Support Thread Reader!
Discover and Read the Best of Twitter Threads by @ScottMStedman
6 subscribers
Most recents (37):
Breaking: Sergey Lavrov has just stated that Trump invited Putin to Washington, D.C.
More: Lavrov says that Putin is ready to meet Trump in Washington. Trump "would be happy" to make reciprocal trip to Moscow.
Lavrov: In a phone with Putin, President Trump "sent such an invitation, said that he would be happy to see [Putin] in the White House, then he would be happy to meet as part of the return visit [to Russia]. And he returned to this topic a couple of times."
This will be a thread about the origins of the developer Trump chose to partner with on the advice of Felix Sater during the 2016 election. All indications are that IC Expert is a Russian-government connected entity, not a private enterprise.
As of late 2008, ownership records show that IC Expert was 99% owned by Colinsen Trading Limited, a shell company located in Cyprus. This LLC was in turn owned by Diagoras Nominees Limited. 
As far as I can tell based on months of research, Diagoras is a holding company used by hundreds of wealthy Russians and Ukrainians. Most notably, "Putin's banker" Sergei Pugachev allegedly used Diagoras to launder $200M of state money. rbc.ru/magazine/2016/…
Breaking: The Russian man who allegedly secretly met with Cohen in Prague was in New York days later, blocks from Trump Tower.
Late August/early September: Cohen allegedly meets with Konstantin Kosachev in Prague.
September 21: Kosachev is pictured in Lower Manhattan.
September 21: Kosachev is pictured in Lower Manhattan.
Kosachev's location: 45th Street
Trump Tower: 56th Street, approximately 1 mile away
Trump Tower: 56th Street, approximately 1 mile away
BREAKING: A former Russian intelligence officer helped negotiate Trump Tower Moscow buzzfeed.com/jasonleopold/d…
This is a stunning twist. Trump/Cohen/Sater continued to work towards a Trump Tower Moscow deal AFTER the RNC. It appears that Michael Cohen has mislead Congress.
I've been researching Trump Tower Moscow for the better part of 6 months now. This story cannot be understated. I will summarize the key points in a thread here.
Goodnight. Here's a picture of Sheriff Clarke and his wife drinking in Moscow at a party thrown by Alexander Torshin.
"Welcome to Russia comrades" featuring: David Keene, Alexander Torshin, NRA President Pete Brownell, Maria Butina, and Sheriff Clarke.
Putin confidant Pavel Gusev, Sheriff Clarke, and major NRA donor Joe Gregory in Moscow.
The year is 2014. Wilbur Ross is the Vice Chairman of the Bank of Cyprus. Two of the largest shareholders in the bank are Viktor Vekselberg (5.4%) and a Cypriot lawyer named Christodoulos Vassiliades (5.77%). All three of these people would reappear in Trump’s orbit in ‘16-‘17.
Ross of course is named as commerce secretary and is one of the few Trump appointees to have survived the first full 14 months of his presidency.
Vekselberg, through his cousin and close business partners, funnels huge sums of money to Trump’s inauguration and attends the event.
The evidence on Manafort is blatant and damning. If I can purchase documents for his Cyprus shell companies and find incriminating evidence, then it’s a slam dunk for prosecutors. It’s black and white. He’s going to prison for the rest of his life.
Whether or not he cooperates on the collusion aspect of the probe is pretty much irrelevant. He’s cooked on money laundering and tax fraud. Gates guilty plea has very minimal impact on Manafort. It’s a question of what kind of legacy Manafort wants to leave.
He can cooperate, grow old outside of prison, and spend his life running from the Russian mob or he can die in prison.
Cambridge Analytica whistleblower @chrisinsilico tonight: CA/Bannon tested Trump slogans such as #DrainTheSwamp and #BuildTheWall in 2014.
Remember that in 2013, Trump/Cohen spent $1 million to explore a possible 2016 run. The narrative that Trump wasn’t strongly considering running until 2015 is nonsense.
Here’s a Trump tweet from 2014 talking about building a wall:
I’m pulling all of my hair out.
The bank was the Russian state bank, Sberbank. They are sanctioned by the US. It was related to Trump Tower Moscow. Sberbank gave the Moscow developer a 10.6 billion ruble line of credit 20 days after Trump signed the letter of intent. medium.com/p/df582c22eb72…
The money then essentially disappeared. It’s clear that by lending his name to the project, Trump knowingly or unknowingly facilitated large-scale fraud.
