Introduction
Supplement 5 will dig further into Trump and information possibly relevant to determining the extent to which he or his campaign has any Russian ties.
More specifically, Supplement 5 will present data about Dmitry Rybolovlev (“DR”), his agents, and comrades.
This post is long and will cover a lot of background for context. Frankly, it’s gonna be weird.
Background Info
DR is an interesting guy. He is a cardiologist by trade, but he was inspired early in his life by Theodore Dreiser’s The Financier. Interesting plot, by the way:
DR made his fortune as the owner Uralkali, a Russian potash fertilizer company. Potash is widely used in large-scale food production and it is also used to make drilling fluids.
DR spent about a year in jail in the 1990s after being convicted of contracting the murder of an chemical company executive (he owned a minority share of said company). Ultimately, he was released after a witness changed their story.
By 1995, DR was already gaining control of Ukralkali. Ukralkali encountered problems in 2006 when a mine collapsed. In 2010, DR sold his interest in Ukralkali, fled the country (Russia), and began trying to diversify his wealth. He bought real estate, a sports team, and art.
DR’s art investing is especially notable. First, he’s in rare company — he owns Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World), a Leonardo Da Vinci painting. When I say “rare,” I mean really rare (we’re not talking about Rare Pepe’s or shoebox money either). There are only 15 Leonardo paintings, the last of which was discovered over 100 years ago, and DR paid $75 million for the Salvator Mundi.
Additionally, DR may have been scammed in epic fashion. The New Yorker wrote an article about DR’s dealings with a certain art shipper called “THE BOUVIER AFFAIR”.
- Note 1 — High-end Art Storage is a thing
- Note 2 — On “Freeports.”
- Note 3a— Art, except for maybe Pepes, lacks a blockchain and can be easily laundered unlike other assets. A 2013 Economist article notes:
Tax-evaders are one thing, drug traffickers and kleptocrats another. In many ways the art market is custom-made for money laundering: it is unregulated, opaque (buyers and sellers are often listed as “private collection”) and many transactions are settled in cash or in kind. Investigators say it has become more widely used as a vehicle for ill-gotten gains since the 1980s, when it proved a hit with Latin American drug cartels. It is “one of the last wild-West businesses”, sighs an insurer.
- Note 3b — See also this Vice article on meme culture and politics (Nice doge…)
I ran across a website in my sleuthing all about kompromat that may exist on various Russian parties. There is a whole section on DR. Enjoy.
DR’s connection to Trump — Initial Considerations
Many folks have suspected a relationship between DR and Trump. However, Trump has denied such suspicions time and again.
Let’s test the strength of Trump’s denial. Here’s what is known:
The Real Estate Transaction
DR bought a Palm Beach ocean-front mansion from Trump in 2008 for $95M:
- Note 4 — Trump paid $41M for the property in 2004.
- Note 5 — McClatchy had a nice write-up on the transaction in Feb. 2017.
Common Travels
DR and Trump’s planes have been reported as being in the same location on more than one occasion.
Meh
Admittedly, the common flight patterns and real estate transactions do not amount to a relationship between DR and Trump or DR and Russia. Additionally, DR and Trump both have said they have never even met.
The next few sections will present additional material that may provide additional insight into any such relationships.
Strategic Real Estate
Lets set aside the fact that DR paid — possibly — too much for the property in 2008 given the housing crisis. Instead, lets just look at the property.
Location
The first thing to know is about is the difference between West Palm Beach and Palm Beach.
Palm Beach is a barrier island that has the Atlantic Ocean to its east and a lagoon or lake to the west. Lake Worth Lagoon sits between West Palm Beach and Palm Beach. West Palm Beach is not an island, it is mainland Florida.
