All signs point toward Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s real target of investigation: the Trump family’s gold plated Russian and Chinese laundromat aka The Trump Organization.
Dirty money is washing through high end real estate across the globe and Trump is one of the world’s high profile players. It’s been reported that the Donald’s tax returns contain more than 500 interlocking "shell” companies that may have been used to move dirty money into and out of his properties. Hence, the freakout this week when Trump learned that the office of the Special Counsel for the DOJ already has access to those tax returns.
Meuller’s brief is to investigate "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation" (emphasis mine). All evidence points toward money laundering being the bomb the explodes the Trump WH.
Yesterday I came across an important report (pdf) via Josh Marshall’s TPM. The Kleptocracy Curse: Rethinking Containment describes how big money is being stolen and laundered by oligarchs aligned with authoritarian governments around the world.
Written by Ben Judah at the Hudson Institute’s Kleptocracy Institute and published before the election in October 2016, the report is a deep dive into the ways that the global kleptocracy (rule by thieves) has distorted governments, institutions and markets all over the world while laundering dirty money via luxury real estate in Manhattan, London, Hong Kong and other high end markets.
While not specifically directed at the Trump Organization, the report highlights the danger that kleptocrats pose to America. From the preface:
Across the world, money laundering on an epidemic scale is undermining American foreign policy: crippling development, threatening democracy, damaging Western soft power and fueling state collapse.
Across the West, this staggering flow of illicit funds has turned authoritarian kleptocrats into powerful players increasingly able to wield power inside Western institutions and game them to their own ends.
There is only one way to block the illicit flows that empower kleptocrats and undermine democracy: Ending anonymous shell companies must become a national security priority for the U.S.
The kleptocracy identified in this report is a global phenomena that transcends the particulars of our American system of government. The crises within the Trump Administration are symptoms of a much larger danger.
The United States needs to start paying attention to what has happened to the world economy. Gigantic sums of money are now traveling the world incognito. This has turned globalization into the golden age of money laundering.
Nestling in Western economies are offshore financial structures (and their professional enablers) which allow funds to instantaneously and anonymously jump between countries, empowering authoritarians and corrupting Western institutions. This now presents a growing national security threat.
The Hudson Institute has an interesting history. It speaks with a conservative voice, but it's an old school, principled conservatism that once believed in good government. Those who still believe in good government — whether liberal or conservative — can find common ground here.
On the one hand this is a terrifying read. On the other, this report inspires hope that the good guys (including Mueller, Schneiderman, Bharara) are on it and have been for some time.
I encourage you to read the full 30 page report. It’s well written and deeply sourced.
It will make your hair stand on end.
Update: The Guardian has a new article up today: Jared Kushner sealed real estate deal with oligarch's firm cited in money-laundering case
A Guardian investigation has established a series of overlapping ties and relationships involving alleged Russian money laundering, New York real estate deals and members of Trump’s inner circle. They include a 2015 sale of part of the old New York Times building in Manhattan involving Kushner and a billionaire real estate tycoon and diamond mogul, Lev Leviev. The ties between Trump family real estate deals and Russian money interests are attracting growing interest from the justice department’s special counsel, Robert Mueller, as he seeks to determine whether the Trump campaign collaborated with Russia to distort the outcome of the 2016 race. Mueller has reportedly expanded his inquiry to look at real estate deals involving the Trump Organization, as well as Kushner’s financing.The worm turns ...
