• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

FBI investigates Russian-linked Cyprus bank accused of money laundering

Rogue Valley

Rogue Valley

Lead or get out of the way
DP Veteran
Joined
Apr 18, 2013
Messages
94,328
Reaction score
82,710
Location
Barsoom
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Independent
FBI investigates Russian-linked Cyprus bank accused of money laundering

Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Sara Farolfi
Sun 24 Dec 2017

1bca85bcc11d7bd18b6b7870b6386bd2.jpg

Special Counsel Robert Mueller

The FBI has asked officials in Cyprus for financial information about a defunct bank that was used by wealthy Russians with political connections and has been accused by the US government of money laundering, two sources have told the Guardian. The request for information about FBME Bank comes as Cyprus has emerged as a key area of interest for Robert Mueller, the US special counsel who is investigating a possible conspiracy between Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Kremlin. People familiar with the FBI request told the Guardian that federal investigators and the US Treasury approached the Central Bank of Cyprus in November seeking detailed information about FBME, which was shut down this year. One person familiar with the FBI request said it appeared to be connected to Mueller’s ongoing examination of Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign manager who was indicted in October, and money that flowed between former Soviet states and the US through Cypriot banks.

Bloomberg reported last week that FBME was the subject of two US investigations: one into the bank’s credit card unit, and another into alleged laundering of money from Russia. Bloomberg said the Russia-related investigation, which is being led by the US attorney’s office in New York, was connected to a flow of illegal Russian funds into the New York real estate market. FBME, previously known as the Federal Bank of the Middle East, was based in Tanzania but about 90% of its banking was conducted in Cyprus. A report by the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in 2014 said the bank was an institution of “primary money laundering concern”. The report found that the bank was evading efforts by the Central Bank of Cyprus to supervise its activities, and that FBME was facilitating money laundering, terrorist financing, transnational organised crime, fraud, sanctions evasion, weapons trading and political corruption. Mueller’s team has separately issued a subpoena for information from Deutsche Bank. According to a person close to the bank, the subpoena was issued in the autumn. The German bank is Trump’s biggest lender. Deutsche also worked as a correspondent bank for FBME. Internal emails seen by the Guardian show that executives from both banks were in contact in 2014 discussing accounts that were “on the radar” of US law enforcement.
Click to expand...

Excellent. I believe Cyprus/Deutsche Bank is where Mueller will find the "meat and potato" evidence of the Russia investigation.
 
I told many folks BEFORE the 2016 election that Trump was (most likely) involved with money laundering via Russian connections ........... we shall see .........


Mueller should make sure he also has access to all of Trump's IRS returns from the past ~30 years ..............
 
cuban smokes said:
I told many folks BEFORE the 2016 election that Trump was (most likely) involved with money laundering via Russian connections ........... we shall see .........


Mueller should make sure he also has access to all of Trump's IRS returns from the past ~30 years ..............
Click to expand...

If Trump ends up getting busted for some sort of money laundering, like I said - if, the RNC really would have to perhaps consider tightening up its vetting process. And before someone drops a YEAHBUTWHATABOUT on me, I'm more than happy to say the same works for the DNC, but that's not the topic at hand. Says a lot about the state of debate that I actually feel the need to pre-empively defend against whataboutism.
 
Johnson said:
If Trump ends up getting busted for some sort of money laundering, like I said - if, the RNC really would have to perhaps consider tightening up its vetting process. And before someone drops a YEAHBUTWHATABOUT on me, I'm more than happy to say the same works for the DNC, but that's not the topic at hand. Says a lot about the state of debate that I actually feel the need to pre-empively defend against whataboutism.
Click to expand...

Oh please....whining about some made up BS like "whataboutism" (yes I know I have thrown the term sarcastically back at liberals)just shows that you already know that politicians you support have done similar things, but it is convenient to scream about those things now in a partisan fashion....It's an Alinsky tactic that should be dismissed out of hand like logical fallacy would be.
 
j-mac said:
Oh please....whining about some made up BS like "whataboutism" (yes I know I have thrown the term sarcastically back at liberals)just shows that you already know that politicians you support have done similar things, but it is convenient to scream about those things now in a partisan fashion....It's an Alinsky tactic that should be dismissed out of hand like logical fallacy would be.
Click to expand...

You really have to be mentally flexible to turn me saying I accept it applies to both sides into me somehow only having a problen with it when "my team" isn't doing it. That's so tremendously irrelevant to what I actually said that I'm having difficlutly coming up with a response.
 
washunut said:
When will Mueller start looking at stained dresses like Starr ended up doing.

What exactly is the crime that Mueller is supposed to be investigating?
Click to expand...

Actually 2 crimes. He has 2 gulity pleas for money laundering, and 2 more for lying to the FBI. And the guilty plea from Papadopoulis also includes conspiring with the Russians. Not a bad haul so far, and this is far from over. Expect more indictments and more guilty pleas.
 
washunut said:
When will Mueller start looking at stained dresses like Starr ended up doing.

What exactly is the crime that Mueller is supposed to be investigating?
Click to expand...

Money laundering.

