Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Looks like we now have the new Republican Party motto! It's a refreshingly honest; I'll give them that! And, I can certainly see it on a red hat for 2020.

The Republican mind is really a thing to behold. It's down right inspiring. In fact, the mind of Wilbur Ross inspires me to want to tie him to a chair in an abandoned warehouse and ask him (and all Republicans) the following questions:

1. Can you please tell me what bank will give a loan to someone who isn't receiving a paycheck and is about to either starve or lose their home?

2. Are the interest costs incurred by your plan, just a part of a larger plot to increase the profits of your sleazy bank friends? (Rhetorical, of course)

3. Can you recommend some Russian mobster friends or loansharks that federal workers can get some quick cash from? (Also rhetorical)

4. Would you like a blindfold?

Shutting Down The Government Was A Disastrous Mistake For Trump-- I Hope Weak-Knee-ed Freshman Dems Don't Wave The White Flag While He's Surrounded

Anyone think that the 3 week plan to halt the Trump-McConnell shutdown 'til after the Super Bowl is going to work out? Pelosi was able to force him to agree to "temporarily reopen the government while talks continue on his demand for border wall money, handing Democrats a major victory in the protracted standoff... "If a 'fair deal' does not emerge by Feb. 15, Trump said, there could be another government shutdown or he could declare a national emergency, a move that could allow him to direct the military to build the wall without congressional consent. Such an action would likely face an immediate legal challenge."

On Wednesday afternoon, the House passed H.R. 648, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019 which-- if passed by the Senate and signed by Trump, would fund the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Justice, science-related agencies, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of the Treasury, the judiciary, the Executive Office of the President, the District of Columbia, the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Forest Service, the Department of State, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. It passed 234 to 180.

Only 10 Republicans had the guts to break with McCarthy and Trump to cross the aisle and vote to pass it without tacking on money for Trump's vanity wall. This is the list-- alongside the percentage of votes each got in their November reelection contests:

• Brian Fitzpatrick (PA)- 51.3%
• Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA)- 52.7%
• Will Hurd (TX)- 49.2%
• John Katko (NY)- 52.6%
• Adam Kinzinger (IL)- 59.1%
• Michael Simpson (ID)- 60.7%
• Chris Smith (NJ)- 55.4%
• Elise Stefanik (NY)- 56.1%
• Fred Upton (MI)- 50.2%
• Greg Walden (OR)- 56.3%

A few minutes earlier, the House rejected the Republicans' Motion to Recommit, a distraction from the Democrats' attempt to open the government. Every Republican voted for it. 215 Democrats voted against it and 10 Democrats, mostly on the right-fringe of the party voted with the Republicans. Remembering their names will help you define the 116th Congress' potential bad boys as we start seeing vote patterns develop. Mostly freshmen, they were led by two of the worst corrupt conservatives in the Democratic Party, Wall Street whore Josh Gottheimer and careerist nothingburger Conor "Lost Little" Lamb.

• Joe Cunningham (SC)- 50.6%
• Sharice Davids (New Dem-KS)- 53.6%
• Antonio Delgado (NY)- 51.4%
• Jared Golden (ME)- 50.6%
• Josh Gottheimer (Blue Dog-NJ)- 56.2%
• Conor Lamb (PA)- 56.3%
• Ben McAdams (Blue Dog-UT)- 50.1%
• Max Rose (Blue Dog-NY)- 53.0%
• Xochitl Torres Small (Blue Dog-NM)- 50.9%
• Jeff Van Drew (Blue Dog-NJ)- 52.9%

How embarrassing is it that Trump's Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, slime-ball billionaire whose negligence in a coal mining enterprise once killed a dozen miners, doesn't understand why furloughed federal workers need food banks. He didn't ask why they can't eat cake. He asked why they can't take out bridge loans.



And this right on top of Fox News reporting that more voters say the Trump-McConnell government shutdown is a bigger problem than Trump's nonsensical border emergency: 75% vs 59%.

