Documents allegedly leaked by the Ukrainian General Prosecutor's office to CD Media have shed light on payments from Burisma Holdings to Rosemont Seneca Bohai LLC, a corporation controlled by Hunter Biden partner (and fellow former Burisma board member) Devon Archer.
Archer was Yale roommates with John Kerry's stepson Chris Heinz - the two of whom opened investment firm Rosemont Capital with Joe Biden's son, Hunter. Rosemont Capital is the parent company of Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC - the entity which receive the Burisma payments and in turn aid Biden.
The newly leaked records show 45 payments between November 2014 and November 2015 totaling $3.5 million, mostly in increments of $83,333.33. The payments correspond to Morgan Stanley bank records the New York Times reported on earlier this year - submitted as evidence in a case against Archer who was convicted in a scheme to defraud pension funds and an Indian tribe of tens of millions of dollars. Archer's conviction was overturned in November by a judge who felt that he may not have willingly participated in the scheme.
Rosemont Seneca Bohai LLC is owned and operated by Devon Archer, the Kerry Family including John Kerry Senior, John Kerry Junior, Heinz Jr and Hunter Biden.
All of whom are also listed as partners in the Rosemont Seneca Fund and other affiliated Rosemont Seneca companies.
Leaked transaction and bank records indicate an influx of large payments from Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings Limited to Rosemont Seneca Bohai LLC, in what appears to be monthly payments of $83,333.33.
What's more, there are several payments from "Wirelogic Technology AS" and "Digitex Organization LLP" in the amounts of 366,015 EUR and $1,964,375 US based on credit agreements - while $1,150,000 went to Devon Archer and Hunter Biden.
Looking through the Rosemont Seneca Bohai bank records reveals that it was essentially a slush fund used for payments to Biden, expensive toys, an investment in the ill-fated Indian tribe scheme, and other miscellaneous expenses.
On September 25, 2014 a wire of $15,000,000 was received from Florida attorney, Clifford A Wolff. It was subsequently used to buy a $15 million bond from Wakpamni Town Center - the scheme linked to Archer's overturned conviction.
It is unclear why Rosemont Seneca had so much skin in the game. Via the Wall Street Journal:
Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine and China has attracted criticism from President Trump and other Republicans. In an unrelated fraud case from last year, his name was invoked as a selling point in transactions that turned out to be fraudulent, although Mr. Biden‘s lawyer said his client knew nothing about it.
The case involved a $60 million securities fraud based on bonds issued by an economic-development company affiliated with a Native American tribe in South Dakota, according to prosecutors’ statements in a federal trial in Manhattan last year.
The proceeds were supposed to be used to build a distribution center and other projects, but were instead diverted for the personal use of Jason Galanis, prosecutors said prosecutors said, describing him as the scheme’s ringleader. Mr. Galanis and others also sought to use the bonds to advance a strategy that involved buying up financial firms to merge them into a larger one called Burnham Financial Group, in a deal called a “roll up,” according to prosecutors.
You can flip through the rest of Rosemont's bank statements below:
Is Russia going to start the final global crackdown on crypto?
Crypto is back in the news again, with the price of Bitcoin rising as high as 11,400 it’s now being discussed on a number of levels. New service providers like Blackwatch Digital are stepping up and providing services such as secured and insured crypto, brining institutional liquidity into the Blockchain ecosystem. While the fad came and went, serious coders have been building a high quality enterprise grade system that’s now being rolled out.
Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs is reportedly working toward implementing a new law that would allow law enforcement to seize Bitcoin and other digital assets, beginning in 2021, according to Russian news outlet RBC. Specifically, the new law would allow police to seize computers, hard drives or mobile devices containing cryptocurrency wallet addresses from individuals suspected of a crime. From there, authorities could then search through the contents of the devices and see about accessing the wallets and the cryptocurrencies they might contain.
This is interesting, considering that some say that the Russian government uses a complete abuse of power when it comes to assets they want to seize, or powers they want to do. You can read this post “Secret Life of a Foreign Agent” at Navalny.com to get an idea of graft, Russian style. Could the Crypto law be one of the biggest re-thefts in Russian government history? Interestingly, Russia has been a hotbed for Crypto. There are thousands of Crypto millionaires, mostly around Moscow, that 10 years ago were living on coins. Many of them now make traditional investments, some of them even in Pre IPO Unicorns. But what’s interesting about this Crypto law is that it seems that the Russian government is going after tokens. Why? It’s clear that due to the Russian Disaspora, and their refusal to tax the oligarchs, there are less and less tax bases to live off. State oil is the golden goose but as the Arabs have learned, you need a vibrant diverse economy, you can’t just live off the oil. That’s why countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and others – have diverse programs encouraging foreign investment into their barren desert oil rich lands. They are resource rich but culturally poor. Russia has become the same. Their spoils and resources are many but they are culturally poor. Russia is not an innovation hub. Consumer fraud is rampant. The funeral industry is so corrupt, filmmakers were threatened when making a documentary about it. Life in Russia is well, not like the 80s, it’s like the 1880s. “Oligarchs” (read: Fake Tsars) are living in posh mansions in communities like Rublyovka; and meanwhile the average pensioner doesn’t have enough money for food and healthcare.
Growing protests in the streets of Russia are growing in size and in power. Previously they were small in numbers, but as the numbers grow – Russian officials are doing more to stop them. Thousands of protestors have been arrested on fake charges, kept in jail for the ‘maximum’ 30 days in many cases, in order to frighten more people to protest.
And it’s not just in Russia – there are mass protests going on all over the world, including Hong Kong, Lebanon, and sporadically in the European Union (France, yellow vests). But what’s unique about Russia – they still are not part of the ‘one world system’ and so what happens in Russia is uniquely compelling. Meaning that, to contrast it with the United States where there are ‘protests’ – in the US it has been found that many protestors are in fact ‘paid to protest’ employees of financier George Soros. You can bet that protestors in Russia are not paid, and they are demonstrating at their own personal risk. They can be arrested, put on a blacklist, injured, or worse. Thugs likely hired by or working with the government will go into peaceful offices and literally beat and stomp on political protestors to the point complete humiliation.
The dye is a common antiseptic in Russia and has been used in protests there and in Ukraine. "It looks funny but it hurts like hell," Mr Navalny tweeted.It is not clear who carried out the attack, which happened near the offices of the Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK) that he founded. According to one report (in Russian) he was diagnosed with a chemical burn to the eye.
Could this Bitcoin move be an asset grab, as the government needs funding for the next wave of antidisestablishmentarianism? Not only that, Russia is now filling a void left by US forces leaving Syria, or as we might say colloquially, trapped in between a rock and a hard place. Russia has been supporting the Assad regime in Syria for a number of reasons, but now faces proxy enemy Turkey who is a close ally to Russia. It seems they will soon learn what is the real cost of useless foreign wars in the middle east, a complex region with 1,000 year old blood feuds genetically passed down from generation to generation. The conflict between Jews and Arabs goes back way before the United States even existed. Many ask, why does the US get involved? It’s certainly not about Oil, as there is plenty of Oil in the US and Canada to fuel the next generation of alternative fuel development. We all know the answer to that question but it’s the topic for another article. Some say that the US military is the first form of artificial intelligence:
If Russia is cracking down on Crypto including seizing assets you can bet this is part of a larger strategy. And there are many external factors to consider, because Russia has been a unique pro-Crypto country, the government has even subsidized Bitcoin mines with cheap energy. An FSB officer said “America had the internet – Crypto is ours (Russia).. “
Clearly, Russia will not make such a move without a clear calculated plan, as they are not desperate for money and are one of the only major superpowers without any external debt. They have domestic problems but on a macro level they are not suffering. They are not acting out of weakness.
Would other countries follow the lead if this were to happen? Would this be the beginning in a series of anti-Crypto laws in the last independent country in the world? Only time will tell, but we should stay tuned to this developing scenario very closely, as it will have global impact.
Top Dems are involved in the plundering of the Ukraine: new names, mind-boggling accounts. The mysterious ‘whistleblower’ whose report had unleashed the impeachment is named in the exclusive interview given to the Unz Review by a prominent Ukrainian politician, an ex-Member of Parliament of four terms, a candidate for Ukraine’s presidency, Oleg Tsarev.
Mr. Tsarev with Israel Shamir in Crimea
Mr Tsarev, a tall, agile and graceful man, a good speaker and a prolific writer, had been a leading and popular Ukrainian politician before the 2014 putsch; he stayed in the Ukraine after President Yanukovych’s flight; ran for the Presidency against Mr Poroshenko, and eventually had to go to exile due to multiple threats to his life. During the failed attempt to secede, he was elected the speaker of the Parliament of Novorossia (South-Eastern Ukraine). I spoke to him in Crimea, where he lives in the pleasant seaside town of Yalta. Tsarev still has many supporters in the Ukraine, and is a leader of the opposition to the Kiev regime.
Oleg, you followed Biden story from its very inception. Biden is not the only Dem politician involved in the Ukrainian corruption schemes, is he?
Indeed, John Kerry, the Secretary of State in Obama’s administration, was his partner-in-crime. But Joe Biden was number one. During the Obama presidency, Biden was the US proconsul for Ukraine, and he was involved in many corruption schemes. He authorised transfer of three billion dollars of the US taxpayers’ money to the post-coup government of the Ukraine; the money was stolen, and Biden took a big share of the spoils.
It is a story of ripping the US taxpayer and the Ukrainian customer off for the benefit of a few corruptioners, American and Ukrainian. And it is a story of Kiev regime and its dependence on the US and IMF. The Ukraine has a few midsize deposits of natural gas, sufficient for domestic household consumption. The cost of its production was quite low; and the Ukrainians got used to pay pennies for their gas. Actually, it was so cheap to produce that the Ukraine could provide all its households with free gas for heating and cooking, just like Libya did. Despite low consumer price, the gas companies (like Burisma) had very high profits and very little expenditure.
After the 2014 coup, IMF demanded to raise the price of gas for the domestic consumer to European levels, and the new president Petro Poroshenko obliged them. The prices went sky-high. The Ukrainians were forced to pay many times more for their cooking and heating; and huge profits went to coffers of the gas companies. Instead of raising taxes or lowering prices, President Poroshenko demanded the gas companies to pay him or subsidise his projects. He said that he arranged the price hike; it means he should be considered a partner.
Burisma Gas company had to pay extortion money to the president Poroshenko. Eventually its founder and owner Mr Nicolai Zlochevsky decided to invite some important Westerners into the company’s board of directors hoping it would moderate Poroshenko’s appetites. He had brought in Biden’s son Hunter, John Kerry, Polish ex-President Kwasniewski; but it didn’t help him.
Poroshenko became furious that the fattened calf may escape him, and asked the Attorney General Shokin to investigate Burisma trusting some irregularities would emerge. AG Shokin immediately discovered that Burisma had paid these ‘stars’ between 50 and 150 thousand dollar per month each just for being on the list of directors. This is illegal by the Ukrainian tax code; it can’t be recognised as legitimate expenditure.
At that time Biden the father entered the fray. He called Poroshenko and gave him six hours to close the case against his son. Otherwise, one billion dollars of the US taxpayers’ funds won’t pass to the Ukrainian corruptioners. Zlochevsky, the Burisma owner, paid Biden well for this conversation: he received between three and ten million dollars, according to different sources.
AG Shokin said he can’t close the case within six hours; Poroshenko sacked him and installed Mr Lutsenko in his stead. Lutsenko was willing to dismiss the case of Burisma, but he also could not do it in a day, or even in a week. Biden, as we know, could not keep his trap shut: by talking about the pressure he put on Poroshenko, he incriminated himself. Meanwhile Mr Shokin gave evidence that Biden put pressure on Poroshenko to fire him, and now it was confirmed. The evidence was given to the US lawyers in connection with another case, Firtash case.
What is Firtash Case?
The Democrats wanted to get another Ukrainian oligarch, Mr Firtash, to the US and make him to confess that he illegally supported Trump’s campaign for the sake of Russia. Firtash had been arrested in Vienna, Austria; there he fought extradition to the US. His lawyers claimed it is purely political case, and they used Mr Shokin’s deposition to substantiate their claim. For this reason, the evidence supplied by Shokin is not easily reversible, even if Shokin were willing, and he is not. He also stated under oath that the Democrats pressurised him to help and extradite Firtash to the US, though he had no standing in this purely American issue. It seems that Mrs Clinton believes that Firtash’s funds helped Trump to win elections, an extremely unlikely thing [says Mr Tsarev].
Talking about Burisma and Biden; what is this billion dollars of aid that Biden could give or withhold?
It is USAID money, the main channel of the US aid for “support of democracy”. First billion dollars of USAID came to the Ukraine in 2014. This was authorised by Joe Biden, while for Ukraine, the papers were signed by Mr Turchinov, the “acting President”. The Ukrainian constitution does not know of such a position, and Turchinov, “the acting President” had no right to sign neither a legal nor financial document. Thus, all the documents that were signed by him, in fact, had no legal force. However, Biden countersigned the papers signed by Turchynov and allocated money for Ukraine. And the money was stolen – by the Democrats and their Ukrainian counterparts.
