The Oligarchs
Trump’s legal defense is in part funded through a Republican Party account with a number of rich donors, among whom, the Wall Street Journal reported, is Ukrainian-born billionaire Sir Leonard “Len” Blavatnik, who is part of a web dirty money, sex, Russian oligarchs and Hollywood moguls that lends support of the claims of the infamous Trump Dossier.
Blavatnik is close to Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of Putin who has been denied entry into the United States due to alleged ties with organized crime.[1] According to Forbes magazine, Deripaska is Russia’s sixth-wealthiest man, with an estimated fortune of $13.3 billion.[2] Deripaska has been closely connected to the Kremlin since he married into Boris Yeltsin’s family in 2001, which literally includes him in the Russian clan known as “The Family.”[3] In 2010, the Financial Times published a story exploring Deripaska’s business relations with Sergei Popov and Anton Malevsky, alleged heads of Russian organized crime groups.[4]
In 2000, Deripaska and Roman Abramovich created a partnership and founded RUSAL, the largest aluminum company in the world.[5] Abramovich is the primary owner of the private investment company, Millhouse LLC and is best known outside Russia as the owner of Chelsea Football Club, a Premier League football club. In their 2004 biography of Abramovich, the British journalists Chris Hutchins and Dominic Midgely describe the relationship between Putin and Abramovich as like that between a father and a favorite son.[6] Abramovich was the first person to originally recommend to Yeltsin that Putin be his successor.[7] Abramovich and fellow oligarch Lev Leviev would go on to become Chabad Lubavitch’s biggest patrons worldwide.[8]
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are also close friends with the wife of Roman Abramovich, Dasha Zhukova, who is a friend and business partner of Rupert Murdoch’s ex-wife Wendi Deng. Deng is also one of Ivanka’s closest friends, and a friend of Karlie Kloss, the longtime girlfriend of Kushner’s brother, Josh.[9] Deng was rumored to be dating Putin, which she has since denied.[10] All of them were guests in August 2016 on medial mogul David Geffen’s Geffen’s $200 million yacht off the coast of Croatia, and a few weeks later at the US Open.[11] Zhukova reportedly attended Trump’s inauguration as Ivanka’s guest.[12]
As early as 2005, Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, secretly worked for Deripaska on a confidential strategy that he would influence politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe and former Soviet republics to “greatly benefit the Putin Government,” The Associated Press reported.[13] According to the Associated Press, starting in 2006, Deripaska made annual payments of $10 million to Paul Manafort through the Bank of Cyprus to advance Putin's global agenda.[14] Manafort told Deripaska he was pushing policies as part of his work in Ukraine “at the highest levels of the U.S. government — the White House, Capitol Hill and the State Department.”[15] During the 2016 Presidential campaign, less than two weeks before Donald Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination, Manafort, via Konstantin Kilimnik, a Kiev-based operative with suspected ties to Russian intelligence, offered to provide briefings on political developments to Deripaska, though there is no evidence that the briefings took place.[16]
Blavatnik, who was named Britain’s richest man in 2015, founded Access Industries which now owns Warner Music Group.[17] Blavatnik is a longtime business partner of Viktor Vekselberg, who is one of the richest men in Russia and has close ties to the Kremlin.[18] Blavatnik and Vekselberg hold their 15.8 percent joint stake in Deripaska’s RUSAL. Blavatnik also sponsors Colel Chabad, the oldest continuously operating charity in Israel, founded in 1788 by the first Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi.[19] A source close to Blavatnik said, “He is very Zionistic.”[20] During the 2015-2016 election season, Blavatnik contributed a total of $6.35 million to Trump and the political action committees for Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Lindsey Graham, John Kasich and John McCain. Blavatnik donated another $1 million to Trump’s Inaugural Committee.[21]
Case 1000 and 2000
Blavatnik is embroiled in investigations about his friend Benjamin Netanyahu’s alleged attempts to influence the Israeli media while he was both Prime Minister and Minister of Communications in Israel. Blavatnik was interrogated by Israeli police in London in August 2017, as part of “Case 1000,” in which Netanyahu is suspected of crimes involving fraud, breach of trust and bribes from Los Angeles producer Arnon Milchan, Australian billionaire James Packer, and other businessmen.[22]
