Thread by @DenbrotS

Trump—Entangled W/ Russian Mobsters For 30 Years
“Over the past three decades, at least 13 people w/known or alleged links to Russian mobsters or oligarchs have owned, lived in,& even run criminal activities out of Trump Tower and other Trump properties”
newrepublic.com/article/143586…

2) “During the ’80s and ’90s, we in the U.S. government repeatedly saw a pattern by which criminals would use condos& high-rises to launder money,” says Jonathan Winer, a deputy assistant secretary of state for international law enforcement in the Clinton administration.”

3) David Bogatin,Trump’s First Russian buyer at Trump Tower, paid $6 Million for 5 condos. “In 1987, just three years after he attended the closing w/Trump, Bogatin pleaded guilty to taking part in a massive gasoline-bootlegging scheme w/Russian mobsters.”
newrepublic.com/article/143586…

4) “A Senate investigation into organized crime later revealed..Bogatin was a leading figure in the Russian mob in NY.”
[With connections to Semion Mogilevitch, whom “FBI considers the “boss of bosses” of the Russian mafia.”]
newrepublic.com/article/143586…

5) Trump owes much of his business success, and by extension his presidency, to a flow of highly suspicious money from Russia.

6) “Some [Russian condo owners]ran a worldwide high-stakes gambling ring out of Trump Tower—in a unit directly below one owned by Trump.”
newrepublic.com/article/143586…

7)”..the public record makes clear that Trump built his business empire in no small part with a lot of dirty money from a lot of dirty Russians—including the dirtiest and most feared of them all.”
newrepublic.com/article/143586…

8) “..for Trump, what mattered most were the lucrative connections he had begun to make with the Kremlin—and with the wealthy Russians who would buy so many of his properties in the years to come. “
newrepublic.com/article/143586…

9) “According to the FBI, he [Mogilevitch] has laundered money through more than 100 front companies around the world, and held bank accounts in at least 27 countries. And in 1991, he made a move that led directly to Trump Tower.”
newrepublic.com/article/143586…

10)”FBI]also found [Mogilevitch assoc. Ivankov] made frequent visits to Trump Taj Mahal in AC,which mobsters routinely used to launder huge sums of money. In 2015,..Taj Mahal was fined $10 million..&admitted to having “willfully violated” anti-money-laundering regs.”
newrepublic.

11) “..the fact that a top Russian mafia boss lived and worked in Trump’s own building indicates just how much high-level Russian mobsters came to view the future president’s properties as a home away from home.”
newrepublic.com/article/143586…

12) “..it wasn’t long before one-third of the units on the tower’s priciest floors had been snatched up—either by individual buyers from the former Soviet Union, or by limited liability companies connected to Russia.”
newrepublic.com/article/143586/

13) “The “tower full of oligarchs,”..became a model for Trump’s projects going forward.”
“Dolly Lenz, a NY realtor...sold 65 units in Trump World Tower to Russians. “I had contacts in Moscow looking to invest in the U.S...They all wanted to meet Donald.”
newrepublic.com

14) “Last October, an investig by the Miami Herald found that at least 13 buyers in the Florida complex have been the target of gov’t investigations, either personally or through their companies, including “members of a Russian-American organized crime group.””
new republic

15) “Russians spent at least $98 million on Trump’s properties in Florida—and another third of the units were bought by shadowy shell companies.”
newrepublic.com/article/143586…