Alfa Bank, van der Zwann indictment and how it might relate to President Trump

Since the Steele Dossier came to light, so has a bank mentioned in it with many names and many branches...but the group is known as Alfa Bank. The indictment of a an attorney, Alex van der Zwann,  unconnected with the investigation until now may have far more significance than we might imagine.  The attorney has a family relationship to the bank and the Steele Dossier indicated that  Alfa bank figured in a large loan to the Trump organization.  The Steele Dossier may be considered unverified so far, but it may be in the process of being verified by  Special Counsel Robert Mueller.   Raising further suspicions is that the Mueller staff has a large number of prosecutors experienced in investigating financial crimes. We could say the plot is beginning to thicken a bit and no one outside the Mueller team really knows because they are so tight lipped. However, connecting the dots is still a fascinating exercise.  For the record, I am making note of this for what I suspect will be referred to in the future.

http://www.newsweek.com/paul-manafort-rick-gates-mueller-new-indictment-816955

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/mueller-files-new-charge-russia-probe-against-lawyer-accused-lying-n849566

From https://www.gq.com/story/how-muellers-latest-indictment-relates-to-the-steele-dossier

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/22/politics/new-charges-manafort-and-gates/index.html

A Moscow bank keeps popping up in the Trump-Russia affair. Ben Schreckinger reports with the latest.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alex-van-der-zwaan-sentenced-to-30-days-in-prison-for-lying-in-mueller-probe/

On Tuesday, Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller made another surprise indictment, this time of a London-based lawyer for allegedly lying to the FBI.

Like two of Mueller’s previous targets, Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates, the lawyer—a man named Alex Van Der Zwaan—had done work for Ukraine’s previous, pro-Russia government, which was overthrown in a popular uprising in 2014.

And according to the indictment, the false statements in question were about communications he had in 2016 with Rick Gates and an unnamed “Person A” related to that work.

So on its surface, Tuesday’s indictment relates solely to a single branch of Mueller’s investigation: Paul Manafort’s dealings with the pro-Russia faction in Ukraine.

But search beyond the scant details offered in the two-page indictment and there’s an intriguing link to a whole other branch of Trump-Russia inquiry: the Alfa Bank mystery.

As it so happens, Van Der Zwaan, the lawyer indicted Tuesday, is the son-in-law of Russian oligarch German Khan. Khan is a director and co-owner of Alfa Bank and one of three key leaders of its parent company, the sprawling conglomerate Alfa Group.

From November 11, 2017 posting:
Observations 2/23/18
Note to the reference to the Steele dossier, so far unverified, but it may become verified in the future.
For sometime the rumor has been circulating that Trump had $300 million in loans, debts he owed to the Russian private bank, Alfa, and that the Russians had evidence which was termed “salacious” (with conspiracy theorists thinking there may had been a honey trap involved). That these rumors and allegations made in the agent’s “report “were taken seriously was most likely because many of both sides of the aisle were puzzled why Donald Trump was constantly apologizing or was in sympathy with the policies of Russia. They were trying to find a reason why Donald Trump had made comments supportive of Russia’s territory grabbing in the Ukraine,Crimea, and Georgia, letting Russia finish and dominate the Syrian civil war, weakening NATO’s mutual defense responsibility and endangering the Baltics by failure to be protected from Russian expansionism, or denying of Russian interfering is US elections and hacking.. Sometimes Trump’s Putin bromance was owed to Trump’s vulnerability to flattery, and especially from the Russian president , whose leadership Trump openly admired. It was also owed to political connections and friendship of his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, with the deposed president of the Ukraine and an associate of Putin. The “report’ was called trash by Trump’s surrogates and spokespeople. All media, even the reporting Buzzfeed and CNN , referred to the report as unproven.


It stands in sharp contrast with the GOP presidential candidate himself, Donald Trump, who has been advocating a foreign policy that strangely runs parallel to the same as Russia's, from declaring NATO obsolete, not objecting to the Russian threats and incursions into Eastern Ukraine, and recognizing Russia's grab of the Crimea.  In fact, the mutual comments between Trump and Putin have been so complimentary that it has been timed a "bromance" of mutual admiration.

Not only is this a major issue in foreign policy, but in calls into question whether Trump can even negotiate with Putin in America's and our alliies' security interests without giving away the store to Russia.  Negotiation means give and take and the question remains what Trump would give away to make a deal. "

http://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2016/09/trumps-foreign-policy-make-russia-great.html

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/vice-presidential-debate-putin-mike-pence-donald-trump-229147

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/28/politics/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-quotes"

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Some background: (Note, the Steele Dossier is may haveen the key, here.)
 For some time, the question has been why has Donald Trump been so cozy with Russia? There has been a great deal of speculation ranging from Trump's debts to Russia oligarchs to blackmail , the connection with  the Russian Alfa Bank, with embarrassing pictures (a victim of a honey trap).  Fingers have been pointed to influencing Trump's views of Russia was his campaign manager, who departed the campaign mid year, Paul Manafort, who was an advisor to the ousted  president of the Ukraine who sought refuge in Moscow after a coup.  Congressional investigations into Russian influence and hacking  in the US elections are just getting underway.  Ukraine is involved. The Russians have conducted a stealth takeover of the eastern parts of that country and the West punished Russia with economic sanctions.  The Flynn issue involves lies about his pre- January conversations with the Russian ambassador over lifting those sanctions. The question arises was this a thank you for the role Russia played in helping Trump win by planting false news stories and by hacking and revealing damaging information regarding Hillary Clinton.


