Preet Bharara
hmmn blog
Follow the Russian Natural Gas
If you want to understand Carter Page
Follow the Russian Natural Gas
WIB POLITICS February 14, 2018
Brian E. Frydenborg
To make sense of Carter Page — an American oil consultant and former foreign-policy adviser to Donald Trump — you have to look at his proximity to Ukraine, Russia and some seemingly bizarre natural-gas deals.
Back in the mid-2000s, future Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort set up shop in Ukraine to do some consulting work, bringing his protégé Richard “Rick” Gates to assist. Both have been hit with criminal charges by FBI special counsel Robert Mueller and his team.
On one level, the duo ran the politics for disgraced pro-Russia Ukrainian politician Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych won Ukraine’s presidency in 2010 in large part due to Manafort’s efforts and the scheme detailed below. He was driven out of power in 2014 by Ukraine’s Euromaidan revolution.
On another level, Manafort and Gates worked with Putin-linked mobsters and oligarchs in one of the most elaborate and complex money-laundering schemes in history.
This plot involved massive natural gas deals between Russia and Ukraine and their main intermediary RosUkrEnergo. Russian oil giant Gazprom generally sold gas to Ukrainian businessmanDmytro Vasylovych Firtashvia RUE at a significantly discounted price. Firtash would mark up the prices when selling the gas onward to Ukraine.
The profits — billions of dollars — were then allegedly laundered by the Russian mafia and used to bribe and control Ukrainian politicians to bend them to Putin’s will and increasingly make Ukraine’s political system subservient to Russian interests.
Ukrainian politicians who were not in Putin’s pocket resisted this arrangement, leading to a major dispute over the gas deals in January 2006. Russia ended up shutting off Ukraine’s gas in the dead of winter. A new deal even more favorable to Putin resulted — one that made RUE the exclusive, direct supplier of all Russian and Central Asian gas imports.
Along with Gazprom, RUE sold to a new joint venture between RUE and Ukraine’s Naftogaz called UkrGazEnergo, which in turn marketed oil and gas to Ukraine’s industrial customers. RUE itself sold to Naftogaz for onward sale to Ukraine’s residential and municipal customers.
This only dramatically increased the corrupt markup opportunities involving Ukraine’s gas, further cheating and angering Ukrainians.
Another part of the deal involved the major Russian state-owned power company RAO UES, which paid for and imported Ukrainian electricity to sell in Russia. Ukraine generated this power from the gas UkrGazEnergo acquired to sell within Ukraine.
Obviously, this scheme gave Firtash additional points with which he could mark up prices and generate a profit. It’s telling that gas already being transported by Russia’s Gazprom pipelines into Ukraine through RUE — itself half-owned by Gazprom — was being used to generate electricity in Russia.
This confusing arrangement makes no logistical or logical sense, as it would have been easier for Russia to just ship gas from Gazprom to RAO through Russia. But for allegedly generating illicit funds in order to dominate Ukrainian politics, it all makes perfect sense.
Enter Page.He moved to Moscow in 2004 to set up Merrill Lynch’s office there and remained until 2007. During this period — in which the complex gas deals were scouted, negotiated and put into effect — Page claims to have advised both Gazprom and RAO on major deals.
Despite his warped, very pro-Russian worldview, Page clearly possesses deep knowledge of the energy sector and regional geopolitics. The apparently informal meet-and-greet, wine-and-dine roles he often played offered him perfect opportunities to soak up gossip from drunken gas executives celebrating their blatant corruption.
Page was only too eager to trade in information. Even if he was hardly a major player, it’s hard to accept that he wasn’t aware of the Eurasian gas scheme. He advised not one but two major entities on opposite ends of the corrupt process. Thus it’s extremely likely he had some inkling of the improper nature of the RAO-Gazprom dealings and how they helped to undermine U.S. interests in the region by pushing Ukraine away from the United States.
For those arguing against Page’s importance, don’t forget that George Papadapolous also held a junior position with the Trump campaign, but still played a key role in linking the campaign to Russia and prompting the FBI’s ongoing Trump-Russia probe. Papadapolous has already pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and has become a cooperating person of interest in Mueller’s probe.