The Port of Palm Beach is busy. If you want to make into the Lake Worth Lagoon or West Palm Beach (mainland Florida) by boat, you probably need to go through the busy and policed inlet. That said, if a person had ocean front property on Palm Beach (the barrier island east of the Lagoon), they might be able to provide alternate transport opportunities to West Palm Beach for…friends, family, people, and things. Interesting…
- Note 6 — Owning ocean frontage would only get you so far if you were hoping to clandestinely cross Palm Beach. You would really want . . . Mar a Lago. As its name suggests, it extends all the way across Palm Beach — touching both ocean and lake.
- Note 7 — Besides avoiding Port’s watchful gaze, to make mainland Florida discretely one would need to avoid the United States Coast Guard. How can one do that?
Conveyance & Encumbrance History for 515 N. County Road
There are 20 entries in the Palm Beach County records related to County Road Property, LLC:
Some reports suggest DR sold 1/3rd of the property in 2016. More specifically, it is reported DR has subdivided the property into three parcels. It is also reported that part of the property has been demolished to accommodate the new subdivision.
- Note 8 — There is a deed showing a conveyance from County Road Property, LLC to Maura Ziska, as Trustee of The 515 North County Road Trust Dated 11/10/16. The transaction was for $34.34M.
- Note 9 — Maura Ziska, the buyer (in her capacity as a Trustee), may have had a conflict of interest in the transaction since it is reported she represented Country Road/DR in the subdividing process just a couple of months prior to the November sale (See also here). The beneficiaries and grantors behind the trust are unknown. Given the timing of the subdividing process and the subsequent sale, along with Ziska possible conflict of interest, it is probably not wrong to question whether DR actually sold the property to a disinterested third-party for fair market value.
- Note 10 — Like with DR’s purchase of the property from Trump, this one did not involve financing (at least not using the 515 N. County Rd. property as collateral as is most common).
- Note 11 — LOL, amateurs. The notary acknowledges that the deed was signed in her (the Notary’s) presence on November 16, 2016, but the first sentence of the first page of the deed says that the instrument was made on November 17, 2017 (along with preamble to the signatures on the second page):
Some other interesting details from the real estate records include parties related to DR, in particular, trusts. For example, check out this lis pendens recorded in the records by his ex-wife in 2015:
The picture shows several entities with possible interests in the property:
- Note 12— Parties include: J TIMOTHY GARLAND (Trustee of the Palm Beach County Road Trust (PBCRT)); DR (Individually and as a grantor and beneficiary of PBCRT and The Dmitry Rybolovleva Family Trust (DRFT)); ANNA RYBOLOVLEVA (as beneficiary of PBCRT and DRFT); EKATERINA RYBOLOVLEVA (as beneficiary of PBCRT and DRFT); and FIFTEEN PROTECTOR INC.
Finally, this real property records sweep wouldn’t be fun without leading to a little weirdness. The most recent entry (March 23, 2017) associated with County Road Property, LLC is a Notice of Commencement — a record that certain improvements are about to begin at the property.
Just for kicks I decided to check out Tower Electric of Palm Beach. A permit record for Tower Electric HERE — it also contains the owner names. A Google search of each of the two owners’ names (copy and paste each into Google Search — with lastname first) turned up the following as first results for each query:
- Note 13 — The most recent FB post was back on Sept 22, 2016 — before the election. The substance of said post is eerily similar to material at Note 3 of Supp.4.
- Note 14 — Husband also has an axe to grind.
- Note 15a — Don’t forget this LEO — Savior of the World:
- Note 15b — or this LEO:
I told you this was going to be weird.
Connections to Trump Campaign?
Cattell
Brian Cattell is reported to be DR’s spokesperson. Reports claim Cattell is a former writer for Brietbart. Lets see what else we can dig up.
He works at CLP Strategies per his Twitter account. CLP has unique experience and expertise:
- Note 16 — Cattell’s CLP biography.
Cattell is the Former Chair of The Bow Group.
The Bow Group
- Note 17 — People, past and present HERE.
- Note 18 — Bow may engage in a lil Islamaphobia.