Reporting for Bloomberg News, Joshua Green wrote yesterday that the Trump-McConnell shutdown is not only dragging on longer and causing more economic damage, it’s also resisting the usual forces of resolution.

From the beginning, the Trump-led shutdown over a border wall has been different. It effectively kicked off on live television when Trump staged a showdown with incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and was then gulled into taking responsibility for what was about to happen. “I will be the one to shut it down,” Trump boasted to a grinning Schumer. “I’m not going to blame you for it.”

When government funding expired at midnight on Dec. 21, CNN and MSNBC rolled out the usual “shutdown clock” and reporters scrambled to find victims—not hard when 800,000 federal workers have had their paychecks halted. Furloughed workers and their families are lining up for whole city blocks to collect donated groceries. From airports to federal prisons, absenteeism is soaring. “This is uncharted territory, and with increased callouts citing financial hardship, this could have a compounding effect and force contingency plans at airports nationwide,” says Michael Bilello, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration.

The economic damage has begun to register, too. The shutdown has crimped forecasts across Wall Street and brought on “emerging headwinds” that New York Federal Reserve President John Williams says could shave a full percentage point from first-quarter growth. The University of Michigan’s latest consumer sentiment index dropped to the lowest level of Trump’s presidency. Even the White House is sounding an alarm. Kevin Hassett, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, who initially likened the furloughs to “a vacation” that would leave workers “better off,” reversed track on Jan. 15 and said the council’s own estimates show the stalemate reducing growth by 0.13 percentage point for each week it drags on. A week later, he warned of zero growth if the crisis extends through March. “If the government shutdown continues,” said Torsten Slok, chief international economist at Deutsche Bank, “it could cause a recession.”

Despite all this, Trump doesn’t sound as if he’s about to relent. His poll numbers have worsened, but not dramatically. Members of Congress feel no compunction about leaving town. The president apparently even exhausted the cable news industry’s capacity to sustain a ratings-boosting atmosphere of alarm: CNN’s shutdown clock has vanished, while MSNBC, loath to give up entirely on a crisis that should be hurting the president, has swapped its clock for a more sedate calendar.

There can be no question we’ve passed into what a recent Goldman Sachs note calls “an era of political polarization, uncertainty, and dysfunction.” With Trump’s presidency entering Year 3, that hardly seems like breaking news. But as this crisis indicates, the dysfunction is different now. The virus has mutated.

There are two main reasons this shutdown has become a little scary-- and together they should cause us to shift our appraisal of U.S. politics to something even more dire than it was before the showdown began. The first way this shutdown is distinct is that the president himself engineered it. Previous ones were always forced by the legislative branch to try to extract concessions-- legal status for immigrants, reduced health-care spending-- from a president of the opposing party. Such hostage-taking usually proved futile and ended in disappointment.

...As the late economist Herbert Stein famously remarked, “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” At some point, the standoff will end because the economic damage will compound to an unbearable point. For all its symbolism, Trump’s shutdown has always been a big fight over a small number-- the $5.7 billion he’s demanding for his wall is about one-tenth of 1 percent of the total federal budget.

Whatever the resolution, whenever it comes, it shouldn’t obscure the alarming dysfunction the standoff has exposed. Nor should the future implications go unheeded. In the past, the party that forced a shutdown always relented when the broad middle turned against it. Trump has already broken this mold, since, on the matter of a U.S. taxpayer-funded border wall, he never had the middle to begin with. He’s not acting at the behest of his party, either. Senate Republicans already voted unanimously to fund the government without wall money and went weak-kneed only at his insistence. Rather, Trump’s decision to close the government was driven by a desire to fortify his self-image as someone able to bend Washington to his will on the matter of greatest importance to his staunchest supporters: immigration. The fallout of this Fox News fantasy doesn’t appear to weigh on him.