Breaking: Pavlo Yunko, the American spokesman for Nastya Rybka (Deripaska’s mistress) and Alex Lesley (her associate) says that the United States has been negotiating with Thai authorities and that the deportation of Rybka and Lesley to Russia has been suspended.
In a Facebook post, Yunko says that an America embassy official’s car was spotted at a Thai government facility and a conversation took place between the two sides. After this conversation, the imminent deportation of Rybka and Lesley was halted.
Yunko also claims that the FSB was directly responsible for their arrest. A Thai official tells Yunko, “the Russian intelligence agencies had officially ordered this operation.”
Throughout his career, Mueller has notoriously not put up with these kind of games. Nunberg will comply with the subpoena or he’ll be arrested.
This Nunberg interview with @KatyTurNBC is bananas. He is quite literally yelling about the subpoena. Enjoy jail, sir.
“I think it would be funny if they arrested me”
Handwritten letter from Alex Lesley and Nastya Rybka (Deripaska’s mistress) that was delivered to US embassy in Bangkok. They are seeking asylum in return for information on the Russian interference in the 2016 US election.
“We have photo-video-audio of crimes of Russian government.”
I ask everyone to take all of this with a grain of salt. Everything I’m reporting here is vetted and legit but the Russian government likes to play games. Keep your guard up.
Hi @seanhannity how are your former producer Jack Hanick and his buddy Konstantin Malofeev doing in Moscow?
I was told by Fox News I’d get a comment on Hanick months ago. Maybe some public pressure will help.
Hanick moved to Russia after working for Fox News for over a decade. He founded a Moscow TV station with Malofeev (who is sanctioned for financing Russian terrorists) called Tsargrad TV.
Exclusive: Kremlin propagandist who claimed he coordinated with Trump team was previously appointed as Putin’s “trusted confidant”
medium.com/@ScottMStedman…
medium.com/@ScottMStedman…
Trump/Panama is getting interesting. "Witnesses told the AP they saw Trump's executives carrying files to a room for shredding." I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that it was a haven for the Russian mob to launder money?
apnews.com/amp/ce4dbdd444…
apnews.com/amp/ce4dbdd444…
Trump Org in Panama was advised by Alcogal (money laundering connections). Alcogal's trust money is managed by Christodoulos Vassiliades (money laundering connections). Vassiliades is the nominal owner of Trump's Moscow developer. medium.com/@ScottMStedman…
In Trump’s 2015 financial disclosures, he claimed earnings of at least $5.8M over the previous 18 months from the Panama properties. One of his Panama companies claimed “$5M and above” in the document, meaning the true amount could really be anything.
We don’t know if the Russians funneled money to the NRA. Here’s a thread of what we do know.
1. Sheriff Clarke and NRA exec Pete Brownell flew to Moscow in December 2015 to meet Russian government leaders including Aleksander Torshin. This happened the exact same weekend that Flynn and Stein were at the RT dinner.
2. Torshin spoke with with Donald Trump Jr. at an NRA meeting in April 2016.
Who were the Russians promoting the July 2016 Carter Page Moscow speech? Let's take a look.
Aleksander Dugin was. He is Putin's favorite philosopher and widely seen as the brains behind many of Putin's beliefs.
Maria Katasonova was. She actually attended the speech, got a front row seat, and asked about sanctions. Katasonova is a pro-Kremlin political activist/provocateur.
Breaking: Newly discovered evidence suggests Oleg Deripaska may own part of Trump’s chosen Moscow developer medium.com/@ScottMStedman…
Strong circumstantial evidence: Deripaska's most trusted business partner and lawyer was the CEO of Expert Development. Ioanna Theofilou is the sole shareholder of a BVI company that owns 15% of Trump's developer. Theofilou has worked for Deripaska in many ventures.
Here is Theofilou in a 2014 financial document acting on behalf of Capilana as the shareholder 
Fox News gives 30 minutes of airtime to Russian government agent:
Ms. Veselnitskaya claims that the meeting was "banal". Why then, did Paul Manafort have a note on his phone that said, "value in Cyprus..."?
According to Veselnitskaya, the meeting was only about Browder. If this is true, Paul Manafort's notes wouldn't have included, "active sponsors of the RNC". Browder has nothing to do with the RNC.
Following news about the Dutch alerting US agencies to the Russian hack, I'm reminded of the fact that European intel had info on Trump associates meeting with Russians close to the Kremlin in the Netherlands. To my knowledge, details of these meetings are still entirely unclear. 
I asked the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs if anyone in their office met with any of the Trump advisers during the election season and the answer was no. Whoever it was that traveled to the Netherlands wanted to be acting in an unofficial capacity.
Following the election, GOP donor/Ukrainian foreign agent/informal Rohrabacher adviser Yuri Vanetik traveled to the Netherlands at least twice. In April 2017, he, Rohrabacher, Paul Behrends, and 2 unknown men dined in The Hague. 
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 owner of Trump's Moscow developer, Christodoulos Vassiliades, currently works for the Russian oligarch that bailed out Manafort's Ukrianian business partner Dmytro Firtash for $174 million. The Vassiliades-Vasily Anismov partnership began in early 2017 opencorporates.com/companies/gb/1…
Here is where it gets sinister quickly. Anismov, through the companies that Vassiliades manages, recently purchased the Stepnogorsk Mining and Chemical Combine. This Kazakh combine extracts over 4,000 tons of weapons grade uranium annually.
Anismov has been in the uranium business since 2009 when one of his companies owned a deposit that had 90 thousand tons of uranium. kursiv.kz/news/kompanii/…
New: The relationship between the owner of Trump's Moscow developer, Christodoulos Vassiliades, and the law firm in Panama that advised Trump, Alcogal, is more substantial than previously thought. Both are connected to numerous money laundering schemes.
Last week, @Erinlank and I reported that Vassiliades manages the Cyprus assets of Alcogal. This relationship was forged in 2012. Now, newly discovered corporate documents show that Vassiliades and Alcogal have a business relationship that dates back to at least 1996.
Besides the company that manages Alcogal's Cyprus assets, there are at least two other companies where Vassiliades and Alcogal are partners. opencorporates.com/companies/pa/3… opencorporates.com/companies/pa/5…
Wow: Washington Post reports that Viktor Vekselberg and Natalia Veselnitskaya attended Trump's inauguration.
The Post, while producing an incredible story, misses a couple of CRUCIAL facts.
They refer to Konstantin Rykov as a "Putin supporter" - this couldn't be more of an underrepresentation. 
Based on weeks of research, and the discovery of new details today, I believe there is more to the Trump Tower Moscow deal than meets the eye.
Apologies for the lack of content recently - but there is a lot going on behind the scenes. I hope to be able to share some of my findings in the upcoming week.
Huge sums of money flowed from the Russian state bank Sberbank to the developer after Trump agreed to the Letter of Intent.
New: Yulya Alferova has responded to my article. She says, "It really bothers Americans that I published [Trump's announcement of his candidacy] long before his official announcement to become president." (h/t @__alt__thought for translation/context) facebook.com/AlferovaYulyia…
Here is my article on her from November: medium.com/@ScottMStedman…
Alferova is an associate of the Agalarovs and was asked to help organize the 2013 Miss Universe event. In 2015, months before Trump announced his candidacy, she tweeted "@realDonaldTrump is going to run for the Presidency United States!"
Exclusive from me and @Erinlank: Trump’s 2015 Deal In Moscow Is Tied Directly to His Ocean Club Hotel in Panama medium.com/@ScottMStedman…
1- This chart took me and @Erinlank weeks to put together. I will explain all of the connections in the following series of tweets. 
2- Starting at the top middle. Alcogal “advised the Trump Organization in connection with all matters associated with the acquisition of a casino and the operation of a hotel in Panama”. Their registered address in Cyprus is the law firm of Christodoulos Vassiliades.
On page 263 of the Fusion GPS transcript, Glenn Simpson references a note that Paul Manafort made on his phone during the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, "Value in Cyprus as inter." This note is significant. Simpson said he doesn't know what it means. I have a theory. 
1- First of all, my main question is why was Cyprus even mentioned in this meeting? The official story from the Trump campaign is that the meeting was so boring that Paul Manafort fell asleep. If so, why was he taking notes about a country with a population half that of Kansas?
2- The first theory that I've seen is that "inter" stands for intermediary. This could definitely be the case, but it leads to another question: Value for what?
This is the Cyprus lawyer who owns at least 60% of Trump's Moscow developer. His name is Christodoulos Vassiliades. I’ve connected him to multiple money laundering schemes all around the world, from Ukraine to Romania. 
1- After obtaining government documents, I was able to prove that Vassiliades is the sole shareholder of the company Ionics Nominees Limited. 
2- Here is Ionics allegedly being used by a Romanian businessman to launder money that was supposed to go to a development project: sursazilei.ro/firma-suspecta…
BREAKING: I've received a document that lists Putin-linked Russian oligarch Len Blavatnik as a VIP at the 2016 Republican National Convention. The Special Counsel is probing Blavatnik's donations to GOP candidates & Trump inauguration. abcnews.go.com/Politics/inves… 
1- Blavatnik donated at least $7.35M to GOP candidates dallasnews.com/opinion/commen…
2- He is a co-owner of the Russian aluminum company RUSAL with Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Vekselberg. Deripaska was in business with Manafort and Vekselberg worked with Wilbur Ross at the Bank of Cyprus.
🚨GOP Leaders Held Private Meetings With Ukrainian Politician Under Investigation for Money Laundering and Supporting Russian Separatists medium.com/@ScottMStedman…
1- In October, GOP bundler/Great America PAC board member/NYGOP Finance Co-Chair Yuri Vanetik registered as a foreign agent for Ukrainian MP Serhiy Rybalka.
2- This came one month after Rybalka came to DC and met with McCarthy, Royce, Pittenger, and Daines. Rybalka started paying Vanetik in July to organize these meetings.
Update to this story: The lawyer that owns 60% of Trump's Moscow developer represented Paul Manafort's Ukrainian business partners Dmytro Firtash and Manafort's Ukrainian boss Serhiy Lyovochkin in a $2.5 billion media deal.
1- The most watched TV channel in Ukraine is called Inter. In 2016 the ownership structure was as follows: 
2- Inter Media Group Limited in Cyprus is registered to the lawyer's address and the company's director is owned by the lawyer. i-cyprus.com/company/302210
While it remains to be seen if loan is nefarious in nature, it's worth noting that large loans are the method that Putin used to reward Marine Le Pen for her recognition of the Russian annexation of Crimea.
1- Hacked text messages were released by Anonymous International that showed continual discussion between Konstantin Rykov and Putin adviser Timur Prokopenko — the head of the Russian domestic affairs department. businessinsider.com/leaked-message…
2- The two men discussed a quid-pro-quo between Le Pen and the Kremlin. Le Pen was to recognize the Russian annexation of Crimea as legitimate in exchange for Russian money in the form of large loans.
Trump’s Moscow Developer Owned by Bank of Cyprus Lawyer With Documented Money Laundering Ties medium.com/@ScottMStedman…
1- The Chairman of the development company, IC Expert, that was set to build Trump Tower Moscow was misleading when he stated on the Letter of Intent that he owned 100% of the company. He does not. Hope you’ll read and share this thread.
2- Colinsen Trading Limited, a Cyprus based LLC that owns 60% of IC Expert is owned, through a series of shell companies called Ionics, by Christodoulos Vassiliades — a high-profile Cyprus lawyer with links to the governments of Cyprus and Russia, and to the Bank of Cyprus.
The former CEO of the developer that was set to build Trump Tower Moscow, Stalbek Mishakov, is on the board of Nornickel. In 2003, Ike Kaveladze was offered a position on the Board. In 2016, he attended the now infamous Trump Tower meeting.
1-As part of its $341m purchase of the American firm Stillwater Mining, Nornickel nominated Kaveladze to be one of its five handpicked directors on Stillwater’s new board.
2- Donald Trump himself met Ike Kaveladze at a private dinner in 2013 with the Agalarovs. Michael Cohen was also present at this Las Vegas dinner.
Exclusive: Oleg Deripaska’s Right-Hand Man was Trump Tower Moscow Developer’s Former CEO medium.com/@ScottMStedman…
1- Stalbek Mishakov, who has been at Deripaska's side since 1999, was CEO from 2012-2014 at Expert Development LLC, part of Andrey Rozov’s Expert Group of companies.
2- In 2015, IC Expert signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to build Trump Tower in Moscow City.
Lindsey Graham's 2016 campaign manager, Christian Ferry, was mentioned in the 2014 Cayman Islands court documents filed by Oleg Deripaska. Deripaska named Ferry as a key associate of Paul Manafort:
Another name you'll notice: Konstantin Kilimnik. He was the man that Manafort emailed to offer private briefings to Deripaska during the 2016 campaign: businessinsider.com/paul-manafort-…
Senator @LindseyGrahamSC has changed his tune drastically over the past few days. From being a frequent Trump critic to this:
