Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
Tom Burgis Profile picture
@tomburgis
Mar 10, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
One of the less remarked things that @realDonaldTrump and #KimJongUn have in common is a long reliance on the financial secrecy system to bring in funds 1/4
2/4 @realDonaldTrump’s real estate ventures suck in money, often from the former Soviet Union, through front companies, such as these millions from an alleged Kazakh money laundering network ft.com/content/33285d…
3/4 The North Korean regime has used similar structures to circumvent sanctions. It has a special unit for this, called Office 39. Here’s how it used front companies to do deals with a Hong Kong-based network linked to Chinese intelligence ft.com/content/4164df…
4/4 This matters because @realDonaldTrump and #KimJongUn are both examples of the dangers of fusing political power with business interests that use the financial secrecy system. It risks conflicts of interest on a global scale - you can never be sure who’s in whose pocket

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Tom Burgis

Tom Burgis Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @tomburgis

Tom Burgis Profile picture
Feb 29
***OUT TODAY*** After three extraordinary years following a thread that led from Conservative HQ to Putin's St Petersburg via Kathmandu and a royal Scottish retreat, my new book CUCKOOLAND is out. It's the tale of a world where the rich own the truth. Our world. 👇🧵
It started back in 2021 when I heard that a rich Conservative donor called Mohamed Amersi had hired lawyers to go after a former MP who'd raised questions about his past, including how he made his money in Russia and elsewhere. ft.com/content/5dab0a…
Not long after, Amersi himself gave a remarkable interview to @Gabriel_Pogrund about how the wealthy buy their way into the British establishment. He called this "access capitalism". thetimes.co.uk/article/access…
Read 11 tweets
Tom Burgis Profile picture
Dec 19, 2023
If Putin gets to keep the Ukrainian territory he's seized, millions of Ukrainians will be condemned to live under the occupation. My latest @guardian investigation reveals how this gangster regime works. (1/4) theguardian.com/world/2023/dec…
Before the war, Volodymyr Saldo's political career in the Kherson region was on the wane. The police chief says they'd opened a case against him over a contract killing. Now he's beyond the reach of the law - he's Putin's gauleiter. (2/4)
facebook.com/ivan.antypenko…
Image
Today, Saldo's occupation regime holds the eastern half of Kherson. Across the river, the liberated western half endures remorseless shelling that kills civilians day after day. I went there to see life on the frontline. (3/4) theguardian.com/world/2023/nov…
Read 4 tweets
Tom Burgis Profile picture
Feb 24, 2022
Here’s an irony of war. The UK’s position as the global hub for dirty money puts its government in a uniquely strong position to hurt Putin’s kleptocracy - and kleptocrats everywhere - by attacking financial secrecy. (1/4)
#Ukraine
on.ft.com/2PzCHkA
Sanctions alone lose their bite when corrupt regimes can use the financial secrecy system to dodge them. And London’s “reputation management” law firms are on hand to target reporters who dare to look into the sources of their clients’ wealth. (2/4)

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
It was the financial secrecy system that helped the Kremlin begin its incursion into eastern Ukraine years ago - using secretive corporate takeovers to capture steel mills. As ever, the key, even as the tanks roll, is to follow the money. (3/4)

ft.com/trumptoronto
Read 5 tweets
Tom Burgis Profile picture
Jul 7, 2021
*** NEW @FT INVESTIGATION ***

Mohamed Amersi calls himself “a renowned global communications entrepreneur, philanthropist and thought leader”. He's given some of his fortune to the Conservatives - a fortune made in part in Putin's Russia. (1/9)

ft.com/content/5dab0a…
The $4m Amersi made from a 2005 telecoms deal came from a company in a group that was, a Swiss tribunal ruled the following year, secretly owned by Putin's telecoms minister Leonid Reiman. Reiman (2nd right) denies that. Amersi says he believed the owner was a Danish lawyer (2/9)
Amersi mixed with other powerful figures in Russia and went on to do deals elsewhere in the former Soviet Union and the Middle East. (3/9)
Read 9 tweets
Tom Burgis Profile picture
Dec 3, 2020
*** NEW INVESTIGATION: A MONEY PIPELINE ***

He's a billionaire. Son-in-law of a Kazakh dictator. Director of Gazprom.

Documents I’ve seen indicate he was also the beneficiary of a secret scheme to divert profits from big state pipeline contracts. (1/9) ft.com/content/80f25f…
Timur Kulibayev was a top official overseeing Kazakhstan’s business interests when the Russian group ETK won pipeline contracts. The leaked documents indicate that ETK agreed to channel a share of the profits from pipeline contracts to Kulibayev. (2/9) gazprom.com/about/manageme…
It all started back in 2007, as the financial crisis was shifting power from west to east. The rulers of Kazakhstan and China agreed to build a multibillion-dollar pipeline to carry Central Asian gas, long mostly exported to Europe, to China. (3/9) ig.ft.com/sites/special-…
Read 9 tweets
Tom Burgis Profile picture
Oct 8, 2020
The law is becoming a weapon in the US election.

That's what happens when kleptocracy starts to take hold.

Here's why.

(1/15)
Anyone who's witnessed elections in kleptocracies – places ruled through corruption, like Nigeria or Ukraine or Malaysia or Brazil – can tell you they become struggles to control the looting machine. But above all ... (2/15)

qz.com/379750/goodluc…
... kleptocrats fighting elections are seeking, more even than retaining the power to loot, to keep the immunity from prosecution that comes with high public office.

Here I am with @FrankFigliuzzi1 and @SRuhle on @MSNBC discussing this point. (3/15)

Read 24 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

Send Email!

:(