Shamelessly stolen from Reddit. Remarkable writeup. Also, as with the Trump/Russia conspiracy we already know took place, I have little doubt that Fox News as an organization is an agent of the Russian government at this point.
Trump, Murdoch, Lauder, Giuliani, and Russia: The Tangled Web
Roy Cohn: US Political Nexus
In the 1980‘s Ron Lauder (1), Rupert Murdoch (2), and Donald Trump (3) shared the same mob-connected lawyer, Roy Cohn. As a matter of fact Roy Cohn even introduced Roger Stone to Trump in 1979 (3).
Stone appeared on East 68th Street to find Cohn, just awakened, in his robe, sitting with one of his clients, Mob boss “Fat Tony” Salerno, of the Genovese crime family. “In front of [Roy] was a slab of cream cheese and three burnt slices of bacon,” Stone remembered. “He ate the cream cheese with his pointing finger. He listened to my pitch and said, ‘You need to see Donald Trump. I will get you in, but then you are on your own.’ ”
Shortly after, Stone founded Black Manafort & Stone with Paul Manafort and Charlie Black and took on Donald Trump as their first client (3). Stone later introduced Trump to Manafort in 1988 at the Republican National Committee (4).
http://www.maryellenmark.com/text/magazines/vanity fair/925E-000-007.htmlhttps://consortiumnews.com/2016/06/19/how-roy-cohn-helped-rupert-murdoch-2/https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/06/donald-trump-roy-cohn-relationshiphttps://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/10/a-timeline-of-paul-manaforts-relationship-with-the-trump-world.htmlEnter Russia
In 1986, Russia’s ambassador to the US, Yuri Dubinin, and Donald Trump dined at a luncheon hosted by the Lauders. The following year Dubinin invited Trump to what would become Trump’s first of many trips to Russia. There Trump toured possible locations for a potential Trump Tower in Moscow (1). By 1989 the Lauders made their own ventures into Russia, opening up their first Estee Lauder boutique in Moscow, just blocks from the Red Square (2).
That same year Ron Lauder joined forces with Arthur Finkelstein and Roger Ailes to run for New York mayor against Rudy Giuliani. When Lauder lost the primary to Giuliani, Ailes jumped shipped and joined Giuliani’s team. Ultimately, however, Giuliani lost the election (3), though he'd go on to attain the mayorship in 1993.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/19/trump-first-moscow-trip-215842http://articles.latimes.com/1989-11-16/news/mn-2346_1_estee-lauder-shophttps://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/02/nyregion/president-s-brother-is-promoting-a-giuliani-lauder-alliance.htmlThe Fall of Boris Berezovsky and Rise of Roman Abramovich
Mob-connected Boris Berezovsky benefitted handsomely from the Soviet Union’s march away from communism, becoming one of Russia’s first billionaires through his car dealership company, Logovaz, founded in 1989 (1). In 1995 the Russian presidency, helmed by Boris Yeltsin, was at risk of falling back into the hands of the Communists, so Yeltsin sought assistance from those who benefited most from his policies.
[Yelstin] was desperately in need of funds, and turned to men such as [Roman] Abramovich and Berezovsky, whom he invited to participate in the so-called "loans for shares" scheme in return for financial backing. (2)
For Berezovsky and his protege, Abramovich, that was with Sibneft, which they acquired in 1995. In exchanged for being brought into the loans for shares program, Abramovich was forced to pay Berezovsky $1 billion across 6 years for “kryshna”, or mafia protection (3).
In January 1996, during the Davos World Economic Forum, Berezovsky returned the favor and formed the Davos Pact with other newly minted Russia oligarchs, including Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven of Alfabank, to bankroll Yeltsin's campaign (4). In the end, though legally capped at $3 million, estimates range that Yeltsin’s campaign spent between $100-$500 million (5). They also brought in many America politicos to assist as well, including George Gorton, Richard Dresner, Joe Shumate (6), and Roger Stone-protege Michael Caputo (7).
Soon after Yeltsin’s victory, Ron Lauder traveled to Moscow to celebrate the opening of another boutique on Red Square. A lavish party was thrown in Lauder’s honor, even attended by Yeltsin himself. And the oligarch who threw the party - Boris Berezovsky (1). At some point Berezovsky would also team up with Rupert Murdoch to form Logovaz News Corporation that invested in Russia media, including Nashe Radio (8).
