BREAKING: Felix Sater subpoenaed; Newly cooperative in New York money laundering case against Trump’s Kazakh business associates medium.com/@Erinlank/feli… by me and @Erinlank
This is an extremely complex and hard-to-understand case. I'm going to break it down to manageable pieces of information in the following thread.
The city of Almaty, Kazakhstan and BTA bank are suing former BTA Bank Chairman Mukhtar Ablyazov, former Mayor of Almaty Viktor Khrapunov, and his son-in-law Ilyas Khrapunov. They allege that Ablyazov and the Khrapunov's laundered $4 billion.
The City of Almaty and current BTA representatives claim that Ablyazov used his position at the bank to issue loans to dozens of his own shell companies. The Khrapunov purportedly helped Ablyazov and also funnel some of the stolen money out of the country to enrich themselves.
Where does Sater come into play? He was one of their primary U.S. intermediaries for these transactions. A 2013 email to Sater has the details for bank wire transaction worth $2.4M. Me and @Erinlank got our hands on the email. 
The two Sater subpoenas were issued on October 27, 2017, and required him to produce documents and sit for a deposition. According to court filings, Sater had been refusing to comply with the subpoenas and a motion to compel him was entered into the court record on January 8th.
As of January 12th, court documents indicate that Sater is now cooperating with the discovery and deposition requests. He will produce documents to the judge.
Sater is alleged to have worked with the Khrapunovs on more than $40 million in real estate and investment deals, including $3.1 million that was used to purchase 3 condos in Trump Soho Hotel.
In November, 2017, Mueller is reported to have requested the Cyprus bank records from FBME. Nobody knew why he requested these records. We believe it is tied to Sater. The money wire he received went from FBME Bank --> Deutsche ---> Citibank.
One month after Ablyazov fled from the UK to avoid a 22-month prison sentence, Trump traveled to Georgia to announce a licensing deal for a development in the town of Batumi. The Kazakh real estate firm financed by BTA and the developer of the project, paid Trump $1 million.
So there are two potential flows of illicit money into Trump's hands. The Trump SoHo apartments purchased by the Khrapunovs and the $1 million paid to Trump for the Georgia hotel deal.
There are a lot of names to keep track of, so I will boil it down: Felix Sater has been subpoenaed and is now cooperating against Kazakhstan officials that may have directed illicit money into Trump's properties.
There are more details that @Erinlank and I have not yet reported, but plan to do so in the not-too-distant future. For now, make sure you follow Erin. Retweet this tweet to make sure people follow her.
