January 18, 2020
By Franklin Foer
For five years (click here) Chuck Goudie and the ABC7 I-Team have been investigating Ukrainian billionaire Dmitry Firtash, who says he has never been in Chicago and shouldn't be charged with crimes here.
Somewhere near the heart of the Ukraine scandal (click here) is the oligarch Dmytro Firtash. Evidence has long suggested this fact. But over the past week, in a televised interview and in documents he supplied to Congress, Rudy Giuliani’s former business partner Lev Parnas pointed his finger at the Ukrainian oligarch. According to Parnas, Giuliani’s team had a deal with Firtash. Giuliani would get the Justice Department to drop its attempt to extradite the oligarch on bribery charges. In return, according to Parnas, the oligarch promised to pass along evidence that would supposedly discredit both Joe Biden and Robert Mueller....
One of the reasons it has been difficult extracting corruption from Ukraine is because of a gangster named Semion Mogilevich. It has nothing to do with the Bidens.
Added to the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List: 2009 (click here)
The circumstances: In 2011 the FBI apprehended fugitive James “Whitey” Bulger, the alleged Boston mob leader who had been on the bureau’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List for 12 years. At the time an FBI press release touted the capture of “a man notorious in Boston and around the world for the very serious crimes he is alleged to have committed.” But as Bulger was being removed from the list, another gangster remained, a fellow whose alleged crimes made Whitey Bulger look like Ray Bolger. Meet Semion Mogilevich, an obese Ukrainian known as the “Brainy Don” who has been called “the most powerful mobster in the world.”...
January 29, 2018
By Jay McKenzie
...Because Menatep Bank (click here) was involved in a scheme by which the Russian mob’s boss of bosses, Semion Mogilevich laundered tens of billions of dollars through the Bank of New York.
According to a report from The Guardian at the time, “$500m of the assets of Menatep bank passed through Bank of New York accounts belonging to offshore companies connected to Russia’s mafia godfather, Semion Mogilevich.”...
...What’s interesting about Milner’s connection with the natural gas giant Gazprom is the company’s close associations with pro-Kremlin Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash and Semion Mogilevich. According to a Reuters investigation, Dmitry Firtash “said he had needed and received permission from a man named Semion Mogilevich to establish various businesses” in Ukraine. His primary partner in the country was Gazprom....
Germany and Russia have been at loggerheads over Gasprom for some time now. The motto between the two is, "Energy Unites People" (click here) among other ideas. The problem is that each party sees the idea of "uniting" in very different ways. DAMN NATO gets in the way of uniting Europe as a Russian territory all the time. Removing the USA from NATO was a lynchpin Putin valued.
1 December 2010
By Luke Harding
The Ambassador to Kyiv in 2010 was John F. Tefft. He went on to become a Russian Ambassador for the USA.
Moscow, November 19, 2014
It was a privilege (click here) to present my credentials today to President Putin as the new U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation....
...Gas supplies to Ukraine and EU (click here) states are linked to the Russian mafia, according to the US ambassador in Kiev.
His cable, released by WikiLeaks, followed statements by the then prime minister of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, to the BBC that she had "documented proof that some powerful criminal structures are behind the RosUkrEnergo (RUE) company".
Allegations have long swirled that the Russian crime don Semyon Mogilevich had covert interests in Swiss-registered RUE, which distributes gas from central Asia....
From "The Atlantic" article:
...When Putin ascended to power in 2000, he gained control of his country’s natural-gas business. He placed his allies at the helm of the country’s gas monopoly, Gazprom, and he has routinely wielded that company as an instrument of Russian foreign policy. In 2002, Firtash became Gazprom’s most important middleman: He was responsible for selling Russian gas to Ukraine. Thanks to an extraordinary Reuters investigation, which burrowed into Customs documents, contracts, and Cyprus bank accounts, the details of this arrangement are now well known. Gazprom sold Firtash gas at four times below the market price. When Firtash resold the gas to the Ukrainian state, he pocketed a profit of $3 billion. Even as he amassed this fortune, bankers close to Putin extended Firtash an $11 billion line of credit....
Putin wanted global dependence on Russian assets.
One of the reasons it has been difficult extracting corruption from Ukraine is because of a gangster named Semion Mogilevich. It has nothing to do with the Bidens.
Added to the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List: 2009 (click here)
January 29, 2018
By Jay McKenzie
...Because Menatep Bank (click here) was involved in a scheme by which the Russian mob’s boss of bosses, Semion Mogilevich laundered tens of billions of dollars through the Bank of New York.
According to a report from The Guardian at the time, “$500m of the assets of Menatep bank passed through Bank of New York accounts belonging to offshore companies connected to Russia’s mafia godfather, Semion Mogilevich.”...
...What’s interesting about Milner’s connection with the natural gas giant Gazprom is the company’s close associations with pro-Kremlin Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash and Semion Mogilevich. According to a Reuters investigation, Dmitry Firtash “said he had needed and received permission from a man named Semion Mogilevich to establish various businesses” in Ukraine. His primary partner in the country was Gazprom....
Germany and Russia have been at loggerheads over Gasprom for some time now. The motto between the two is, "Energy Unites People" (click here) among other ideas. The problem is that each party sees the idea of "uniting" in very different ways. DAMN NATO gets in the way of uniting Europe as a Russian territory all the time. Removing the USA from NATO was a lynchpin Putin valued.
By Luke Harding
The Ambassador to Kyiv in 2010 was John F. Tefft. He went on to become a Russian Ambassador for the USA.
Moscow, November 19, 2014
It was a privilege (click here) to present my credentials today to President Putin as the new U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation....
...Gas supplies to Ukraine and EU (click here) states are linked to the Russian mafia, according to the US ambassador in Kiev.
His cable, released by WikiLeaks, followed statements by the then prime minister of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, to the BBC that she had "documented proof that some powerful criminal structures are behind the RosUkrEnergo (RUE) company".
Allegations have long swirled that the Russian crime don Semyon Mogilevich had covert interests in Swiss-registered RUE, which distributes gas from central Asia....
From "The Atlantic" article:
...When Putin ascended to power in 2000, he gained control of his country’s natural-gas business. He placed his allies at the helm of the country’s gas monopoly, Gazprom, and he has routinely wielded that company as an instrument of Russian foreign policy. In 2002, Firtash became Gazprom’s most important middleman: He was responsible for selling Russian gas to Ukraine. Thanks to an extraordinary Reuters investigation, which burrowed into Customs documents, contracts, and Cyprus bank accounts, the details of this arrangement are now well known. Gazprom sold Firtash gas at four times below the market price. When Firtash resold the gas to the Ukrainian state, he pocketed a profit of $3 billion. Even as he amassed this fortune, bankers close to Putin extended Firtash an $11 billion line of credit....
Putin wanted global dependence on Russian assets.