After his stint in Russia, Page in 2008 founded — along with Sergey Yatsenko, Gazprom’s ex-deputy head of finance — investment firm Global Energy Capital LLC. Yatsenko was among a number of Russians and Russian officials with whom Page met during and after the time he was attached to Trump’s campaign. By 2013, Page was calling himself “an informal advisor to the staff of the Kremlin.”
Page’s pro-Kremlin views even convinced a three-man Russian spy ring to try to recruit him in 2013. That ring that wasbusted by none other than U.S. attorney Preet Bharara, who was later fired by Trump.The one member of the ring not protected by diplomatic immunity went to prison, while the man with whom Page interacted, Victor Podobnyy, avoided prosecution thanks to his diplomatic cover.
Page was under FBI surveillance in 2014. A second round of surveillance began in October 2016. The Trump campaign hired Page in 2016. Page is mentioned in the paid opposition-research effort that culminated in the dossier compiled by ex-intelligence official Christopher Steele.
The dossier and the surveillance of Page have become the subject of blatant distortion by Trump’s allies, who accuse the FBI and Department of Justice of conspiring against the former reality T.V. star. But there’s no conspiracy. Page has ties to Russia....
wa is boring part 2:
...As if there weren’t enough bad connections to Trump Tower, Mogilevich-associated Russian mafia boss and apparent all-around celebrity Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov was overseeing an illegal high-stakes international gambling ring for wealthy clientele that in part operated out of Trump Tower in New York. Among other prolific activities, Tokhtakhounov had gained notoriety for apparently fixing 2002 Olympic ice skating matches to help get a gold medal for a fellow Russian, as well as one for a pair of French skaters in exchange for a French visa, but was soon after in Russia and safe from prosecution. The gambling ring connected to Trump Tower, run by two of his capos, Vadim Trincher and Anatoly Golubchik, was popular with Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs in both Russia and Ukraine, and besides the gambling ring, they also engaged in some $100 million in money laundering. Trincher himself in 2009 bought an apartment in Trump Tower just below an apartment owned by Trump himself, in which he nearly held a fundraiser for Newt Gingrich two years later, but had to cancel because of a mold problem and a water leak; it was from this apartment that Trincher ran a branch of said gambling ring. Another linked gambling/laundering ring was run by one of Trincher’s sons, who owned an entire floor in Trump tower, and another son of Trincher’s ran multiple illegal poker rooms throughout New York City.
An indictment naming Tokhtakhounov and his people was filed by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, mentioned earlier, and the same Preet Bharara fired controversially by Trump just last month after Trump had promised Bharara he would not fire him, and it should be noted that several of the past and ongoing cases involving Trump and/or his associates occurred in the jurisdiction of SDNY and that a number of potential future cases would also occur there if they moved forward and would have been handled by Bharara if he had not been fired. It was Bharara’s indictment that led to a 2013 raid on Vadim Trincher’s Trump Tower apartment, and arrests made there and elsewhere nabbed 29 suspects. A mere seven months after he was indicted, a nonchalant Tokhtakhounov was a red-carpet VIP guest at Trump’s 2013 Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow, a city where, to this day, he is regularly seen at trendy public places....
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http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/did-trumps-personal-lawyer-help-fire-key-us-attorney
6/17
There’s no shortage of important unanswered questions surrounding Donald Trump’s White House, but as we discussed yesterday, one of the more important lines of inquiry is why the president fired dozens of U.S. attorneys without notice or explanation.
Of particular interest are the circumstances surrounding Preet Bharara, who served as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, which made him one of the most important and highest profile federal prosecutors in the United States, tackling cases ranging from terrorism to Wall Street to government corruption. After the 2016 election, Bharara wanted to stay at his post, and both Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions made the same commitment: the New York prosecutor could stay right where he was.
In March, Trump reversed course and fired Bharara anyway, and the federal prosecutor still has no idea why. Pro Publica reports this morning on one possible explanation.
Marc Kasowitz, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer in the Russia investigation, has boasted to friends and colleagues that he played a central role in the firing of Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, according to four people familiar with the conversations.
Kasowitz told Trump, “This guy is going to get you,” according to a person familiar with Kasowitz’s account.