Perhaps he’ll manage to secure funding by agreeing in the end to the obvious deal of trading DACA protections for it. But what if he doesn’t? Does anyone imagine Trump will be satisfied to run for reelection with his central promise unfulfilled? Or will he seek out a new point of leverage, one that Democrats can’t exploit as easily as the current shutdown?

On March 1 the U.S. debt ceiling will be reinstated. By late summer the Treasury Department’s “extraordinary measures” will be exhausted and the government’s borrowing authority will run out. House Democrats have already changed their rules to make raising the debt ceiling easier. But ultimately, it’s up to Trump. Let’s say he’s forced to make a humiliating climbdown in the current impasse. What’s to stop him from, say, refusing to raise the debt limit without wall funding in return?

It wouldn’t be fear of alienating centrist voters, or damaging political norms, or making a move that’s economically counterproductive, as the free traders in his administration can wearily attest. Maybe a plunge in the Dow causes him to relent. Or maybe it doesn’t. Every day that the current stalemate drags on is a new measure of Trump’s stubborn force of will-- and a reminder that the old safeguards no longer apply.

Only The Best People

One of the billion or so lies from the Trumpanzee family was when Ivanka spoke at the Republican National Convention-- the one that insinuated that Trump isn't a racist and that claimed he hires the "best people"-- two whoppers. Watch; it's just 17 seconds. He's hired and fired more top people in the shortest amount of time than Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W, Bush and Barack Obama combined. Who's next? I know who it should be. And so does Lindsey Graham. At a press gaggle about the shutdown yesterday Graham said that "Every time we have a proposal it is only yanked back by staff members. As long as Stephen Miller is in charge of negotiating immigration, we're going nowhere... the White House staff, I think, is making it very difficult." Miller is a notorious racist-- and has been since high school-- and he has kept Trump from compromising on the DREAMers. He had a White House spokesperson send a warning shot over Graham's bow:

"As long as Senator Graham chooses to support legislation that sides with people in this country illegally and unlawfully instead of our own American citizens, we are going nowhere. He’s been an outlier for years."

Trump has been feuding on and off from months with Miller's mentor, Jeff Sessions. Many people think Trump will give him the ax next. But... two reports from Jonathan Swan in Axios yesterday indicate that "next" could mean either Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross or Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Trump seems to have lost confidence in Ross some time ago.

Ross’s efforts to wheel and deal with the Chinese have left the president unimpressed. Another problem: He keeps falling asleep in meetings.

Early in Trump’s presidency, Ross was his go-to negotiator, helming the administration’s trade talks with the Chinese. After a few months, though, Trump concluded he was doing a terrible job.

In a series of Oval Office meetings about six months into his presidency, Trump eviscerated Ross, telling him he’d screwed up, and badly.

“These trade deals, they’re terrible,” Trump said, according to a source in the room for one of the meetings. “Your understanding of trade is terrible. Your deals are no good. No good.”

Trump told Ross he didn’t trust him to negotiate anymore. Ross had tried in the early months of the administration, before Robert Lighthizer was confirmed as the U.S. Trade Representative, to take the lead on several crucial trade conversations. Once Lighthizer arrived there was a tussle for control over several issues. But after Ross botched-- in Trump's eyes-- his dealings with China, he decided Lighthizer would be the lead negotiator on all trade issues.

During this period, Trump humiliated Ross in front of his colleagues, per three sources, and questioned his intelligence and competence.

The Financial Times reported in August that Trump rejected a China steel deal that Ross thought he’d closed. But nobody has reported the extent of Trump’s castration of Ross. Trump has effectively taken his Commerce Secretary-- who he once called a “killer”-- off the playing field.

• One example: Ross made a deal to open the U.S. market to cooked Chinese chicken, in exchange for the Chinese opening their market to American beef. Ross told reporters it was a “herculean accomplishment,” and “more than has been done in the whole history of U.S.-China relations on trade,” per the AP.
• But Trump wasn’t impressed with this deal-- at all-- and told our sources he found Ross’s boasting to be laughable and ridiculous.

Ross’s propensity to doze off in meetings-- which senior Capitol Hill aides have noticed-- hasn’t helped.

Ross entered the administration as one of Trump’s favorites, poised to be a power player. Trump has known Ross since the bankruptcy tycoon helped keep him financially afloat in the early 1990s. Trump was proud that Ross-- this billionaire Wall Street legend-- wanted to work for him.

“Wilbur is so famous on Wall Street he only needs one name,” Trump said in an early meeting with White House visitors, according to a source in the room. “You don’t even need to say his last name; you just say Wilbur and they know who you’re talking about.”

... [S]ources close to Trump say he’ll never again trust the 80-year-old to be his “killer” negotiator. The recent Forbes article-- revealing that Ross vastly exaggerated his net worth-- did not help his internal standing.

“Wilbur’s been sucking up for months, trying to get back in the president’s good graces,” said a source close to Trump.

Moments late Swan posted a similar story about Zinke, this one about Trump's displeasure about Zinke "going rogue."

Two weeks ago, Zinke made an announcement that surprised the White House (and over Twitter, no less, after telling reporters at the Tallahassee airport): the waters around Florida would be exempt from his agency’s offshore oil and gas leasing program. Zinke’s announcement came shortly after he met with the state’s Republican governor, Rick Scott.

Trump has made clear to Zinke that he’s angry about this move, according to two sources with direct knowledge. Zinke's decision is both legally and politically dangerous for the Trump administration. Zinke did not coordinate with anybody, and gave the White House no forewarning of his controversial action.

...Environmental groups and attorneys general from other coastal states will likely use the move to justify suing the federal government, arguing it was arbitrary and capricious to remove Florida but not other coastal states.

Zinke’s move is targeting the waters with the richest oil and gas resources: the Eastern Gulf of Mexico next to Florida. This undercuts Trump’s energy dominance agenda. For that reason, former officials of the agency predict the department will try to find a way to include at least portions of it in the final plan.

...Multiple sources tell me it would be a massive stretch to say this incident has ruined Zinke's relationship with Trump. There's nothing irreparable here, though the incident has damaged Zinke's standing in the administration.

Or maybe it will be Kelly who's the next to be headed for the busy exit. According to Vanity Fair, Ivanka is already looking for a new chief of staff for her insane father. Gabriel Sherman reported yesterday that Trump said "I’ve got another nut job here who thinks he's running things."

Sherman reported that "Trump’s anger at Kelly’s immigration comments is the latest flare-up in a relationship that has been deteriorating for months. A four-star marine general, Kelly was never going to be an easy fit in a West Wing with a Lord of the Flies office culture. Staffers have bristled at Kelly’s rectitude, nicknaming him 'the Church Lady,' a former official said... Trump has increasingly been chafing at the media narrative that he needs Kelly to instill discipline on his freewheeling management style. 'The more Kelly plays up that he’s being the adult in the room-- that it’s basically combat duty and he’s serving the country-- that kind of thing drives Trump nuts,' a Republican close to the White House said. In recent days, Trump has fumed to friends that Kelly acts like he’s running the government while Trump tweets and watches television."

White House Shakeup-- Who's Next? by Nancy Ohanian

2017, A Hell Bound Train, Part 4: A Look At Some Of Trump’s Best People

-by Noah

Señor Trumpanzee assembled quite a team this year. Remember when Trump said he was smart and knew the best people? How could we forget? He said it during the 2016 campaign and he’s been saying it ever since. He even says those who are Nazis and those who march with Nazis are “very fine people.” Ok, to be fair, he didn’t say they were the best. He just said very fine. But that’s all just semantics. It’s the thought that counts.

