Comments by "" (@DavidJ222) on "Feds: Iran and Russia have interfered with presidential election" video.
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Russian GRU officers accused of hacking the Dem Congressional Campaign Committee and the DNC used cryptocurrency to pay for the necessary computer infrastructure. Mueller’s indictment found that the defendants “conspired to launder the equivalent of more than $95,000 through a web of transactions structured to capitalize on the perceived anonymity” of bitcoin, among other cryptocurrencies. The GRU hackers used hundreds of different email accounts to purchase servers to avoid creating a “centralized paper trail.” They enlisted several third parties that “facilitated layered transactions through digital currency exchange platforms, providing heightened anonymity.” The extensive laundering of the funds was intended not only to further a crime, but also to obscure the origin of the funds, providing the operation a degree of plausible deniability.
A Russian American energy tycoon—who boasted to a Kremlin official in July 2016 of being “actively involved in Trump’s election campaign”—donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Trump Victory fund. And a company affiliated with a sanctioned Russian oligarch paid $1 million to Michael Cohen, then Trump’s personal lawyer, for unspecified services after the election. These and other transactions examined throughout the report establish that, during the campaign and presidential transition, Trump had several compromising financial entanglements with actors representing a hostile foreign power.
Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov transferred $20 million to an American bank account just days after the secret Trump Tower meeting that he organized between Don Jr and Trump campaign officials, including Manafort, Kushner, and a Russian government attorney. Hackers, troll farms, and spies cannot operate without money. Following the money trail helps investigators discover who is funding these entities.
Former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak is a key figure in the collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. He held a series of secret meetings with Trump campaign officials, including Kushner, Sessions, Michael Flynn, former Trump adviser Carter Page, and former Trump adviser J.D. Gordon. During one private meeting Kislyak held with Kushner and Flynn, they discussed the possibility of establishing a secure communications channel between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign. During the transition, Kislyak had also brokered a meeting between Kushner and the head of a sanctioned Russian government bank, Vnesheconombank. The bank maintains the meeting was about Kushner’s family business.
On top of these controversial meetings, Kislyak’s embassy also carried out several suspicious transactions that U.S. bank investigators have flagged to U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
First, in November 2016—10 days after Trump won the presidency—the Russian government wired Kislyak a lump-sum payment of $120,000. Both the timing and the amount raise questions, as the sum was more than twice Kislyak’s normal salary payments.
Second, the Russian Embassy attempted to make a $150,000 cash withdrawal just a few days after Trump’s inauguration in January 2017. The bank reportedly blocked this transaction, because it questioned the embassy’s justification that it needed cash in Washington to pay employees who had already returned to Russia.
Third, the embassy paid $2.4 million to a small construction company controlled by a Russian immigrant in the United States, who was reportedly not equipped to carry out the work commissioned. What’s more, the bank investigators found that the money was “cashed quickly or wired to other accounts.” Manafort’s trial showed, small vendors can be instrumental, intentionally or not, to laundering large amounts of money from abroad.
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