Manafort Business Partner Identified As Top Tier Member Of Russian Mafia
Another major Russia money connection for Donald Trump’s former campaign manager.
A key business associate of Paul Manafort has been identified by US authorities as a high-level player in the Russian mafia.
A Justice Department document called Dmytro Firtash an “upper-echelon [associate] of Russian organized crime.”
Firtash is a Ukrainian oligarch who has deep ties to Russia and has done business with Paul Manafort.
NBC News, which was first to report the story, notes that Firtash was “an important player” in the now defunct Ukrainian political party, the Party of Regions.
And, yes that is the same Ukrainian political party that Paul Manafort spent years working for and collecting millions of dollars from.
“Another leaked cable said that Manafort’s job in 2006 was to give the Party of Regions an ‘extreme makeover’ and ‘change its image from … a haven for mobsters into that of a legitimate political party,'” NBC reported.
Firtash and Manafort were once involved in a failed business deal to buy New York’s Drake Hotel. According to NBC News, “In 2008, according to court records, Manafort’s firm was involved with Firtash in a plan to redevelop the Drake Hotel for $850 million. Firtash’s company planned to invest over $100 million, the records say.”
Interestingly, the deal also included a man named Brad Zackson who was the exclusive broker for Donald Trump’s father Fred Trump’s properties.
[image via Twitter]