Maybe Señor Trumpanzee’s selection of people he surrounds himself with is not just a matter of who he feels comfortable with, i.e. white supremacists, Russian mobsters, perverts, fellow sociopathic and even psychotic Republicans, etc. Maybe, it’s just that when he looks at himself honestly, he knows that everyone else he chooses to associate with actually is smarter than himself? Nah! That cannot be true for the simple reason that Trump is incapable of any kind of honesty. He demonstrates that every damn day.

So, is Trump actually smart? Not according to his Wharton professor William T. Kelly who called him “the dumbest goddamn student I ever had.” Is Trump some kind of Forrest Gump, a dumb guy who ends up in the oval office getting the Congressional Medal Of Honor from a real president? Nope. No way. No one can honestly see Trump rescuing any fellow soldiers in Vietnam. In fact, we know that there’s no way Trump would go to Vietnam to begin with. He’d always have those 5 draft deferments and alleged “temporary” bone spurs to fall back on.

"Run, Donnie, run?" I don’t think so! At least not in Vietnam. Not only that, but Forrest Gump built a successful business out of nothing, didn’t need to declare bankruptcy 4 times (or more), and even remembered to take care of his dead buddy’s family when he was under no legal obligation to do so.

No, Donald Trump, you are no Forrest Gump. Forrest Gump is brave and true. Fictional or not, he is a hero to us all. In Mr. Gump’s own words, he says, “I’m not a smart man, but, I know what love is.” Love of anyone but self is alien to you, and no amount of therapy will fix that. You, Donald Trump, are just a complete total jackass who feels comfortable surrounding yourself with fellow dumbasses that have so little self esteem that they will prostitute themselves working for you for as much money as they can grab.



So, Trumpie the Clown, let’s take a look at some of your sycophants, your “best people.” At this point there’s no need to point out the likes of Sean Spicer, Anthony Scaramucci, or the piece de resistance of communication, one Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Likewise, there’s no need to throw another spotlight on your budding basket case of a vice president, Mike Pence. I’ll also skip over “Education” Secretary, Betsy DeVos, Linda McMahon, who came from WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) to run the Small Business Association into the ground. Likewise, we already know all we need to know about Rick Perry, aka the Secretary of the Energy Dept. But, how about a few of your lesser known “best people,” all enthusiastically confirmed by $enate Republicans, of course.

1. Wilbur Ross, Secretary Of Commerce- With any luck, we will be hearing a lot about long time Trump associate Wilbur Ross in 2018. No he doesn’t own a talking horse named Ed, but, really, would it surprise you if you heard from your Republican neighbor that he does?

There’s that six degrees of separation thing and then there’s Wilbur Ross. Ross has direct ties to Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, including Putin’s son-in-law. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson may have gotten all the press about being Putin’s besty, but, it appears that when it comes to being in bed with the Russians, no one tops ol’ Wilbur (Of course, if there really is a pee tape, maybe there’s one person who does).

Why might we be hearing more about Wilbur? Well, it seems that he was (is?) a key player on the board of the Bank of Cyprus that is under investigation by Robert Mueller’s team for money laundering, as in Russian money, money that appears to have ties to Paul Manafort and several unsavory Russians. Ross is also the largest shareholder in the bank.



2. United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley- So many of Señor Trumpanzee’s people have demonstrated one true talent, the talent to, much like their boss, fake and con their way to the top. No doubt that’s what he adores about them. This must be the case with our current UN Ambassador Nikki Haley. Like many of Trump’s appointees, Haley’s qualifications for the job were dubious. Her top qualification was that she was elected governor of the state of South Carolina, so, right away, there you go.

But, as I always say, keep the spotlight on these yahoos long enough and they will eventually reveal their inner idiot. In Haley’s case, a few days ago, she thought she was talking to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki about the interference of the Russians in the free elections of the island nation of Binomo. The conversation went like this:

Fake Polish PM- One more matter is island Binomo. It’s not far from Vietnam, in the South China Sea, you know?

Haley- Ok.

Fake Polish PM- You know Binomo?

Haley- Yes, Yes.

Fake Polish PM- They had elections and we suppose Russia had its intervention.