During Putin’s ascension toward power he found critics in a number of oligarchs that previously supported Yeltsin, including Berezovsky, who criticized Putin’s lean toward authoritarianism. In 2000 Putin succeeded Yeltsin and by the end of the year Berezovsky sought political asylum in London. In 2013 he died a mysterious death (4). Abramovich, however, stayed loyal to Putin and on February 17, 2000 made a deal with Russian oligarch and head of RusAl, Oleg Deripaska, to end the aluminum wars and turn Abramovich from merely rich to a full blown oligarch himself (9).
https://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/1996/1230/5815090a.htmlhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/may/08/russia.footballhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Abramovich#Acquisition_of_Sibneft,_aluminium_wars,_and_loans-for-shareshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Berezovsky_(businessman)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Yeltsin_presidential_campaign,_1996https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/sep/07/film.russiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Caputohttps://www.news24.com/xArchive/Archive/Magnate-tycoon-own-airwaves-20010705https://www.theguardian.com/business/2003/jul/06/russia.footballRon Lauder
In 1995 Ron Lauder pushed Bibi Netanyahu to hire past political operative Arthur Finkelstein for Netanyahu’s first run for Prime Minister of Israel (1). Finkelstein also did work for the Trump Organization (2) and, according to Glenn Simpson’s congressional testimony, worked with Roger Stone and Paul Manafort in Ukraine (3).
...Finkelstein worked with Stone and Manafort in Ukraine in or around 2005, 2006, for the same cast of bad guys.
Finkelstein's longtime business associate and adviser to Netanyahu, George Birnbaum, would later reach out to Paul Manafort's deputy, Rick Gates, when Gates joined Trump's campaign, and presented a plan for a campaign of social media manipulation run by Israeli intelligence officers through Psy-Group, owned by Joel Zamel (25). Later Erik Prince would arrange for Joel Zamel to meet with George Nader and Don Jr. to discuss Zamel's proposal. Nader ultimately paid $2 million dollars for the work (26).
Ron Lauder and Netanyahu would become close and in 1998, Lauder, Netanyahu, and George Nader joined forces in ultimately failed negotiations between Israel and Syria (4). In the 2000's, after spending a year a Prague prison for pedophilia, Nader moved to the UAE and quickly rebuilt his political connections, becoming trusted emissary to the crown princes of both Saudi Arabia (MBS) and the UAE (MBZ). Soon after, Erik Prince of Blackwater hired Nader as a "business development consultant" from March 2004 - Nov 2008 (33) to acquire security contracts with Iraq (30). In 2010, as Blackwater struggled under scandal, Prince moved to the UAE himself and founded another private security firm, r2, directly financed my MBZ. R2 was tasked with securing a number of Middle East power plants yet to be built (31).
In Dec 2016 after a secret meeting with MBZ at Trump Tower that included Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner, and Michael Flynn (which was at the center of the unmasking controversy), Prince discussed with Nader and MBZ a back-channel to Russia. At the time Nader was promoting a plan to destabilize Iran using private security contractors (26). A month later Nader and MBZ introduced Prince to the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund in Seychelles (32), a meeting currently under investigation by the FBI special counsel. Nader is cooperating with Mueller.
In 2000, Allen Roth, Lauder’s longtime aide who helped in his 1989 mayoral run, founded One Jerusalem and later its offshoot, Secure America Now. Ron Lauder and Robert Mercer are top donors to Secure America Now and Devon Gaffney Cross, on the board of One Jerusalem (6), is sister to Michael Flynn associate Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy (7). One Jerusalem is currently under investigation for a corruption scheme involving a Netanyahu aide (5).
In an email to George Nader, Elliott Broidy claims Secure America Now was one of the companies he worked with (8). In 2003, Elliott Broidy bribed the New York State pension into investing in a private equity firm he founded to invest in Israel (9). In 2005 Broidy started a private security contractor business, Circinus, that recently acquired a $200 million contract with the UAE (28), arranged by George Nader a(29). Broidy is currently the subject of a criminal probe in Ukraine for working with a US sanctioned Russian bank, VTB, in 2014 (27).
In 1997 Ron Lauder teamed up with a Vadim Rabinovich on a media venture into Ukraine (10).
American Government officials acknowledged that embassy officials had told Mr. Lauder and other company officials about Mr. Rabinovich's conviction and his links to Grigory Loutchansky, a Russian whose company, Nordex, is suspected of having ties to criminal organizations.
In 2003 the Lauder Institute teamed up with Russia Oligarch Michael Fridman and German Khan’s Alfabank to form the “Excellence in Foreign Investement in Russia” award, with Leonard Lauder and Richard Burt on the board (11). Richard Burt, working for Diligence, had previously worked as a lobbyist for Oleg Deripaska, Deripaska’s RusAl, and Gazprom, and was once implicated in a scam to steal information from an Alfabank competitor (12)(13). Diligence also happens to be owned by Deripaska's London-based business partner, Nathanial Rothschild (23). Burt, along with Paul Manfort and George Papadopoulos, edited Trump’s first speech on foreign policy, where Trump promised Russia a great deal (14).
In 2004 Ron Lauder sold shares of Channel-9 and Channel-10 to Russian Oligarch Lev Leviev, a close associate of Roman Abramovich (19). Lev Leviev would later do business with Jared Kushner (22). In 2013 Lauder negotiated selling a major stake in Channel-10 to Len Blavatnik (18), a Russia oligarch currently under investigation by Mueller (20). And here is Lauder hanging out with Roman Abramovich in 2018 (21).
In November 2014 Ron Lauder met with Alfa-bank founders Mikhail Fridman and German Khan in London (15). German Khan’s son-in-law pled guilty for lying to Mueller about his work with Paul Manafort.
On March 31st, Papdopoulos told Trump he can “arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin” (16). On April 19 2016, Ron Lauder personally met with Putin (17).
More recently, in October 2018 Trump dispatched Ron Lauder to met with the president of Palenstine behind Jared Kushner's back to reinstate peace talks (24).
Lauder had proposed running a back channel between the PA leader and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but the initiative ultimately fizzled.
https://www.thejc.com/news/israel/arthur-finkelstein-little-known-strategist-who-changed-the-course-of-israel-s-history-dies-aged-72-1.443165https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_J._Finkelsteinhttps://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:House-Intel-Glenn-Simpson-Transcript.pdf/113https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-trump-russia-mueller-probe-the-israel-connections-1.6116639https://www.timesofisrael.com/ex-netanyahu-aide-received-money-from-group-tied-to-billionaire-lauder-report/http://powerbase.info/index.php/Devon_Crosshttps://www.newsweek.com/ezra-cohen-watnick-donald-trump-devin-nunes-russia-barack-obama-wiretap-susan-583904https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/21/us/politics/george-nader-elliott-broidy-uae-saudi-arabia-white-house-influence.htmlhttps://www.haaretz.com/1.5040615https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/05/world/a-cosmetics-heir-s-joint-venture-is-tainted-by-ukrainian-s-past.htmlhttps://web.archive.org/web/20060927104324/https://alfabank.com/media/news/2006/06/20/https://www.thenation.com/article/mccains-kremlin-ties/https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/29/haley-barbour-iran-nuclear-program-bgr_n_1375102.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/28/us/politics/transcript-trump-foreign-policy.htmlhttps://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/russian-philanthropists-bound-for-london-1.61095https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/30/george-papadopoulos-timeline-trump-campaign-adviser-russia-linkshttps://www.haaretz.com/jewish/top-jewish-leader-lauder-thanks-putin-for-fighting-anti-semitism-1.5436695https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-jewish-billionaire-len-blavatnik-may-buy-control-of-ch-10-1.5289898https://www.haaretz.com/1.4746237https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/exclusive-special-counsel-probing-donations-foreign-connections-trump/story?id=55054482http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/241425https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/24/jared-kushner-new-york-russia-money-launderinghttps://www.thenation.com/article/mccains-kremlin-ties/https://www.timesofisrael.com/lauder-said-to-meet-abbas-on-trumps-behalf-in-bid-to-jump-start-peace-talks/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/08/us/politics/rick-gates-psy-group-trump.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/19/us/politics/trump-jr-saudi-uae-nader-prince-zamel.htmlhttps://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/03/trump-donor-ukraine-criminal-probe-180307124432781.htmlhttps://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/04/elliott-broidy-history-bribery-pro-israel-advocacy-180404120351079.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/21/us/politics/george-nader-elliott-broidy-uae-saudi-arabia-white-house-influence.htmlhttps://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-trump-saudi-uae-princes-20180521-story.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/world/middleeast/15prince.htmlhttps://www.cnn.com/2017/09/13/politics/susan-rice-house-investigators-unmasked-trump-officials/index.htmlhttps://littlesis.org/relationships/1457568Rupert Murdoch and wife Wendi Deng
In the 90‘s Murdoch ventured into Russia media with mob-linked Boris Berezovsky of Logovaz. The two formed a joint venture, Logovaz News Corp, that invested in a number of Russian media properties, including Nashe Radio (1). Then in 2002 Murdoch entered into the Russian billboard industry (2):
By all accounts, the unexpected break for Murdoch in the Russian ad market came in 2002 after the assassination of Vladimir Kanevsky, then the billboard king of Moscow. In February of that year, at an intersection near the Kremlin, a man in a black ski cap walked up to Kanevsky's car and pumped five rounds into his head and chest.
