“BUT [whatabout] HER URANIUM”
Uranium, nukes, bribery, FCPA, stock fraud, and the Russian mob.
[edit: added 11/14/17: On 11/13/2017, the Department of Justice announced Boris Rubizhevsky was senteced to 12 months and 1 day in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release for his role in the kickback scam. He was also ordereed to forfeit $26,500. Second edit: added 1/13/2018: On 1/12/2018, the DoJ announced the unsealing of an indictment of Mark Lambert, former co-president of TLI, for FCPA violations, wire fraud, and international money laundering. Third edit: On 9/7/18, the DoJ announced Boris Rubizhevsky was sentenced to 3 years in prison for his role in the BioCube stock fraud.]
We know that in several instances, the Trump campaign’s accusations vs Hillary Clinton were projections and/or whataboutisms (see Pizzagate [to obscure Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and accusations by women that Trump raped them when they were under 18], Clinton Foundation corruption accusations [to obscure Donald Trump and Eric Trump’s charitable foundations’ less-than-charitable activities]; “You’re the puppet” [to obscure all Trump-Russia connections]; etc). So what was the “HILLARY SOLD URANIUM TO THE RUSSIANS” storyline meant to obscure? I think it was this:
On December 17, 2015, Vadim Mikerin, a Russian nuclear official, was sentenced to 4 years in prison in the US. He had pled guilty to sending over $2M in bribes to bank accounts of shell companies in Cyprus, Latvia, and Switzerland, in order to influence business decisions. Mikerin was the ex-president of TENAM which is a US-based subsidiary of ROSATOM. ROSATOM is Russia’s state owned nuclear energy corporation. Per OCCRP,
“TENAM, Rosatom’s representative company in the US, was the sole supplier of Russian uranium to the US. Mikerin oversaw all uranium shipments to US power plants.
The uranium was supplied as part of the “Megatons to Megawatts” program, an agreement between Washington and Moscow in which uranium was converted from thousands of decommissioned Russian nuclear warheads to fuel for US power plants.”
The arrest was the result of a seven year long investigation into Russian nuclear oficials by the US. The US attempted to turn Mikerin, to get him to work undercover in the investigation. Mikerin refused to go undercover, and was arrested.
Charged alongside Mikeren were Boris Rubizhevsky and Daren Condrey. Both Rubhizhevsky and Condrey pled guilty in 2015, but no announcement of their sentencing had been made public as of September 18, 2017. I am not a lawyer but the delay in sentencing makes me think Rubizhevsky and Condrey might be cooperating with the Feds.
The prosecuting attorneys at the date of their arrest were Rod Rosenstein and Andrew Weissmann. Rosenstein is Acting Attorney General with regards to the Trump-Russia investigation, since AG Jeff Sessions has recused himself. Weissmann joined Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team in May.
This case matters because ROSATOM connects to many stars in the Trump-Russia constellation. Mike Flynn failed to disclose a 2015 trip to Saudi Arabia, where he was trying to broker an energy deal between ROSATOM and Saudi Arabia. This was despite the fact that “ it was U.S. policy in 2015 to discourage developing nations from dealing with Rosatom after the Russian takeover of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.”
Daniel Och, who is an investor in Jared Kushner’s Cadre, has done deals with Jean-Yves Ollivier, who has been an advisor to ROSATOM. ROSATOM is doing business in Kazakhstan, which is ruled by Nursultan Nazarbayev, a friend of the Trump family. ROSATOM is planning a deal with Hungary. GOP political strategist Arthur Finkelstein, who many think worked for Trump out of Hungary, worked for Hungary’s leader, Putin-idolizer Viktor Orban.
ROSATOM is also planning to build a new nuclear plant in Turkey. Turkey has its own star turn in the Trump Russia scandal, with Mike Flynn on the payroll, and a planned kidnapping of Fetullah Gulen from Pennsylvania.
Daren Condrey, who was charged alongside Mikerin, was Co-President and Managing Director of Transport Logistics International, which is based in Maryland. They specialize in transporting nuclear materials.
Russia is effectively a mafia state, and the head of Russian organized crime is Semion Mogilevich. Mogilevich has trafficked in black market nuclear materials. Transportation and logistics are extremely important for all of Mogilevich’s black market cargo, and nuclear materials require special handling.
This is speculation: I am curious to know if Transport Logistics International, or its Russian subsidiary TLI Russia, have been used by Mogilevich to transport nuclear materials.
Mogilevich’s involvement in the nuclear case is plausible to me because Rubizhevsky, who was charged alongside Mekerin and Condrey in 2015, was charged in April 2017 with involvement in a money laundering and pump and dump stock scam. The scammers were planning to use offshore accounts in Cyprus and the Bahamas to launder money. Pump and dumps are a signature scam of Mogilevich’s organization, as they are an easy way to launder money while also stealing more from duped investors. Trump associate and FBI informant Felix Sater, whose father worked for Mogilevich, was convicted in one such scam.
Semion Mogilevich is Russian Organized Crime’s leader. Donald Trump is one of Russian Organized Crime’s money laundresses. If the mob Trump works for is involved in the Mikerin case, we another have a tangential connection from Trump to bribes, FCPA violations, and nuclear material.
All together now: “BUT HER URANIUM!”