Kasowitz, it’s worth emphasizing, is an ally of the president who’s represented Trump in a variety of lawsuits, including the fraud allegations surrounding Trump University. He’s now responsible for overseeing the defense of the president, despite his lack of experience in cases like these, and by all appearances, he’s off to a rough start.
It’s entirely possible that Kasowitz was boasting to his friends and colleagues in a dubious way, exaggerating his influence to make his White House reach sound more impressive. That said, it’s at least plausible that Kasowitz would’ve been in a position to offer Trump occasional advice on legal matters, and he may have seen Bharara as a potential threat to his pal in the Oval Office.
Given that we have no other credible explanation for why Trump fired Bharara, it’s at least worth considering.
If, however, Kasowitz was directly involved in the firing of a federal prosecutor because he hoped to shield his client from legal trouble, it’s hard not to wonder whether Trump’s lawyer needs a lawyer.
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https://www.propublica.org/article/democratic-senators-ask-jeff-sessions-to-explain-preet-bharara-firing
Attorney General Jeff Sessions should explain whether the firing of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara had anything to do with Bharara’s reported probe into stock trades by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, three Democratic U.S. senators said Tuesday.
Price came under scrutiny during his confirmation hearings for investments he made while serving in Congress — including hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of shares in health-related companies, even as he voted on and sponsored legislation affecting the industry.
In their letter to Sessions, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley and Richard Blumenthal referred to a ProPublicastory, which cited a person familiar with the office as saying that Bharara was overseeing an investigation of Price’s actions. They asked whether Sessions, President Trump or other officials in the Justice Department or White House were aware of such a probe before they removed Bharara, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan.
Bharara was one of 46 U.S. attorneys asked to resign after Trump took office. It is not unusual for new presidents to replace federal prosecutors with their own appointees, but Bharara’s firing came as a surprise because the president had met with him at Trump Tower soon after the election. After that meeting, Bharara told reporters Trump asked if he would be prepared to remain in his post, and said that he had agreed to stay on.
After his dismissal, Bharara fanned suspicions that the move was politically motivated via his personal Twitter account....
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https://www.propublica.org/article/preet-bharara-fired-investigating-tom-price-hhs-stock-trading
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https://mediamatters.org/research/2017/03/14/fox-news-reporting-fired-us-attorney-ignores-his-investigation-fox-news/215677
In over 40 segments from March 11 through 13 that discussed President Donald Trump’s firing of Preet Bharara, who was U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Fox News failed to disclose that Bharara was investigating multiple potential crimes committed by the network, including allegedly hiding financial settlements paid to women who accused former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes of sexual harassment.
Fired US Attorney Preet Bharara Was Investigating Fox News For Potential Crimes, Including Secret Sexual Harassment Settlements
New YorkMagazine: Trump Oversaw Firing Of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, Who Was “In The Middle Of A High-Profile Federal Investigation Of Fox News.” In a March 12 article, Gabriel Sherman, who has reported extensively about Fox News and its former CEO, Roger Ailes, wrote that President Donald Trump “oversaw the firing of Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Manhattan.” Sherman noted that Bharara was investigating Fox News for “a number of potential crimes,” including looking into whether executives obtained journalists’ phone records or “committed mail and wire fraud by hiding financial settlements paid to women who accused Roger Ailes of sexual harassment.” Sherman noted that Bharara’s firing could be a “win” for Fox News executive chairman Rupert Murdoch because “the prospect of indictments” in Bharara’s investigation of Fox was “a serious problem” for the network. From the report:
[O]n Saturday Trump oversaw the firing of Preet Bharara, the U.S attorney for the Southern District of Manhattan, whose office is in the middle of a high-profile federal investigation of Fox News. The probe, according to sources, is looking at a number of potential crimes, including whether Fox News executives broke laws by allegedly obtaining journalists’ phone records or committed mail and wire fraud by hiding financial settlements paid to women who accused Roger Ailes of sexual harassment. Sources told me that prosecutors have been offering witnesses immunity to testify before a federal grand jury that’s already been impaneled.
Trump’s decision to fire Bharara ignited speculation that it was designed to blunt investigations like the Fox News probe. In November, Trump had promised Bharara he could remain in the job. But on Friday, he reversed course and requested Bharara’s resignation along with 45 other Obama-appointed U.S. attorneys. (Adding to the intrigue, Trump’s prosecutor purge came less than 24 hours after Sean Hannity said on Fox News that Trump should “purge” the Justice Department of Obama-appointed officials.)
