Donald Trump’s Business Ties Include Russian Mobsters: Report
A new report found that Donald Trump’s business ties include Russian mobsters.
USA Today reported on Tuesday that over the years “Donald Trump, his company and partners repeatedly turned to wealthy Russians and oligarchs from former Soviet republics — several allegedly connected to organized crime, according to a USA TODAY review of court cases, government and legal documents and an interview with a former federal prosecutor.”
The report found that “The president and his companies have been linked to at least 10 wealthy former Soviet businessmen with alleged ties to criminal organizations or money laundering.”
The USA Today report detailed the following Trump connections to nefarious characters:
• A partner in the firm that developed the Trump SoHo Hotel in New York is a twice-convicted felon who spent a year in prison for stabbing a man and later scouted for Trump investments in Russia.
• An investor in the SoHo project was accused by Belgian authorities in 2011 in a $55 million money-laundering scheme.
• Three owners of Trump condos in Florida and Manhattan were accused in federal indictments of belonging to a Russian-American organized crime group and working for a major international crime boss based in Russia.
• A former mayor from Kazakhstan was accused in a federal lawsuit filed in Los Angeles in 2014 of hiding millions of dollars looted from his city, some of which was spent on three Trump SoHo units.
• A Ukrainian owner of two Trump condos in Florida was indicted in a money-laundering scheme involving a former prime minister of Ukraine.
Donald Trump has repeatedly said that he has no connections to Russia however as the USA Today pointed out, “in 2013 after Trump addressed potential investors in Moscow, he bragged to Real Estate Weekly about his access to Russia’s rich and powerful. ‘I have a great relationship with many Russians, and almost all of the oligarchs were in the room,’ Trump said, referring to Russians who made fortunes when former Soviet state enterprises were sold to private investors.”
According to a New York City real estate broker Dolly Lenz who spoke with USA Today, “I had contacts in Moscow looking to invest in the United States,” Lenz said. “They all wanted to meet Donald. They became very friendly.” Many of those meetings happened in Trump’s office at Trump Tower or at sales events, Lenz said. Lenz sold about 65 condos in one of Trump’s buildings to Russian investors who often sought meetings with Donald Trump.