Two years ago, (that is already under President Trump) the United States began to investigate the allocation of 3 billion dollars; it was allocated in 2014, in 2015, in 2016; one billion dollars per year. The investigation showed that the documents were falsified, the money was transferred to Ukraine, and stolen. The investigators tracked each payment, discovered where the money went, where it was spent and how it was stolen.
As a result, in October 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice opened a criminal case for “Abuse of power and embezzlement of American taxpayers’ money”. Among the accused there are two consecutive Finance Ministers of the Ukraine, Mrs Natalie Ann Jaresko who served 2014-2016 and Mr Alexander Daniluk who served 2016-2018, and three US banks. The investigation caused the USAID to cease issuing grants since August 2019. As Trump said, now the US does not give away money and does not impose democracy.
The money was allocated with the flagrant violation of American law. There was no risk assessment, no audit reports. Normally the USAID, when allocating cash, always prepares a substantial package of documents. But the billions were given to Ukraine completely without documents. The criminal case on the embezzlement of USAID funds had been signed personally by the US Attorney General, so these issues are very much alive.
Sam Kislin was involved in this investigation. He is a good friend and associate of Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer and an ex-mayor of New York. Kislin is well known in Kiev, and I have many friends who are Sam’s friends [said Tsarev]. I learned of his progress, because some of my friends were detained in the United States, or interrogated in Ukraine. They briefed me about this. It appears that Burisma is just the tip of the scandal, the tip of the iceberg. If Trump will carry on, and use what was already initiated and investigated, the whole headquarters of the Democratic party will come down. They will not be able to hold elections. I have no right to name names, but believe me, leading functionaries of the Democratic party are involved.
Poroshenko was aware of that; he gave orders to declare Sam Kislin persona non grata. Once the old man (he is over 80) flew into Kiev airport and he was not allowed to come in; he spent the night in detention and was flown back to the US next day. Poroshenko had been totally allied with Clinton camp.
And President Zelensky? Is he free from Clintonite Democrats’ influence?
If he were, there would not be the scandal of Trump phone call. How the Democrats learned of this call and its alleged content? The official version says there was a CIA man, a whistle-blower, who reported to the Democrats. What the version does not clarify, where this whistle-blower was located during the call. I tell you, he was located in Kiev, and he was present at the conversation, at the Ukrainian President Zelensky’s side. This man was (perhaps) a CIA asset, but he also was a close associate of George Soros, and a Ukrainian high-ranking official.
He is also the man the investigation of Sam Kislin and of the DoJ had led to, the Finance Minister of Ukraine at the time, the man who was responsible for the embezzlement of three billion US taxpayer’s best dollars. The DoJ issued an order for his arrest. Naturally he is devoted to Biden personally, and to the Dems in general. I would not trust his version of the phone call at all.
Daniluk was supposed to accompany President Zelensky on his visit to Washington; but he was informed that there is an order for his arrest. He remained in Kiev. And soon afterwards, the hell of the alleged leaked phone call broke out. Zelensky administration investigated and concluded that the leak was done by Mr Alexander Daniluk, who is known for his close relations with George Soros and with Mr Biden. Alexander Daniluk had been fired. (However, he did not admit his guilt and said the leak was done by his sworn enemy, the head of president’s administration office, Mr Andrey Bogdan, who allegedly framed Daniluk.)
This is not the only case of US-connected corruption in Ukraine. There is Amos J. Hochstein, a protege of former VP Joe Biden, who has served in the Barack Obama administration as the Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources. He still hangs on the Ukraine. Together with an American citizen Andrew Favorov, the Deputy Director of Naftogas he organised very expensive “reverse gas import” into Ukraine. In this scheme, the Russian gas is bought by Europeans and afterwards sold to Ukraine with a wonderful margin. In reality, gas comes from Russia directly, but payments go via Hochstein. It is much more costly than to buy directly from Russia; Ukrainian people pay, while the margin is collected by Hochstein and Favorov. Now they plan to import liquefied gas from the United States, at even higher price. Again, the price will be paid by the Ukrainians, while profits will go to Hochstein and Favorov.
In all these scams, there are people of Clinton and spooks who are fully integrated in the Democratic Party. A former head of CIA, Robert James Woolsey, now sits on the Board of Directors of Velta, producing Ukrainian titanium. Woolsey is a neocon, a member of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), pro-Israel think-tank, and a man who relentlessly pushed for Iraq war. A typical Democrat spook, now he gets profits from Ukrainian ore deposits.