Netanyahu’s son Yair has ridden on Packer’s private jet and stayed in hotels at Packer’s expense. Israel’s Channel 10 also reported that Packer owns a house in Caesarea next to the Netanyahus, and that the prime minister occasionally holds weekend meetings in Packer’s home. One of the gifts Packer gave Netanyahu was bundle of tickets to Netanyahu’s wife Sara to Packer’s ex-fiancé Mariah performance in Israel in 2015.[23]
Police are trying to investigate if Netanyahu was involved in assisting Blavatnik in his purchase of most of Milchan shares Israel’s Channel 10 in 2015. As part of a second case, “Case 2000,” Blavatnik will be questioned on whether Netanyahu also tried to assist him in the purchase the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth from Arnon Mozes. Yedioth Ahronoth, which is generally critical of Netanyahu, also owns stock in Israel’s Channel 2. Netanyahu is alleged of trying to strike a deal with Mozes in return for legislation harming the paper’s main competitor, the pro-Netanyahu and Sheldon Adelson-backed newspaper Israel Hayom, so he would receive positive coverage from both. Under another plan hatched by Netanyahu and Milchan, Milchan would have gone into partnership with Reshet, who owns Channel 2, and by which Netanyahu would have gained valuable influence. According to Haaretz, the plot entailed the cooperation of Shlomo Filber, the director general of the Communications Ministry and a Netanyahu loyalist.[24]
An Open Secret
In April 2017, Blavatniks’ Access Entertainment purchased James Packer’s ownership share of RatPac Entertainment. Mnuchin, according to the Hollywood Reporter, met Packer through Arnon Milchan.[25] RatPac is a partner in RatPac-Dune Entertainment with Dune Entertainment, which was led by Steven Mnuchin and since 2006 had been co-financing co-financing deals with Warner Bros. and Fox Filmed Entertainment, owned by Murdoch’s News Corp. Films included the X-Men film franchise and Avatar.[26] In Hollywood, Mnuchin, along with Packer and film producer Brett Ratner, working with RatPac-Dune Entertainment, have produced more than 20 films including hits like Gravity, The Lego Movie, Mad Max: Fury Road and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
While Ratner directed X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), Bryan Singer was hired to direct X-Men (2000) and its sequel, X2 (2003). Singer’s career began with the 1995 breakthrough film The Usual Suspects, for which Kevin Spacey won his first Oscar. In 2006, Spacey played Lex Luthor in Singer’s superhero film Superman Returns. Singer is cited in the 2014 documentary film on child sexual abuse in Hollywood, An Open Secret, which featured the accusations of Michael Egan III. In a lawsuit filed in early 2014, Egan accused Singer of repeatedly drugging, threatening and forcibly sodomizing him as a minor. Egan also filed lawsuits against veteran TV executive Garth Ancier, former Disney executive David Neuman and producer Gary Goddard. All four denied the allegations, and by August 2014, Egan had dropped the suits after prior inconsistent statements emerged. Nevertheless, Open Secrets features Singer’s connection to Marc Collins-Rector, who held alcohol and drug-fueled parties attended by teen boys.[27] There is also the fact that to record the commentary for the first X-Men, Singer enlisted his friend Brian Peck, who in 2003 was arrested for lewd acts with a child.[28]
Air Fuck One
Mnuchin was co-chairman of his, Ratner’s and Packer’s movie company Relativity Media, which distributed or structured financing for nearly 200 motion pictures, and earned 60 Academy Awards nominations. Relativity founder Ryan Kavanaugh has been sued for fraud and neglect by his former studio president Adam Fields, who described the company as a “hostile environment” that included porn photo shoots at its Beverly Hills headquarters, involving Dana Brunetti, Kevin Spacey’s business partner.[29] Fields discovered that the so-called “big digital initiative” the company was using to supplement its income was a pornography Web site. The site wasn’t named in court papers but Variety called it the “raunchy, flesh-peddling website, Egotastic.com, [which] had been operating out of Relativity’s offices.”[30]
Brunetti has been nominated for two Academy Awards for producing The Social Network and Captain Phillips. Brunetti met Kevin Spacey at a dinner party in 1997, while Brunetti was working as a salesman for a start up digital wireless network company, after which Spacey hired Brunetti as his executive assistant.[31] Brunetti worked with Spacey through several feature films, such as American Beauty (1999) and The Shipping News (2001), and House of Cards on Netflix. In 2004, Spacey promoted Brunetti to President of TriggerStreet productions. In 2015, Brunetti produced a film adaptation of 50 Shades of Grey. In 2016, Brunetti became the president of Relativity with Spacey taking on a chairman position.
In 2007, then Senator Hillary Clinton threw a fundraising party at Brett Ratner’s home, whose guest lists have included actresses Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton. Ratner is also known for throwing wild parties at his Beverly Hills mansion, which were described by Variety editor Ted Johnson, as “almost like a mini version of the Playboy Mansion.” According to Johnson, “It’s almost like all roads lead to Brett Ratner when you talk about Hollywood’s social scene and Hollywood's nightlife scene.”[32] Kavanaugh critized Ratner on Twitter as Hollywood’s “Biggest Sleaze,” accusing him of casting-couch auditions and losing his virginity to a transvestite. Brunetti tweeted agreement that Ratner is a “slimeball.”[33]
In 2012, Ron Burkle, a prominent Democratic activist and fundraiser, purchased a large equity stake in Relativity. Burkle’s usual means of transport is the custom-converted Boeing 757 that his buddy Bill Clinton calls “Ron Air” and that Burkle’s own circle of young aides privately refer to as “Air Fuck One.”[34] Mark Ebner’s scandal-filled book, Six Degrees of Paris Hilton, reports that Burkle, along with Interscope chief Ted Field, was one of the best-known "lifers"—patrons of super-high-end call girls, all the time. Ebner writes that Burkle and Field both relied on a pimp named David Reich to get them girls, and paid to watch girl-on-girl action, starring Paris Hilton. They'd often include August Anheuser Busch III, President of the Anheuser-Busch.[35]
Lolita Express
In September 2002, Spacey, along with Bill Clinton, flew to Africa on the private Boeing 727 of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, an American financier purported to have links to both Israeli intelligence agency Mossad and the CIA, who in 2008 was convicted of soliciting sex from an underage girl and quietly paid settlements to a number of alleged victims who said he serially molested them.[36] In January 2015, a 31-year-old American woman, Virginia Roberts, alleged in a sworn affidavit that at the age of 17, she had been held as a sex slave by Epstein. Roberts was originally recruited for Epstein by Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s then live-in girlfriend and the daughter of disgraced British newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell. Virginia Roberts Guiffre claimed that Epstein and Maxwell forced her to have sex with their high-powered friends and to describe the details so they would blackmail them. According to Roberts, sex orgies with underage girls would take place on Epstein’s private Boeing 727, nicknamed the “Lolita Express,” his mansion in New York, or his private island in the US Virgin Islands.
Bill Clinton was one of the most famous and frequent passengers on Epstein’s “Lolita Express” and a guest on his private island. When Roberts asked Epstein about Clinton’s presence on the island, he simply laughed it off, and said, “Well, he owes me a favour.”[37] Epstein also donated money to the Clinton Foundation even after his conviction. In early 2015, a photo emerged showing Ghislaine Maxwell at the wedding of Chelsea Clinton to Jewish investment banker Marc Mezvinsky in July 2010.
An annotated copy of the address book turned up in court proceedings after Epstein’s former house manager Alfredo Rodriguez tried to sell it in 2009. Rodriguez characterized it as containing the “Holy Grail” or “Golden Nugget” to unraveling Epstein’s child-sex network.”[38] The book, which was eventually obtained by the FBI, listed well-known political figures such as Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia, Tony Blair, Senator Edward Kennedy, and Henry Kissinger, Ehud Barak, John Kerry, David Rockefeller and even Donald Trump. Also listed were major political contributors like David Koch. It also included Alec Baldwin, Ralph Fiennes, Griffin Dunne, New York Post gossip Richard Johnson, Ted Kennedy, David Koch, filmmaker Andrew Jarecki, Democratic governor Bill Richardson, Kurt Cobain widow Courtney Love. Gawker, which originally obtained by a copy of the book, filed for bankruptcy a year later due to a defamation suit brought by Hulk Hogan and financed by Peter Thiel.[39] Epstein has partied with celebrities such as Katie Couric, George Stephanopoulos, Charlie Rose, and Woody Allen.[40]
There was also prominent celebrity lawyer, Israeli advocate and Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, British royal Prince Andrew. Dershowitz, a member of Chabad Lubavitcher, is known for his outspoken defense of Israel and his work with a series of celebrity clients, including represented O.J. Simpson, Mike Tyson, Patty Hearst, Leona Helmsley and Jim Bakker. His most notable cases include his role in 1984 in overturning the conviction of Claus von Bülow for the attempted murder of his wife, Sunny, and as the appellate adviser for the defense in the O.J. Simpson murder trial in 1995. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Dershowitz published an article in The San Francisco Chronicle entitled “Want to Torture? Get a Warrant,” in which he advocated the issuance of warrants permitting the torture of terrorism suspects, if there were an “absolute need to obtain immediate information in order to save lives coupled with probable cause that the suspect had such information and is unwilling to reveal it.”[41]
In June 2016, yet another “Jane Doe” filed a suit in New York accusing Epstein and Donald Trump of raping her at a series of sex parties when she was only 13. Mark Epstein, Jeffrey’s brother, testified in 2009 that Trump flew on Jeffrey’s private jet at least once. Yet, Trump’s attorney Alan Garten maintains that Trump had “no relationship” with Epstein, and only knew him because Epstein was a member of Mar-A-Lago, Trump’s private club and residence in Palm Beach. Trump denied associating with Epstein, he told New York magazine in 2002, “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it—Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”[42] Garten also insisted Trump had no relationship with Maxwell aside from the fact that she periodically showed up at Mar-A-Lago. Nevertheless, a 1997 photograph of Trump and Maxwell shows them “out on the town” in New York.
Alfa Bank
Blavatnik and Vekselberg had formed the Renova investment vehicle, and then the two joined with Mikhail Fridman’s Alfa Group to form the AAR venture.[43] In May 2017, Alfa filed a defamation lawsuit against BuzzFeed for publishing the Trump Dossier, which alleges financial ties and collusion between Putin, Trump, and Alfa Bank’s owners in an attempt to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. According to the Trump Dossier, a top level Russian government official reported that the Alfa Group, led by Fridman and his partners Petr Aven and German Khan, are on very good terms with Putin, providing him informal advice on foreign policy, and especially about the US. A key intermediary is Oleg Govorun, currently Head of a Presidential Administration department, and a close ally of Vladislav Surkov.[44] Govorun apparently previously served as Alfa’s “bag man” delivering illicit cash to Putin when he was mayor of St Petersburg. The Dossier alleges that Alfa held these details as “kompromat” on Putin, who in turn was able to use his own political influence to induce Alfa do his bidding.
On 31 October and 2 November, 2016, Slate reported that there had been unusual repeated activity from between two computer servers registered to Alfa Bank in Moscow and a server owned by the Trump Organization. The activity also included communications to a server at Spectrum Health, a medical facility chain led by Dick DeVos, the husband of Betsy DeVos.[45] On 10 March 2017, CNN reported that the FBI was continuing to investigate the unusual computer activity between Alfa Bank and the Trump Organization which had occurred in the summer of 2016, and which had been reported in the media just before the U.S. presidential election.[46] In June 2017, President Trump nominated Brian Benczkowski, Alfa’s former attorney, to be to become Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice.
On January 27, 2017, the Kushners invited Cohn, Mnuchin and several members of the President's cabinet for a Shabbat meal, along with Rabbi Levi Shemtov, from the local Chabad-Lubavitch house, which is only a few blocks away from their home. Also attending were Department of Commerce pick Wilbur Ross and his wife Hilary Geary Ross, and Strategic Communications Director Hope Hicks.[47] According to Sue Fishkoff, while the most powerful Chabad shliach (proselytizer) is Rabbi Berel Lazar, or “Putin’s Rabbi,” who heads the world’s third largest Jewish population, in terms of political influence, it would be Levi Shemtov and his father Avraham.[48] As head of the Central Committee of Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbis, Shemtov serves the daily governmental and diplomatic needs of the international Chabad-Lubavitch movement, flying to Buenos Aires, Moscow and other capitals. Shemtov is often at the White House, Pentagon, United States Department of State and other venues in official Washington, and maintains close relationships with numerous members of the US Congress, senior Administration officials and leaders in the international community, including a number of heads of state and government.[49]
[1] Jim Wolf. “U.S. revoked Deripaska visa – State Dep't official.” Reuters (May 11, 2007).
[2]“Deripaska, Mogilevich Hired Top U.S. Lobbyists, WSJ Says.” Moscow Times (April 18, 2007).
[3] Ruth May. “GOP campaigns took $7.35 million from oligarch linked to Russia.” Dallas News (August 3, 2017).
[4] Catherine Belton. “Rusal: A lingering heat.” Financial Times (January 25, 2010)
[5] Jeanne Whalen. “Aluminum Shake-Up May Loom in Russia.” Wall Street Journal (September 25, 2003).
[6] Ben Schreckinger. “The Happy-Go-Lucky Jewish Group That Connects Trump and Putin.” Politico (April 09, 2017).
[7] Richard Sakwa. The Crisis of Russian Democracy: The Dual State, Factionalism and the Medvedev Succession. (Cambridge University Press, 2011). p. 135.
[8] Ben Schreckinger. “The Happy-Go-Lucky Jewish Group That Connects Trump and Putin.” Politico (April 09, 2017).
[9] Ibid.
[10] Sierra Marquina. “Rupert Murdoch’s Ex-Wife Wendi Deng Is Dating Vladimir Putin.” US Weekly (March 31, 2016).
[11] Anneta Konstantinides. “Who cares about the tennis? Ivanka Trump sits with wife of Russian oligarch as she and husband Jared join Wendi Deng, Karlie Kloss, billionaire Clinton-backer David Geffen, Princess Beatrice and Democratic activist at the US Open.” The Daily Mail (September 12, 2016).
[12] Susanne Craig, Jo Becker & Jesse Drucker. “Jared Kushner, a Trump In-Law and Adviser, Chases a Chinese Deal.” New York Times (January 7, 2017).
[13] Jeff Horowitz & Chad Day. “Manafort Had Plan to Benefit Putin Government.” Bloomberg Politics (March 22, 2017).
[14] Ruth May. “GOP campaigns took $7.35 million from oligarch linked to Russia.” Dallas News (August 3, 2017).
[15] Jeff Horwitz and Chad Day. “AP Exclusive: Before Trump job, Manafort worked to aid Putin.” AP News (May 22, 2017).
[16] Tom Hamburger, Rosalind S.Helderman, Carol D.Leonnig & Adam Entous. "Manafort offered to give Russian billionaire ‘private briefings’ on 2016 campaign."The Washington Post. (September 20, 2017).
[17]"Music boss Len Blavatnik named as Britain's richest man". BBC News. (April 26, 2015).
[18] Rebecca Ballhaus. “GOP Funds Donald Trump’s Defense in Russia Probe With Help From a Handful of Wealthy People.” Wall Street Journal. (September 22, 2017).
[19]“Colel Chabad profile.” colelchabad.org (accessed February 23, 2015).
[20] Gil Hoffman. “Sources: Netanyahu falsely invoked billionaire's name.” Jerusalem Post (August 13, 2017).
[21] Ruth May. “GOP campaigns took $7.35 million from oligarch linked to Russia.” Dallas News (August 3, 2017).
[22] Tal Shalev & Lahav Harkov. “Kafe Knesset for September 11.” Jewish Insider (September 11, 2017).
[23] Allison Kaplan Sommer. “The Hollywood Connection Between Trump’s Treasury Pick and Billionaire at Center of Netanyahu Scandal.” Haaretz (November 30, 2016).
[24] Yaniv Kubovich. “Israeli Police to Question Billionaire in London as Part of Netanyahu Graft Probe.” Haaretz (August 29, 2017).
[25] Allison Kaplan Sommer. “The Hollywood Connection Between Trump’s Treasury Pick and Billionaire at Center of Netanyahu Scandal.” Haaretz (November 30, 2016).
[26] Hilary Lewis. “Dune Capital’s Steven Mnuchin Takes Stake in Relativity, Becomes Co-Chairman.” The Hollywood Reporter (October 2, 2014).
[27] Gregg Kilday. “Hollywood Sex Abuse Film Revealed: Explosive Claims, New Figures Named (Exclusive)” The Hollywood Reporter (December 11, 2014).
[28] David Robb. “‘An Open Secret’s Difficult Road To Distribution” Deadline (May 8, 2015)
[29] Richard Morgan. “Ex-prez claims Relativity was padding income with porn site.” New York Post (January 13, 2017).
[30] James Rainey. “Could the End Be Near for Beleaguered Relativity Media?” Variety (January 11, 2017).
[31] Evgenia Peretz. “Dana Brunetti, Hollywood’s Most Openly Disliked and Secretly Beloved Executive.” VanityFair (February 10, 2016).
[32] Morning Addition. “Young Hollywood Wooed by Presidential Hopefuls.” NPR (May 30, 2007).
[33] Tony Maglio. “Ryan Kavanaugh Tweets Rip Brett Ratner as Hollywood’s ‘Biggest Sleaze’” The Wrap (August 20, 2016).
[34] Todd S. Purdum. “The Comeback Id.” Vanity Fair (July 2008).
[35] Hamilton Nolan. “Book: Ron Burkle Hired Hookers, Paid Paris Hilton For 'Girl-on-Girl Action’” Gawker (September 6, 2009).
[36] Anna Pukas. “REVEALED: The woman at the centre of the Prince Andrew scandal…Ghislaine Maxwell” Sunday Express (January 6, 2015).
[37] Maureen Callahan. “Bill’s libido threatens to derail Hillary — again.” New York Post (February 14, 2015).
[38] Case 9:09-mj-08308-LRJ Document 3 Entered on FLSD Docket 12/09/2009 Page 2 of 7.
[39] Sarah McBride & Heather Somerville. “Tech billionaire Thiel helps Hulk Hogan.” Yahoo Tech (May 25, 2016).
[40] Paul Harris. “Prince Andrew’s link to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein taints royalty in US.” The Guardian (March 12, 2011).
[41] Alan M. Dershowitz, “Want to torture? Get a warrant,” The San Francisco Chronicle (January 22, 2002).
[42] Brandy Zadrozny. “The Billionaire Pedophile Who Could Bring Down Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.” The Daily Beast (June 29, 2016).
[43] Shamil Yenikeyeff. "BP, Russian billionaires, and the Kremlin: a Power Triangle that never was."Oxford Energy Comment. (November 23, 2011).
[44]“В Кремль вернулся опытный кремлевец”, Kommersant, (October 12, 2013).
[45] Franklin Foer. “Was a Trump Server Communicating With Russia?” Slate. (October 31, 2016).
[46] Pamela Brown & Jose Pagliery. “Sources: FBI investigation continues into ‘odd’ computer link between Russian bank and Trump Organization.” CNN (March 10, 2017).
[47] Kaileen Gaul. “The Kushners break bread with Team Trump: Jared and Ivanka welcome several members of the President's cabinet for the first big Shabbat meal at their new DC home.” Daily Mail (January 28, 2017).
[48] Sue Fishkoff. The Rebbe’s Army. (New York: Knopf Doubleday, 2003), p. 171.
[49] Sue Fishkoff. The Rebbe’s Army. (New York: Knopf Doubleday, 2003), p. 185.
