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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"Without the Russian mafia, it is fair to say, Donald Trump would not be president of the US"
How to use Trump Tower and other luxury high-rises to clean dirty money, run an international crime syndicate, and propel a failed real estate developer into the White House.
In 1984, a Russian émigré named David Bogatin went shopping for apartments in New York City. The 38-year-old had arrived in America seven years before, with just $3 in his pocket. But for a former pilot in the Soviet Armyhis specialty had been shooting down Americans over North Vietnamhe had clearly done quite well for himself. Bogatin wasnt hunting for a place in Brighton Beach, the Brooklyn enclave known as Little Odessa for its large population of immigrants from the Soviet Union. Instead, he was fixated on the glitziest apartment building on Fifth Avenue, a gaudy, 58-story edifice with gold-plated fixtures and a pink-marble atrium: Trump Tower.
A monument to celebrity and conspicuous consumption, the tower was home to the likes of Johnny Carson, Steven Spielberg, and Sophia Loren. Its brash, 38-year-old developer was something of a tabloid celebrity himself. Donald Trump was just coming into his own as a serious player in Manhattan real estate, and Trump Tower was the crown jewel of his growing empire. From the day it opened, the building was a hitall but a few dozen of its 263 units had sold in the first few months. But Bogatin wasnt deterred by the limited availability or the sky-high prices. The Russian plunked down $6 million to buy not one or two, but five luxury condos. The big check apparently caught the attention of the owner. According to Wayne Barrett, who investigated the deal for the Village Voice, Trump personally attended the closing, along with Bogatin.
If the transaction seemed suspiciousmultiple apartments for a single buyer who appeared to have no legitimate way to put his hands on that much moneythere may have been a reason. At the time, Russian mobsters were beginning to invest in high-end real estate, which offered an ideal vehicle to launder money from their criminal enterprises. During the 80s and 90s, we in the U.S. government repeatedly saw a pattern by which criminals would use condos and high-rises to launder money, says Jonathan Winer, a deputy assistant secretary of state for international law enforcement in the Clinton administration. It didnt matter that you paid too much, because the real estate values would rise, and it was a way of turning dirty money into clean money. It was done very systematically, and it explained why there are so many high-rises where the units were sold but no one is living in them. When Trump Tower was built, as David Cay Johnston reports in The Making of Donald Trump, it was only the second high-rise in New York that accepted anonymous buyers.
In 1987, just three years after he attended the closing with Trump, Bogatin pleaded guilty to taking part in a massive gasoline-bootlegging scheme with Russian mobsters. After he fled the country, the government seized his five condos at Trump Tower, saying that he had purchased them to launder money, to shelter and hide assets. A Senate investigation into organized crime later revealed that Bogatin was a leading figure in the Russian mob in New York. His family ties, in fact, led straight to the top: His brother ran a $150 million stock scam with none other than Semion Mogilevich, whom the FBI considers the boss of bosses of the Russian mafia. At the time, Mogilevichfeared even by his fellow gangsters as the most powerful mobster in the worldwas expanding his multibillion-dollar international criminal syndicate into America. . .
https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian-laundromat-trump-tower-luxury-high-rises-dirty-money-international-crime-syndicate?utm_content=buffer937c3&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
SHRED
(28,136 posts)Never forget this.
The Russians have taken over the Republican Party.
SergeStorms
(19,204 posts)the cocaine cowboys in Miami. Miami was built by the ill-gotten gains of the Colombian cocaine cartels. They had so much American currency they could never send it all back to Colombia, so they had to do something with it. The skyline of Miami took off overnight. At one time there were thirteen high-rise buildings being erected at the same time. Thirteen cranes filling the Miami sky, and all financed by the profits from cocaine.
The Colombians set the standard for how to launder money. The Russians, not being dummies, followed the Colombian blueprint and it worked marvelously for them. And the Russians didn't have the huge problem of turning American dollars into Russian currency. All they had to do was wire Russian currency to America, and let the less-than-honest financial institutions handle the conversion. All very tidy, with little or no nosing around to see where the money came from.
Gabi Hayes
(28,795 posts)Saw him on C Rose last night
Impressive interview.....went straight to google
He's in David Cay Johnston territory here
dalton99a
(81,637 posts)Mister Ed
(5,945 posts)Last edited Sat Jul 15, 2017, 04:19 PM - Edit history (1)
It's a must-read for anyone trying to sort out the confusing interrelations between Trump and the
Russian Mafia.