Haley- Yes. Of course they did. Absolutely.

Fake Polish PM- And now this Binomo land makes the situation in the South China Sea even more tense.

Haley- And we’re aware of that and we’ve been watching very closely and we’ll continue to watch that.

So, what’s the problem you ask? Well, first and foremost, the island nation of Binomo doesn’t exist. Haley is the UN Ambassador. Do you need a number two?

Sure a congressperson or a governor might not know about lots of things, but when you are the supposed UN Ambassador and you periodically sit in a room with all of the other UN ambassadors, wouldn’t you even begin to wonder why you hadn’t met the Ambassador from Binomo or met or even seen anyone from the nation’s delegation?

Haley was pranked by the Russian political comedy duo of Vovan and Lexus. They like making fools of politicians of all types. In Haley, they already had a fool so all they had to do was get her on the phone.

Sigh, remember when Kellyanne Conway used to talk about the Bowling Green Massacre? Yeah, that never happened either, except in Republican World. Same with the child labor camps on Mars, 5,000,000 “illegals” voting against Trump, and Hilary’s famous pizza shop pedophile ring in Maryland, and everything else they hear about on Trump’s favorite TV channel.

3. Stephen Miller- Most of us have heard of Stephen Miller, but most of us don’t know much about him. Miller is Trump’s “Senior Advisor For Policy,” whatever that means. He came to Trump via racist Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He was Session’s Communications Director when Sessions was a Senator. Before that, he was a press secretary for… wait for it… Rep. Michelle Bachmann. That’s quite a background. To put it another way: When you gravitate to nuts, you’re probably a nut yourself. So, why not go to work for Trump, too?

Miller is actually Trump’s chief speechwriter. He also authored Trump’s executive order that restricts immigration from seven countries thought to be exporting Muslim terrorists to our country. Saudi Arabia is, very notably, not on the list even though Saudis funded the 9/11 attacks and the jihadists who carried them out were Saudis.

Miller is seen as a kind of brother in arms to the infamous Steve Bannon when it comes to white supremacy. While at North Carolina’s Duke University, Miller, a member of the Duke University Conservative Union, helped out Duke graduate student Richard B. Spencer with promotion and fundraising for a debate on immigration policy. Richard B. Spencer is the current President of the National Policy Institute, a white supremacy think tank.

In The World Of Trumpanzee, The Powerful Sit On High Perches And Stand Atop Long Winding Stairs And The Weak Lie In Their Chains Surrounded By Darkness

Back in February, we were already talking about Wilbur Ross' amazingly shady connections with Putin's venal kleptocracy. Before that all anyone knew about Ross was that he was the vulture capitalist and primary villain in the Sago Mining disaster. It should surprise no one that this bag of excrement is on the verge of... well, resignation, but also imprisonment? fleeing to Russia? Read all about the latest freak from the Trump carnival and sideshow, the Secretary of Commerce, a key member of the Trump kakistocracy... in the failing New York Times. Fox may have missed it, but this is huge news all over the world. Short version: Wilbur's a crook... with Putin. What a cabinet-- worse than Dr. Caligari's!

After becoming commerce secretary, Wilbur L. Ross Jr. retained investments in a shipping firm he once controlled that has significant business ties to a Russian oligarch subject to American sanctions and President Vladimir V. Putin’s son-in-law, according to newly disclosed documents.

The shipper, Navigator Holdings, earns millions of dollars a year transporting gas for one of its top clients, a giant Russian energy company called Sibur, whose owners include the oligarch and Mr. Putin’s family member. Despite selling off numerous other holdings to join the Trump administration and spearhead its “America first” trade policy, Mr. Ross kept an investment in Navigator, which increased its business dealings with Sibur even as the West sought to punish Russia’s energy sector over Mr. Putin’s incursions into Ukraine.