- Note 19 (a)— Bow is trying to evangelize conservatism to younger generations. See HERE. See also HERE for an interesting article from Rolling Stone a few years back on the rise of Hipster-Nazism.
- Note 19(b) — In the following video, The Bow Group takes credit for instigating the “Rebellion” that resulted in BREXIT:
Did you catch that reference to the “Rebellion?” Trump used the same word to describe his supporters. For example, in Trump’s February 28, 2017 Joint Address to congress, Trump said:
Then, in 2016, the earth shifted beneath our feet. The rebellion started as a quiet protest, spoken by families of all colors and creeds -– families who just wanted a fair shot for their children, and a fair hearing for their concerns.
But then the quiet voices became a loud chorus — as thousands of citizens now spoke out together, from cities small and large, all across our country.
Finally, the chorus became an earthquake — and the people turned out by the tens of millions, and they were all united by one very simple, but crucial demand, that America must put its own citizens first … because only then, can we truly MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.
- Note 19(c) — UPDATE: A recent Financial Times article suggests that the rebellion symbolism rose again, this time in France’s presidential election (i.e., #MacronLeaks):
Various media reported that the #MacronLeaks was first spread by Jack Posobiec, a pro-Trump activist whose Twitter profile identifies him as Washington DC bureau chief of the far-right activist site Rebel TV.
Ben Harris-Quinney, Raheem Kassam, Breitbart-London
The current chair of the Bow Group is Ben Harris-Quinney.
Ben claims to be a co-founder of Breitbart-London:
- Note 20 — Breitbart-London was created in 2014 concurrently with Breitbart-Texas. Ben is indeed a founding member.
Ben gained experience at Breitbart in
- the art of agitating people by stoking fear of pedophilia.
- advocating for removal of sanctions against Russia.
Ben was invited to Moscow in the recent past — purportedly at the behest of a U.S. based religious organization (World Congress of Families) to discuss his brand of Christianity. Yikes. It is interesting the conference was at Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow. Don’t forget …
- Note 21 — The Southern Poverty Law Center considers WCF a hate group.
- Note 22 — WCF has their big annual conference coming up in May 2017 in Budapest, Hungary. The theme seems familiar . . .
How about some pictures:
Remember that Gatsby symbolism? This is a curious album:
This article HERE from The Mirror contains a video of Ben’s Moscow speech in 2014 where he had some controversial things to say about homosexuals.
Raheem Kassam is also a co-founder of Breitbart-London, for which he is the Editor-in-Chief, and a member of the Bow Group. Lets see what he’s been up to:
Bolshoi?
Nice reporting
- Note 22 — Remember this HERE.
- Note 23 — See also this recent article on false flags by the alt-right.
- Note 24 — Right-Wing populism. Shocker.
See also this April 27, 2017 article from Salon: “Trolling for a race war: Neo-Nazis are trying to bait leftist “antifa” activists into violence — and radicalize white people.”
Strange CAT (Common Address Train)
This last section shall present data that might be used to suggest a connection between DR and Trump and others.
Remember how DR and Trump’s planes were both in Concord, NC at the same time during the campaign? Why would DR be in NC? What else is there to know about DR?
For starters, DR can be found in the Panama Papers database.
- Note 25 — DR denies that the records are evidence of any wrong doing. Fair enough.
You might recall from Supp.4 the common the address and phone number between HostKey (Ocean Way Capital Corp.) and Alfa Telecom Turkey LTD.
- Note 26 — The address is POB 3469, Geneva Place, Waterfront Drive, Road Town, Tortola, VG1110, Virgin Islands
Another company that uses the same PO Box is December BVH 2016 Limited. There are two main Directors behind said company, and they are associated with just a few other companies. One such company is Neil Young Associates.
Neil Young, huh? Neil Young, the Canadian-born libertarian rock legend, has an interesting connection to Concord, NC. More specifically, he is affiliated with Lionel, LLC — they make model trains and sponsor NASCAR stuff.