One of the best Ukrainian corruption stories is connected with Audrius Butkevicius, the former Minister of Defence (1996 to 2000) and a Member of the Seimas (Parliament) of post-Soviet Lithuania. Mr AB is supposedly working for MI6, and now is a member of the notorious Institute for Statecraft, a UK deep state propaganda outfit involved in disinformation operations, subversion of the democratic process and promoting Russophobia and the idea of a new cold war. In 1991 he commanded snipers that shoot Lithuanian protesters. The kills were ascribed to the Soviet armed forces, and the last Soviet President Mr Gorbachev ordered speedy withdrawal of his troops from Lithuania. Mr AB became the Minister of Defence of his independent nation. In 1997 the Honourable Minister of Defence “had requested 300,000 USD from a senior executive of a troubled oil company for his assistance in obtaining the discontinuance of criminal proceedings concerning the company’s vast debts”, in the language of the court judgement. He was arrested on receipt of the bribe, had been sentenced to five years of jail, but a man with such qualifications was not left to rot in a prison.
In 2005 he commanded the snipers who killed protesters in Kyrgyzstan, in Georgia he repeated the feat in 2003 during the Rose Revolution. In 2014 he did it again in Kiev, where his snipers killed around a hundred men, protesters and police. He was brought to Kiev by Mr Turchinov, who called himself the “acting President” and who countersigned Joe Biden’s billion dollars’ grant.
In October 2018 the name of Mr AB came up again. Military warehouses of Chernigov had caught fire; allegedly thousands of shells stored for fighting the separatists had been destroyed by fire. And it was not the first fire of this kind: the previous one, equally huge, torched Ukrainian army warehouses in Vinnitsa in 2017. Altogether, there were 12 huge army arsenal fires for the last few years. Just for 2018, the damage was over $2 billion.
When Chief Military Prosecutor of Ukraine Anatoly Matios investigated the fires, he discovered that 80% of weapons and shells in the warehouses were missing. They weren’t destroyed by fire, they weren’t there in the first place. Instead of being used to kill the Russian-speaking Ukrainians of Donetsk, the hardware had been shipped from the port of Nikolaev to Syria, to the Islamic rebels and to ISIS. And the man who organised this enormous operation was our Mr AB, the old fighter for democracy on behalf of MI6, acting in cahoots with the Minister of Defence Poltorak and Mr Turchinov, the friend of Mr Biden. (They say Mr Matios was given $10 million for his silence).
The loss was of Ukrainian people, and of US taxpayers, while the beneficiaries were the Deep State, which is probably just another name for the deadly mix of spooks, media and politicians.
Goldman Sachs has avoided staying out of the insider trading spotlight for about a year. But on Friday, new court documents reveal that an investment banker at the firm's New York branch was arrested for his alleged involvement in an insider trading scheme that generated $2.6 million in illicit profits, according to Bloomberg.
Bryan Cohen, a vice president at Goldman, was arrested Friday by the Feds for leaking "nonpublic information concerning impending corporate transactions" over a three year period in exchange for cash and gifts, stated the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a formal complaint via the US District Court Southern District of New York.
The insider trading scheme realized $2.6 million in illicit gains were tied to at least two different companies, including a possible takeover deal that sent Syngenta soaring in 2015, and Arby's 2017 takeover of Buffalo Wild Wings.
"Throughout that period, Cohen, who was employed at a large international bank ("Investment Bank A") carried out the scheme by misappropriating from his employer material nonpublic information concerning impending corporate transactions," court documents read.
The SEC alleges that Cohen shared the nonpublic information with George Nikas, an NYC restaurateur who owns GRK Fresh with three locations in Manhattan, was also charged by federal prosecutors for making the trades.
In exchange for making the trades, the SEC alleges that Nikas paid out Cohen "a share of the profits and/or other benefits."
News of the insider trading scheme at Goldman broke on Saturday morning. The investment bank also saw two employees in 2018 charged by the SEC for similar schemes.
Last May, Woojae "Steve" Jung, a Goldman TMT Vice President, was charged with securities fraud for using inside information about the investment bank's clients to make $140,000 in illicit profits on 12 deals, while using a co-conspirator in South Korea to execute the trades.
In August last year, a former Goldman analyst leaked nonpublic information about upcoming mergers to NFL star Mychal Kendricks. The SEC has since charged them both.
There's no indication via LinkedIn that Cohen has been fired from Goldman. Bloomberg notes that he's been placed on leave, which means he'll be fired in the coming weeks.
Leaked transaction and bank records indicate an influx of large payments from Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings Limited to Rosemont Seneca Bohai LLC, in what appears to be monthly payments of $83,333.33.