Murdoch's Russia ventures have been investigated for bribery. This was all in the background when, in 1999, Rupert Murdoch married Wendi Deng whom he and the FBI suspect of being a spy (3).
Since their divorce, Murdoch has been telling anybody who would listen that Wendi is a Chinese spy--and had been throughout the marriage.
In 2006, when Jared Kushner bought the Observer, Murdoch became his close mentor (4).
When Jared Kushner took over the New York Observer in mid-2006 (around the time he met Ivanka Trump, whom he would marry in 2009) he turned to Murdoch for counsel.
Jared and Ivanka were known to double-date with Murdoch and his ex-wife Wendi Deng, and even after Murdoch’s split with Deng, the two women and the two men remained close.
Kushner then directed the Observer erase such stories, and more (4).
The erasures first occurred under the leadership of then-editor-in-chief Elizabeth Spiers, who told The Post she was unaware of the erasure but said Kushner previously requested over the phone she couch stories about media mogul Rupert Murdoch, his mentor.
In 2007 Wendi Deng, introduced Ivanka Trump to the wife of Roman Abramovich, Dasha Zhukova (5). In 2010, Jared Kushner's brother, Joshua, invested in a joint venture founded by Zhukova and Deng, Arsty.net (6). Then in 2014 Zhukova invited Deng, Ivanka, and Kushner to Moscow where they partied with Abramovich, Viktor Vekselberg, Len Blavatnik, and Alfa-bank execs, including the son-in-law of Sergei Lavrov (7).
A week before inauguartion Ivanka Trump hosted a secret dinner at the home of Wendi Deng where she collected advice from a series of powerful business women (8). The two then hung out during Trump's inauguaration (9).
In 2010, Israel granted oil rights in Syria to Rupert Murdoch and Lord Jacob Rothschild, both of Genie Energy (10). Jacob also sits on the international advisory board to Blackstone Group (13), who's founder, Steve Schwarzman, sat on the board of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (14). Jacob's brother, Nathaniel, is also business partners with Oleg Deripaska, and owns Diligence, which employed Richard Burt to lobby on behalf of Deripska, RusAl, and Gazprom (11).
Richard Burt was John McCains top policy adviser in 2000 and an adviser to McCain during McCain's 2008 run for the presidency. Nathanial, Burt's employer, ended up hosting a dinner for John McCain that gained much criticism at the time (11):
...one conservative watchdog group in the US went after McCain half a year ago for facilitating a fundraiser at the home of Nat Rothschild, the Deripaska associate at the center of the Osborne-Mandelson row. Foreign donations, even "in-kind" contributions such as assistance raising money, are prohibited under American election law.
In 2018 Ron Lauder awarded the entire Rothschild family the Herzl Award (12).
https://www.news24.com/xArchive/Archive/Magnate-tycoon-own-airwaves-20010705http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2085878,00.htmlhttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/16/fbi-warned-jared-kushner-wendi-deng-could-use-friendship-push/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/16/donald-trump-rupert-murdoch-friendship-fox-newshttps://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/a12106454/who-is-dasha-zhukova/https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a18929591/wendi-murdoch-interview-artsy/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-18/billionaire-ally-of-putin-socialized-with-kushner-ivanka-trumphttp://fortune.com/2017/01/13/ivanka-trump-dinner-murdoch/https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4139016/Ivanka-poses-Wendi-Deng-night-inauguration.htmlhttps://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/02/israel-grants-oil-rights-in-syria-to-murdoch-and-rothschild/https://www.thenation.com/article/mccains-kremlin-ties/http://thejewishvoice.com/2018/10/10/ron-lauder-present-theodor-herzl-award-rothschild-family-nyc/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Rothschild,_4th_Baron_Rothschildhttps://www.businessinsider.com/russian-investment-fund-connected-to-us-investors-sanctioned-2015-7Rudy Giuliani
In 1993 Rudy Giuliani attained the mayorship of New York and developed a close bond with Bernard Kerik, a police detective for the NYPD who once helped arrange security for the Saudi royal family and assisted Giuliani through his campaign. When airplanes struck the World Tower in 2001, it was Kerik standing by Giuliani’s side (1).