Given that Fox News is Murdoch’s most profitable division, the prospect of indictments is a serious problem. “They’re really worried,” one source close to the network said. Another insider said that Fox News executives considered the investigation “political” because Bharara had been appointed by Barack Obama. Which is why, for Murdoch, it must be a relief that Bharara’s replacement could be an ally. According to the Times, Trump’s shortlist to replace Bharara includes Marc Mukasey — who just happens to be former Fox News chief Roger Ailes’s personal lawyer.
Considering Mukasey’s close relationship with Ailes, he would surely come under pressure to recuse himself from the Fox News probe if he was appointed by Trump to succeed Bharara. “I have no comment,” Mukasey said when I reached him Sunday evening and asked if he planned to do so, should he get the job. *New York*magazine, [3/12/17]
Fox Figures Failed To Mention That Bharara Had Been Investigating The Network
Not One Out Of 49 Fox News Segments Discussing Bharara’s Firing Included A Mention Of His Investigations Into The Network. A Media Matters analysis of mentions of Bharara on Fox News from 1:30 p.m. on March 11, when Bharara tweeted that he had been fired, to 11 p.m. on March 13 found that though the network had over 40 segments either dedicated to or including significant discussion of Bharara’s firing, not one mentioned his investigations into Fox News. Several examples follow:
Fox’s Rob Schmitt Failed To Mention Bharara’s Fox News Investigation While Reporting On His Many Successful “Corruption Cases.” While reporting on Bharara’s firing, Fox News reporter Rob Schmitt noted that Bharara had taken on a number of “corruption cases,” including a potential probe into Trump’s conflicts of interests, but did not mention his investigations into Fox News. From the March 12 edition of Fox News’ America’s News HQ:
ROB SCHMITT: The Preet Bharara saga continues today, though many would argue this is standard procedure being blown way out of proportion. Bharara, along with 45 other U.S. attorneys, lost their jobs on Friday. Normally this would be standard operating procedure, not a lot to talk about, but Bharara tweeted out that he refused to resign when asked and then had to be fired. And making the matter even more complex was a meeting that Bharara had at Trump Tower in late November after the election, when Bharara says Mr. Trump asked him to stay on under his administration. Well Bharara has been a very successful U.S. attorney for Manhattan and other parts of the southern district of New York. He has successfully taken on corruption cases against high-ranking New York politicians who some said were untouchable. Democrats are alleging there is more to this, though -- more to his removal than just standard politics. Evidently on Wednesday, three watchdog groups asked Bharara to investigate Mr. Trump regarding possible conflicts of interest between his businesses and of course his new role as president. Fox News, *America’s News HQ*, [3/12/17]
Fox’s Jeanine Pirro: Preet Bharara “Has A Big Ego,” And Is “Under The Impression That He Is Different.” In a segment on Fox News’ Fox Report, Judge Jeanine Pirro lashed out at Bharara claiming that “instead of taking what he does seriously, he’s taking himself seriously,” accusing the former-U.S. attorney of having “a big ego.” Host Julie Banderas added that Bharara “may be mulling a run for governor,” suggesting “it almost seems like it’s a political ploy.” Neither Banderas or Pirro mentioned Bharara’s investigation into Fox News.
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Bharara, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York who was fired by President Donald Trump over the weekend, was so despised by Vladimir Putin’s Russia that he was banned from entering the country in 2013.
According to *The New York Times*, Russia banned Bharara and 17 other Americans in retaliation for U.S. sanctions over human rights violations.
The Russian government reportedly targeted Bharara because of his prosecution of Viktor Bout, a convicted arms dealer.
Bharara, who is known for investigating officials regardless of political party, also prosecuted three Russian nationals for acting as spies in 2015.
“The arrest of Evgeny Buryakov and the charges against him and his co-defendants make clear that – more than two decades after the presumptive end of the Cold War – Russian spies continue to seek to operate in our midst under cover of secrecy,” Bharara said at the time.
Bharara was fired by the Trump administration on Saturday after he refused to comply with a request to resign. It was not immediately clear if Bharara was involved in any current investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.