was presented with this evidence in the interview, Mr Firtash did not deny any of the documented details found by the FT but

insisted that he had not done business with Mr Mogilevich

Splitting hairs, Dmytro?

e.g. Mr Firtash admitted that from 2001 to 2003, Galina Telesh - with whom Mr Mogilevich is believed to be in a long-standing relationship - owned 1/3 of a Cyprus-registered company of which Mr Firtash was part-owner and director. But Mr Firtash said he never met or spoke to

Ms Telesh and did not know her background. "I have never been a partner of Mogilevich"

Mr Firtash said that his partner in Highrock had been Igor Makarov, Itera's president, and that Mr Makarov was responsible for Ms Telesh's involvement at Highrock.

You see? Firtash and Mogilevich are totally NOT linked in any way! Any suggestion of such a link is completely baseless

However, Mr Makarov said he was never involved in Highrock in any way. The FT also found other connections between Mr Firtash and Mogilevich associates

which Mr Firtash explained in other ways

Wolfgang Putschek, one of Firtash's bankers at Austria's Raffeisen Bank, said the bank had voluntarily given info about RosUkrEnergo to US DOJ

Raiffeisen had "thoroughly screened" Mr Firtash

There were three questions our compliance dept had to answer. First, did the client have any links to criminal activities? Second, did the client have any links to known criminals? The answer to both was a clear "No"

Third, did the client have any links to known criminals in the past? In the course of answering that question, some issues came up. But they were explained. That is, they were cleared off

Money tends to answer a lot of questions, no?

Firtash's explanations to FT:
June 2003 - Firtash replaced Galina Telesh (a woman with who an Israeli police report said Mr. Mogilevich had been in a relationship with since the early 1990s) as director of Cyprus-registered Agathea Trading.

Later, Agatheas Trading became direct 1/3 owner of Highrock Holding, another Cyprus company, where Firtash had been director since 2001.

According to Hungarian Intel report obtained by FT, Telesh and Mogilevich were married in 1995

Imagine being married to Mogilevich for years!

Firtash accepted that Telesh beneficially owned 1/3 of Highrock shares until June 2003, however, Mr Firtash said he never knew Ms Telesh. He said his partner in Highrock was Igor Makarov and his involvement as director and 1/3 owner of Highrock was set up by Yalena Yargina,

his lawyer, while ownership of the remainder was arranged by Itera's lawyers. "We don't know about this," Mr Firtash said

so there are 3 owners in a company, and Firtash says he doesn't know 1 of the 3? didn't they ever have board meetings?

Firtash said that after he fell out with Mr Makarov in late 2002, he took full control of Highrock and "cleaned it up"

which eventually led to him taking over as director and owner of Agatheas in June 2003

Mr Makarov, however, who replied to written questions, said

neither he nor Itera had ever had any economic interest in Highrock or undertaken any role in setting up Highrock or its parent companies.

FT asked Firtash to provide evidence that Makarov was involved in Highrock and was later shown part of a report by #Kroll , the private

investigator, which said Highrock was jointly established by Itera and Firtash. However, the part of the report seen by FT did not explain why Kroll believed Itera was involved in Highrock. Firtash said his bank Raiffeisen commissioned the Kroll report.

November 2002:
Igor Fisherman, 1 of 3 associates indicted with Mogilevich in the US in April 2003, registered a car with Moscow traffic police and gave as his personal contact a telephone number that rang to Highrock's offices in Moscow at Novy Arbat 14.

Firtash said Fisherman

never worked at Novy Arbat 14 or came into the office. "I don't know why he gave that telephone number, but I can say for certain he didn't sit there and didn't work there."

March 2002:
Elmstad Trading, another Cyprus firm owned by Firtash, transferred ownership in a Russian

company called Rinvey in 3 roughly equal parts to Ms Telesh, Ms Yargina, and Olga Zhunzhurova, who is Mr Fisherman's wife according to the US indictment

so in essence, Firtash's denial boils down to: I never did a deal with Mogilevich (but maybe I did with his wife!) 😏

Rinvey then acquired stakes in Moscow perfume retailers.

...as one does when you're a major transnational gas dealer!

Ms Yargina co-owned Rinvey until April 2003 and continued to work for Firtash throughout this period.

Firtash acknowledged that Yargina had joined Rinvey at his direction but he said he could not remember why he had asked her to do so. He said he had no involvement in Rinvey,

its business and no ties to its other owners. "It's not my business. It's obvious I couldn't do that business."

Yes, I often asked my lawyer to represent me in deals and don't remember why!

Firtash said he asked Yargina to end her involvement with Rinvey "when we were cleaning up"

November 2001:
an Israeli lawyer called Zeev Gordon helped set up a Highrock subsidiary in Israel called Highrock Properties. From December 2002 until early 2004, Mr Gordon was nominee

holder of 1/4 of Eural Trans Gas, a company beneficially owned by Firtash.

Mr Gordon told FT he counted Mogilevich as a client and a friend.

What a great friend! (Murder, extortion, trafficking in prostitutes, smuggling, money-laundering, bank & securities fraud,

corruption of public officials, and, last but not least, arms trafficking)

Mr Firtash said his relationship with Gordon had nothing to do with Gordon's relationship with Mr Mogilevich

and, frankly, I'm highly offended that you would insinuate such a thing!

Firtash said Gordon had many Russian-speaking clients. "When I asked Gordon, 'Why do you have to work with Mogilevich?' he said 'Listen Dima, it's my business, just like you trade in gas. I'm a criminal lawyer'."

Gordon said in a phone interview he had been asked by Firtash to help w/Highrock & Eural, that Mogilevich denied any involvement in Eural Trans Gas or RosUkrEnergo and that he did not know whether Mogilevich was involved in Highrock

Yep, totally clean - glad we cleared that up!

January 26, 2008 - Crime Boss Arrested

Mogilevich, a modern-day Al Capone, arrested by Russia for large-scale tax evasion

Mogilevich, age 61, arrested in Russia

what's the lifespan for a 300-lb chain-smoker? He'd be 74 now. Hurry up, diabetes & cancer, do your thing!

Mogilevich detained with Vladimir Nekrasov, the owner of Arbat Prestige, a leading Moscow cosmetics retailer as they left a Moscow office building - Mogilevich's lawyer, Alexander Pogonchenkov said

February 13, 2008 - RosUkrEnergo gets cut out of the Russia - Ukraine gas trade

Putin and Ukraine President agree minutes before Gazprom deadline that would reduce gas supplies to Ukraine in winter

PM Yulia Tymoshenko called RosUkrEnergo a "criminal canker"

July 27, 2009 - a Moscow court grants Mogilevich bail, lol... - he served 18 months in prison

Mr. Gordon: I spoke to [Mogi] on Friday after he was released. He is happy to be home

the lawyer said the court made the ruling after it sent prosecutors' tax fraud case back to

investigator claiming it needed more work. "There is no evidence against him" 😏

the former Yukos tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, on the other hand, has spent 2.5 years in detention since a 2nd set of charges were brought against him in Feb 2007

Firtash told US ambassador to Kiev in 2008 he sought permission from Mogilevich when setting up some businesses

Diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks this week

Firtash told US ambassador to Kiev in 2008 he sought permissino from Mogilevich when setting up some businesses!

the ambassador, William Taylor, asked Firtash to address his alleged ties to Russian OC bosses like Mogilevich:

Firtash answered that many westerners do not understand what Ukraine was like after the break-up of the Soviet Union, adding that when a gov't cannot rule effectively,

the country is ruled by "the law of the streets" 😯

He noted that it was impossible to approach a gov't official for any reason without also meeting with an organised crime membebr at the same time.

Firtash acknowledged that he needed, and received, permission from Mogilevich

when he established various businesses, but he denied any close relationship to him

yeah, Firtash is totally protected by the Boss of Bosses, but it's not a "close" relationship...

amazing what these guys say in confidence - and Assange leaked it!

and that was from December 3, 2010 - where this FT archive ends its collection

surely more Mogilevich articles have been published recently if the intrepid FT reporters are worth their salt

poll of who look up next in the archives 🧐

I think it'll be tough for you to decide...