18 U.S. Code § 1956 - Laundering of monetary instruments
US Code

(a)
(1) Whoever, knowing that the property involved in a financial transaction represents the proceeds of some form of unlawful activity, conducts or attempts to conduct such a financial transaction which in fact involves the proceeds of specified unlawful activity—
(A)
(i) with the intent to promote the carrying on of specified unlawful activity; or
(ii) with intent to engage in conduct constituting a violation of section 7201 or 7206 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986; or
(B) knowing that the transaction is designed in whole or in part—
(i) to conceal or disguise the nature, the location, the source, the ownership, or the control of the proceeds of specified unlawful activity; or
(ii) to avoid a transaction reporting requirement under State or Federal law,
shall be sentenced to a fine of not more than $500,000 or twice the value of the property involved in the transaction, whichever is greater, or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both. For purposes of this paragraph, a financial transaction shall be considered to be one involving the proceeds of specified unlawful activity if it is part of a set of parallel or dependent transactions, any one of which involves the proceeds of specified unlawful activity, and all of which are part of a single plan or arrangement.
(2) Whoever transports, transmits, or transfers, or attempts to transport, transmit, or transfer a monetary instrument or funds from a place in the United States to or through a place outside the United States or to a place in the United States from or through a place outside the United States—
(A) with the intent to promote the carrying on of specified unlawful activity; or
(B) knowing that the monetary instrument or funds involved in the transportation, transmission, or transfer represent the proceeds of some form of unlawful activity and knowing that such transportation, transmission, or transfer is designed in whole or in part—
(i) to conceal or disguise the nature, the location, the source, the ownership, or the control of the proceeds of specified unlawful activity; or
(ii) to avoid a transaction reporting requirement under State or Federal law,
shall be sentenced to a fine of not more than $500,000 or twice the value of the monetary instrument or funds involved in the transportation, transmission, or transfer, whichever is greater, or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both. For the purpose of the offense described in subparagraph (B), the defendant’s knowledge may be established by proof that a law enforcement officer represented the matter specified in subparagraph (B) as true, and the defendant’s subsequent statements or actions indicate that the defendant believed such representations to be true.
(3) Whoever, with the intent—
(A) to promote the carrying on of specified unlawful activity;
(B) to conceal or disguise the nature, location, source, ownership, or control of property believed to be the proceeds of specified unlawful activity; or
(C) to avoid a transaction reporting requirement under State or Federal law,
conducts or attempts to conduct a financial transaction involving property represented to be the proceeds of specified unlawful activity, or property used to conduct or facilitate specified unlawful activity, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than 20 years, or both. For purposes of this paragraph and paragraph (2), the term “represented” means any representation made by a law enforcement officer or by another person at the direction of, or with the approval of, a Federal official authorized to investigate or prosecute violations of this section.
(b) Penalties.—
(1)In general.—Whoever conducts or attempts to conduct a transaction described in subsection (a)(1) or (a)(3), or section 1957, or a transportation, transmission, or transfer described in subsection (a)(2), is liable to the United States for a civil penalty of not more than the greater of—
(A) the value of the property, funds, or monetary instruments involved in the transaction; or
(B) $10,000.
(2)Jurisdiction over foreign persons.—For purposes of adjudicating an action filed or enforcing a penalty ordered under this section, the district courts shall have jurisdiction over any foreign person, including any financial institution authorized under the laws of a foreign country, against whom the action is brought, if service of process upon the foreign person is made under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure or the laws of the country in which the foreign person is found, and—
 
danarhea said:
Actually 2 crimes. He has 2 gulity pleas for money laundering, and 2 more for lying to the FBI. And the guilty plea from Papadopoulis also includes conspiring with the Russians. Not a bad haul so far, and this is far from over. Expect more indictments and more guilty pleas.
Click to expand...

Amazing reality post from a declared conservative!
 
cuban smokes said:
I told many folks BEFORE the 2016 election that Trump was (most likely) involved with money laundering via Russian connections ........... we shall see .........


Mueller should make sure he also has access to all of Trump's IRS returns from the past ~30 years ..............
Click to expand...

That depends on what you mean by involved, if you mean property trump sold was used by the russians and many other criminals to launder money the answer is most likely yes, however if you mean trump was complicit and participating in helping money laundering, you may have a very uphill battle, as real estate is a common way to launder money.
 
danarhea said:
Actually 2 crimes. He has 2 gulity pleas for money laundering, and 2 more for lying to the FBI. And the guilty plea from Papadopoulis also includes conspiring with the Russians. Not a bad haul so far, and this is far from over. Expect more indictments and more guilty pleas.
Click to expand...

So you are saying that a special prosecutor was established to uncover money laundering from a decade ago. I guess if he got a plea on lying to the FBI, I am sure you think he should be able to get Comey on lying to congress,leaking and stealing government material.

We know you are a never Trumper. I guess you feel the country would be in better hands with Hillary at the helm.
 
tumblr_p19zld09Nt1r55d2io1_1280.jpg


;)
 
danarhea said:
Actually 2 crimes. He has 2 gulity pleas for money laundering, and 2 more for lying to the FBI. And the guilty plea from Papadopoulis also includes conspiring with the Russians. Not a bad haul so far, and this is far from over. Expect more indictments and more guilty pleas.
Click to expand...

Who plead guilty to money laundering?
 
cuban smokes said:
I told many folks BEFORE the 2016 election that Trump was (most likely) involved with money laundering via Russian connections ........... we shall see .........


Mueller should make sure he also has access to all of Trump's IRS returns from the past ~30 years ..............
Click to expand...

You know you can't prosecute a crime that happened 30 years ago, other than murder. Right?
 
j-mac said:
Oh please....whining about some made up BS like "whataboutism" (yes I know I have thrown the term sarcastically back at liberals)just shows that you already know that politicians you support have done similar things, but it is convenient to scream about those things now in a partisan fashion....It's an Alinsky tactic that should be dismissed out of hand like logical fallacy would be.
Click to expand...

Lmao, complain about whataboutism, while whataboutism-ing about Alinsky.

Congratulations, you've played yourself.


Sent from Donald's hair using Putin's Blackerry.
 
Is that the same bank where Wilbur Ross was on the board?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom