Tag: Money Laundering

Natalia Veselnitskaya Strikes Again

Does that name sound familiar?

It should…she is the Russian lawyer at the center of the Don, Jr. email mash up…..but that is not the only place she has been busy….

Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday asking why the Department of Justice settled a major money-laundering case involving a real-estate company owned by the son of a powerful Russian government official whose lawyer met with Donald Trump Jr. last year.

That attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, represents the family of Pyotr Katsyv, the former vice governor of the Moscow region, whose son, Denis, owns the real-estate company Prevezon. The DOJ had been investigating whether Prevezon laundered millions of dollars through New York City real estate when the case was unexpectedly settled two days before going to trial in May.

Source: Why was Russian money-laundering case settled? House Dems want answers – Business Insider

Wait!  Who leads the DoJ?

That would be Jeff Sessions.

Is he part of this whole Russian thingy going on in DC right now?

Yes, he is.

And now a Russian gets off from a money laundering charge by the DoJ?

Yes he does.

Really?

Go figure.

I guess there really is nothing going on with the Russian influence thing after all….(that is sarcasm in case you missed it)…….but if you listen close enough you will be able to hear the eye rolls from those dim lights on the Right.

Their defense is natural….for they know that if the shoe were on the other foot they would be ass deep in all this legal crap….but of course they will never admit it for they cannot see past their nose hairs.

This is all too much fun to pass up.

A Military Laundry

A federal jury in Trenton, N.J., today convicted U.S. Army Col. Curtis G. Whiteford and U.S. Army Lt. Col. Michael B. Wheeler of conspiracy to commit bribery and interstate transportation of stolen property, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division announced. The convictions stemmed from Whiteford and Wheeler’s roles in a scheme involving the theft of millions of dollars from the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq.
According to testimony at trial before U.S. District Court Judge Mary L. Cooper, Whiteford and Wheeler conspired from December 2003 to December 2005 with at least three others — Robert Stein, at the time the comptroller and funding officer for the CPA-SC; Philip H. Bloom, a U.S. citizen who owned and operated several companies in Iraq and Romania; and U.S. Army Lt. Col. Bruce D. Hopfengardner — to rig the bids on contracts being awarded by the CPA-SC so that more than 20 contracts were awarded to Bloom. In total, Bloom received more than $8.6 million in rigged contracts. Testimony revealed that Bloom, in return, provided Whiteford, Harrison, Wheeler, Stein, Hopfengardner and others with more than $1 million in cash, SUVs, sports cars, a motorcycle, jewelry, computers, business class airline tickets, liquor, promise of future employment with Bloom and other items of value.

Bloom admitted he laundered more than $2 million in currency that Whiteford, Harrison, Wheeler, Hopfengardner, Stein and others stole from the CPA-SC that had been designated for the reconstruction of Iraq. Bloom then used his foreign bank accounts in Iraq, Romania and Switzerland to send some of the stolen money to Harrison, Stein, Hopfengardner and other Army officials in return for them awarding contracts to Bloom and his companies. Some of the stolen money was used to purchase things of value, such as weapons including a machine gun that was seized from Wheeler’s home.
The Department announced the creation of the National Procurement Fraud Initiative in October 2006, to promote the early detection, identification, prevention and prosecution of procurement fraud associated with the increase in contracting activity for national security and other government programs. As part of this initiative, the Deputy Attorney General created the National Procurement Fraud Task Force, which includes federal prosecutors, the FBI, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), and the Offices of Inspectors General for key federal agencies, and is chaired by Acting Assistant Attorney General Friedrich.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice