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pnwmom

(108,925 posts)
Wed Nov 14, 2018, 06:47 PM Nov 2018

Could Ivanka and her defunct jewelry co be linked to the arrest of members of the Lev Leviev family?

Lev Leviev is a billionaire diamond dealer with connections to the Trump family who is currently hiding out in Russia. Israeli police have arrested Leviev's son and brother on charges of diamond smuggling, and they want Leviev, too. More about that here:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211428739


According to the following article in Haartz, people in the industry are mystified as to why the Levievs were caught up in a diamond smuggling operation, since it is so easy to save money on taxes simply by getting false invoices and inflating the costs.

Interestingly, about a year ago US court filings said Ivanka's jewelry co had been involved in a different money laundering and fraud scheme. And Kushner and Ivanka have their own ties to Leviev, through a NYC real estate transaction. Could Ivanka have also had connections to Leviev through her diamond selling company?

https://www.haaretz.com/israeli-diamond-industry-at-a-loss-to-explain-leviev-smuggling-allegations-1.6627255

Lev Leviev, the Israeli tycoon the police are linking to diamond-smuggling allegations that led to six arrests Monday, is probably the best-known figure in Israel’s diamond industry.

But as news of the arrests and investigation surfaced, people in the industry said they were mystified as to what could be behind the alleged smuggling. “It can’t be that the affair is simply about tax evasion – it has to be something far more sophisticated,” one source, who like everyone else requested anonymity, told TheMarker.

SNIP

Today, even with the new tax regime in place, industry sources said that most but not all diamond transactions were subject to disclosure. Diamond dealers can easily reduce their tax liability by inflating their costs, so why risk evading taxes altogether?

“Someone who buys diamonds, let’s say in Africa, can ask that it be invoiced at whatever amount he wants, even double what he paid for it,” one source said. Thus many in the industry say the arrests Monday involve something deeper – though they declined to speculate what.




https://www.newsweek.com/ivanka-trump-diamonds-caught-alleged-money-laundering-scheme-757168

12/22/17

Diamonds from first daughter Ivanka Trump’s now-defunct fine jewelry line were allegedly used in a massive money-laundering and fraud scheme, according to a federal court filing, GQ reported.

The Commercial Bank of Dubai in late June sought and later got permission to subpoena Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry, claiming its diamonds were vehicles in a scheme to hide about $100 million owed to the financial institution,
GQ reported on Friday based on filings at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York made over the summer.

In its case, the bank alleges a plot engineered by the Al-Saris family, who controlled a multibillion-dollar Emirati oil-trading empire before running into legal trouble due to unpaid bills. The Al-Saris apparently borrowed more than $100 million from the bank, defaulted on the debt, and hid their assets in shell companies they used to buy diamonds, including some from Trump’s jewelry line, according to court documents, GQ reported.

The bank has not accused Trump’s business of wrongdoing, but the timeline of the case suggests that any alleged transactions would have occurred when Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry was licensed under the corporate entity “Madison Avenue Diamonds,” which is named in the documents. Trump has cut her connections with Madison Avenue Diamonds.

https://www.gq.com/story/ivanka-trump-jewelry-business?mbid=social_twitter
Dec. 22, 2017
Why do people looking to launder money seem to find Trump family businesses so appealing? Ben Schreckinger reports.

Thanks to an overlooked filing made in federal court this past summer, we can now add a jewelry business to the list of Trump family enterprises that allegedly served as vehicles to fraudulently hide the assets of ultra-rich foreigners with checkered backgrounds. In late June, the Commercial Bank of Dubai sought—and later received—permission to subpoena Ivanka Trump’s now-defunct fine jewelry line, claiming its diamonds were used in a massive scheme to hide roughly $100 million that was owed to the bank, according to filings at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

High-end real estate is a common vehicle for money laundering, in part because, until recently, the industry was effectively exempt from many of the laws that prevent laundering through other types of assets, such as the “Know Your Customer” laws that apply to banking. But diamonds, too, hold an important place in the money launderer’s toolkit. Mountains of dirty money can be converted into tiny diamonds, which are easy to store or smuggle across national boundaries, and convert back into cash when the opportunity arises.

The Trumps are not the only Western business owners whose ventures have been tied to alleged money laundering and fraud schemes, but they are the only ones who are also in charge of American foreign policy, making the entanglements—and possible points of leverage—that arise from such ventures matters of national security.

SNIP

The attempt to subpoena the jewelry business has so far escaped public notice, likely in part because court documents name only “Madison Avenue Diamonds”—the corporate entity that was registered to do business as “Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry”—and do not mention the Trump name. Though Trump has since cut all ties to Madison Avenue Diamonds, the timeline of the underlying case suggests any alleged transactions would have taken place when the company was still doing business as Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry.

As a practical matter, such a subpoena request—from the Commercial Bank of Dubai—now potentially injects the business dealings of the first family into a vicious legal fight between Arab world power players at a time when the Trumps are also using the power of the presidency to influence the region.

In recent months, Trump’s father, President Donald Trump, and her husband, fellow White House adviser Kushner, have waded aggressively into a civil war within the Arab world. In June, shortly after a trip to Saudi Arabia, Trump endorsed a move by the Saudis, the Emiratis, and others to blockade Qatar even as his own State and Defense departments struck a more conciliatory tone. As it so happens, the Commercial Bank of Dubai—which was created by royal decree and remains partly owned by the Emirati government—made its subpoena request around the same time.






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Could Ivanka and her defunct jewelry co be linked to the arrest of members of the Lev Leviev family? (Original Post) pnwmom Nov 2018 OP
RICO anyone. Wellstone ruled Nov 2018 #1
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