- Note 27 — See Supp.1, Note 15 (all the links)
To be sure, Neil Young Associates is not Neil Young the rocker.
- Note 28 — Neil Young Associates is a crisis firm that negotiates multi-billion dollar ransoms. See also HERE and HERE.
However, the name commonality gave me reason to think more about Concord, NC . . . and trains of course.
Fun Fact — From 1959 to 1963, Roy Cohn was the President of Lionel Corporation, the predecessor to Lionel LLC. Roy is an interesting fellow.
First, Roy was an attorney and acted as counsel to Joseph McCarthy.
- Note 29 — On the Lavendar Scare.
Second, Roy represented Donald Trump when Trump was being pursued by the DOJ for Fair Housing Act violations early in his business career.
- Note 30 *— From a June 20, 2016 NYT article “What Donald Trump Learned From Joseph McCarthy’s Right-Hand Man”:
Then New York’s most feared lawyer, Mr. Cohn had a client list that ran the gamut from the disreputable to the quasi-reputable: Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno, Claus von Bulow, George Steinbrenner.
But there was one client who occupied a special place in Roy Cohn’s famously cold heart: Donald J. Trump.
For Mr. Cohn, who died of AIDS in 1986, weeks after being disbarred for flagrant ethical violations, Mr. Trump was something of a final project. If Fred Trump got his son’s career started, bringing him into the family business of middle-class rentals in Brooklyn and Queens, Mr. Cohn ushered him across the river and into Manhattan, introducing him to the social and political elite while ferociously defending him against a growing list of enemies.
Decades later, Mr. Cohn’s influence on Mr. Trump is unmistakable. Mr. Trump’s wrecking ball of a presidential bid — the gleeful smearing of his opponents, the embracing of bluster as brand — has been a Roy Cohn number on a grand scale. Mr. Trump’s response to the Orlando massacre, with his ominous warnings of a terrorist attack that could wipe out the country and his conspiratorial suggestions of a Muslim fifth column in the United States, seemed to have been ripped straight out of the Cohn playbook.
“I hear Roy in the things he says quite clearly,” said Peter Fraser, who as Mr. Cohn’s lover for the last two years of his life spent a great deal of time with Mr. Trump. “That bravado, and if you say it aggressively and loudly enough, it’s the truth — that’s the way Roy used to operate to a degree, and Donald was certainly his apprentice.”
- Note 31* — Cohn was a powerful resource for Roger Stone during Reagan’s presidential campaign. In fact, Cohn is how Roger met Donald. From a May 2016 issue of The New Yorker:
Roger Stone, the political provocateur, visited the bar at the Four Seasons Hotel on primary day last week to reminisce about his long friendship with Donald Trump. It started in 1979, when Stone was a twenty-six-year-old aide in Ronald Reagan’s Presidential campaign. Michael Deaver, a more senior campaign official, instructed Stone to start fund-raising in New York. “Mike gave me a recipe box full of index cards, supposedly Reagan’s contacts in New York,” Stone said. “Half the people on the cards were dead. A lot of the others were show-business people, but there was one name I recognized — Roy Cohn.” So Stone presented himself at the brownstone office of Cohn, the notorious lawyer and fixer.
“I go into Roy’s office,” Stone continued, “and he’s sitting there in his silk bathrobe, and he’s finishing up a meeting with Fat Tony Salerno,” the boss of the Genovese crime family. Stone went on, “So Tony says, ‘Roy here says we’re going with Ree-gun this time.’ That’s how he said it — ‘Ree-gun.’ Roy told him yes, we’re with Reagan. Then I said to Roy that we needed to put together a finance committee, and Roy said, ‘You need Donald and Fred Trump.’ He said Fred, Donald’s father, had been big for Goldwater in ’64. I went to see Donald, and he helped to get us office space for the Reagan campaign, and that’s when we became friends.”
Weird.
H/T — @bbu for the info on Stone and inspiring Notes 30 and 31.