During the 90‘s, however, Kerik developed mob-ties, details which spilled out in 2004 nomination process to become head of Homeland Security. One of those ties, whom the mob hired on Kerik’s request, was Lawrence Ray (2). In 2009 Kerik pled guilty to corruption, tax evasion, and making false statements.
In 1996 Ray was indicted for a pump-and-dump stock scheme run by several New York crime families, including the Gambinos, and the Russian mob, including none other than Felix Sater (3) who later arranged for Ivanka Trump to sit in Putin’s chair in Moscow and worked with the Trump Organization on the fraud-laden Trump SoHo project (5).
Interstate Industrial was also tied to former Gambino captain, Dominic Borghese (13). Another member of the Gambino crime family, Julius Nasso, ran his own mob-linked concrete company that worked jointly with S&A on Trump Tower . S&A was part owned by Roy Cohn's other client, "Fat Tony" of the Genovese crime family (12).
Julius Nasso's nephew of the same name partnered with Paul Manaofort to found Manhattan Pictures and produced Steven Seagal film. Ultimately Nasso spent a year in prison for extorting Steven Seagal (14) business partner in Manhattan Pictures, but not before the two made shadowy dealings with a company that sold Russian nuclear tech to US companies (15).
Also in 1996, just months after Yeltsin’s victory, Rupert Murdoch debuted Fox News Channel and appointed Roger Ailes founding CEO. Immediately Fox News Channel enlisted New York mayor Rudy Giuliani to pressure Time Warner to transmit Fox News (6). Giuliani also developed a close relationship with Donald Trump during his mayorship, including appearing with Trump in a comedy video in 2000 (7) and borrowing Trump’s private plane for a trip to Israel in 2001 (8).
In August 2001 Kerik traveled to Israel and for the first time met Israeli billionaire Eitan Wertheimer, who ran a company that did business with US defense contractors (16). The following December Giuliani borrowed Trump's plane to visit Israel himself (17). In 2002 Giuliani founded Giuliani Partners with Bernard Kerik and in 2003, while Kerik traveled to Iraq as part of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, he met up with Wertheimer again and received a "loan" a failed to document it (16).
In 2004 Giuliani Partners obtained Triglobal as a client. Triglobal, a company that connects Western businesses to the former Soviet Union, quickly shuttled Giuliani to Moscow to meet with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, amongst other prominent politicians and business men of Russia (9).
In February 2013 Giulani met with Emin Agalarov, who’s publicist arranged the Trump Tower meeting with Russian agent Natalia Veselnitskaya (10). Over the years Giulani’s clients have included Alfabank, Rosneft, and Ukrainian politician Vitali Klitschko, all connected to Triglobal (11).
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/30/giuliani.transcript/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/03/us/politics/03kerik.htmlhttps://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article174493821.htmlhttps://www.businessinsider.com/ivanka-trump-putin-chair-felix-sater-russia-2017-8https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-ivanka-trump-and-donald-trump-jr-avoided-a-criminal-indictmenthttps://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/04/nyregion/giuliani-pressures-time-warner-to-transmit-a-fox-channel.htmlhttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/rudy-guiliani-donald-trump-drag-video-seduce-new-york-mayor-us-president-a8344921.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/11/nyregion/giuliani-used-trump-s-plane-for-weekend-visit-to-israel.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/us/politics/donald-trump-cabinet-rudy-giuliani.htmlhttps://thesternfacts.com/rudy-giuliani-knows-russian-oligarchs-son-who-linked-trump-campaign-with-spies-3a1a366a90fdhttps://thesternfacts.com/the-trump-russia-dossier-includes-rudy-giulianis-clients-alfa-bank-rosneft-and-qatar-1353876e789ehttps://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/16/nyregion/convicted-crime-chief-charged-in-bid-rigging.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/20/nyregion/mob-ties-may-be-innocent-casino-panel-member-says.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_R._Nassohttps://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2017/11/28/florida-lawmakers-former-company-used-manafort-to-pitch-russian-developed-technology-to-us-government-123127https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/img-src-http-talkingpointsmemo-com-images-bush-kerik-lawn-muck-jpg-vspace-5-hspace-5-align-left-billionaire-businessman-gave-kerik-250k-loanhttps://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/11/nyregion/giuliani-used-trump-s-plane-for-weekend-visit-to-israel.html
EPT