That there are many concerned about why Donald Trump only ever has kind words for Russia and their president Vladimir Putin, while being critical of even our closest allies and even calling NATO, our mutual defense treaty with Europe, obsolete.  It has set our Eastern Europe members of NATO on edge and one of President Obama's departing actions was to announce the placement of US troops in Poland as a signal to Russia not to mess with our Baltic members.  Trump and others, including libertarians, had already expressed concern about going to war to support the small trio of Baltic nations in spite of their NATO membership. Russians have always seen the Baltics, with their ports to the sea, as part of theirs since there is a large number of Russians living in those areas left over from the old Soviet  military occupations days when the Baltics were their satellites.  Russia has a modus operandi of using "saving discrimination against Russian minorities" as an excuse to grab territory and the Baltics are ripe targets.  Their membership in NATO has made Russia think twice. Ukraine, Crimea, and Georgia, recent targets of Russian grabs, are not part of NATO and are not under NATO's protections.  Flynn was Donald Trump's closest campaign adviser on foreign affairs throughout  the campaign.

You can make this stuff up

I posted this below on Sunday, May 14, but the next morning Joe Scarborough (MSNBC Morning Joe) "off the top of his head", came up with a What If...what if Trump was involved in money laundering..since he had already been charged for money laundering by regulatory agencies and paid fines to settle the matter concerning his Atlantic City casinos. He noted real estate and casinos have often been used as the vehicle through which to launder money. If that appears to be the case in the current times, with or without Russian involvement, that kind of accusation would make charges of obstruction of justice pale in comparison. I had in a prior post noted that the Russians would know if money laundering were involved and could use this as a way to "compromise" Trump, making him vulnerable to blackmail and their control.

This totally falls into the category of conspiracy theories, and there is no proof of this happening that is revealed to the public, but if this were the case, as I wrote ast week in the post, Firing Comey the Mother of all Political Bombs, "The unanswered questions. What new evidence could have the FBI found? Would it have been Trump himself actual coordinating with the Russians during the 2016 campaign (aka treason) or that Trump told a lie about his business dealings with the Russians? Was money laundering or financial crimes were involved because a recent request to the Treasury department showed FBI investigators pursuing that angle? Or was Trump himself "compromised", open to blackmail by the Russians? The FBI viewed the investigation as Russian activities that involved espionage (counter intelligence) but not criminal activity, so it is not just matters of lying in sworn testimony or failure to file disclosure of being a foreign agent or failure to fill out a tax return correctly. Or is there something else? This is the time to get Trump's tax returns he has worked so hard to conceal, if the latter is a tree the FBI was barking up. An important clue may be in that. "

. In a blog posting May 13, Is It Time to Talk Impeachment", "What seems to me most likely is that Trump's business dealings with Russia, loans and investments in his businesses, may have compromised Trump himself, opening him to blackmail.  That could also explain his “bromance” with Putin and his campaign advocacy for policies in synch with  Russia’s, denial that there was any Russian interference in 2016 elections in spite of all intelligence agencies testifying to the contrary. It also explains why he as taking been great pains to keep his tax filings secret."

Update 5/19/17: Special prosecutor turns focus to financial dealings: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russia-probe-reaches-current-white-house-official-people-familiar-with-the-case-say/2017/05/19/

You can make this stuff up into a who dunnit political conspiracy theory legal issue fiction novel. I am a real fan of John Grisham and I have read nearly every book he has written.  His first breakthrough novel  The Firm   educated the world how money laundering worked and the role off-shore banks played in it.

With great apologies to him, I have come up with a brief outline for his next novel, a sequel to The Firm.

As all fiction writers do, my plot outline is a disclaimer that  the events described here are fake, and any resemblances to people living or dead are fake, too  You can make this stuff up.

A Texas multi -millionaire finds himself in trouble with some business dealings as the 2008 financial  crisis descends on him.  The only money available to borrow to keep from going belly up is in an oil rich country far away.  However, the country had been a one time enemy, but now relations had warmed up, but not enough to make it good PR to do much business with them.  The only thing booming in the world economy is the price of oil, giving that country some serious pocket change to lend out.  The would be lender suggests he gets a loan from another country’s bank, which is still in decent financial shape, and that the oil rich country would then buy the loan from that bank  However to pay it back, the oil rich country has some favors  to ask of of the Texan.  Help them in the future with other deals and always be a friend to the oil rich country. The Texan agrees because he also knows the oil rich country could get him into trouble back home if the deal and future deals were disclosed.   The Texan makes it big; becomes governor, and then through his business dealings abroad he qualifies for international credentials as a expert and becomes secretary of state, appointed by his good friend and past business associate, now President..    Near war breaks out over bordering territory to the oil rich state between the oil rich state and  the US who believes the oil rich state is interfering with US strategic interests and the secretary of state is now in a dilemma, how can he help the oil rich state and the US at the same time and still not have the oil rich state blackmail him into making a settlement that favors the oil rich state.  The only one who knows all of this is the Texan’s son who stumbled on some documents and confronted his father, and they had a huge falling out. The son is about to blow the whistle, The son is also a law school classmate of the usual Grisham character lawyer, slightly shady having done some money laundering defense work for clients, but the son calls the lawyer and asks him to find out what happened He found some copies of strange documents that he cannot decipher.….the novel takes it from there, with the lawyer untangling the question of who done it..suspecting maybe .the oil rich country that didn’t want the relations they were hoping for go south  acting to protect the compromised, blackmailed father. Or maybe the President himself who was part of the original loan deal.  All kinds of agencies get involved, the CIA, the Financial Crimes Bureau of the Treasury Department, and the President himself who hired the Texan, his former business partner, in the first place, not to mention vested interests in international money laundering. Witnesses keep disappearing, or turning up dead. The son disappears, too. Take it from there and have fun, John Grisham ...or are you already writing something like this?

Of course, some times real life and truth are stranger than fiction.