Partnerships used by Mr. Ross, whose private equity firm has long been the biggest shareholder in Navigator, have a 31 percent stake in the company. Though his personal share of that stake was reduced as he took office in February, he retained an investment in the partnerships valued between $2 million and $10 million, and stood to earn a higher share of profits as a general partner, according to his government ethics disclosure and securities filings.

Mr. Ross’s stake in Navigator has been held by a chain of companies in the Cayman Islands, one of several tax havens where much of his wealth, estimated at more than $2 billion, has been tied to similar investment vehicles. Details of these arrangements surfaced in a cache of leaked files from Appleby, one of the world’s largest offshore law firms, which administered some 50 companies and partnerships in the Caymans and elsewhere connected to Mr. Ross.

The Appleby documents, obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, were shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other media organizations, including The New York Times. They show how the Bermuda-based Appleby worked to help the wealthy elite, from Russian oligarchs to Middle Eastern princes, as well as multinational corporations like Apple and Nike, avoid billions of dollars in taxes.

In addition to Mr. Ross, the files contain references to other members of the Trump administration, including Gary D. Cohn, the chief economic adviser who was associated with 22 Bermuda entities while an executive at Goldman Sachs, and Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, who was a director of a Bermuda-based joint venture with the government of Yemen when he ran Exxon Mobil’s operations there. There is no evidence of illegality in any of their dealings.

Mr. Ross emerges as a particularly valued client for the offshore law firm, whose records provide more insight into his financial holdings beyond the public ethics disclosures he made upon joining the Trump administration. His ethics agreement filed in January listed the partnerships he intended to keep, but not the investments they held. Previously, Navigator had been mentioned in a separate, 57-page description of his holdings for the year that ended in December 2016, but with no hint of its ties to Sibur.

Sibur’s top ownership-- including Gennady Timchenko, who is Mr. Putin’s friend and judo partner and is subject to American sanctions, and Kirill Shamalov, who is married to the Russian president’s youngest daughter — makes it “a company with crony connections” in Moscow, said Daniel Fried, a Russia expert who served in senior State Department posts in Republican and Democratic administrations.

Another of Navigator’s major customers is PDVSA, the Venezuelan state oil company, controlled by the authoritarian regime of Nicolás Maduro. The Trump administration imposed sanctions on PDVSA this summer.

In a written response to questions by the Times, James Rockas, a spokesman for Mr. Ross, said that Navigator’s relationship with Sibur began before Mr. Ross joined the board in March 2012, and that he had never met the Russian oligarchs who are Sibur’s major shareholders. Public records show that Mr. Ross’s firm became a major investor in Navigator in November 2011, three months before the company chartered its first ships to Sibur.



...It is perhaps unsurprising that Navigator would have a relationship with a major Russian company during Mr. Ross’s tenure. Much like President Trump, whose company sought approval for a hotel project in Moscow as recently as last year, Mr. Ross has long shown an appreciation for the untapped potential of Russian markets when seeking investment opportunities. His involvement there dates at least to the 1990s, when he was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the board of the U.S. Russia Investment Fund, established to promote American business interests in Russia.

In addition to Navigator, his firm also acquired a German rail car company, VTG, which pursued an expansion strategy in Russia before Mr. Ross sold his stake in 2016. And Mr. Ross led a private bailout of the Bank of Cyprus, long regarded as a favorite financial haven of wealthy Russians, after the worldwide economic crisis crippled the Cypriot banking system.

In the wake of reports of Russian interference in the United States presidential election, multiple investigations have explored potential business ties between Russia and members of the Trump administration. While several Trump campaign and business associates have come under scrutiny, until now no business connections have been reported between senior administration officials and members of Mr. Putin’s family or inner circle.

During Mr. Ross’s confirmation process, he was asked repeatedly about his business ties to Russia, mostly related to his former role as vice chairman of the Bank of Cyprus, where he dealt with Russian investors but also forced some of them out of the bank. He was also asked about his investment in another shipping company, Diamond S, and whether its dealings with China could pose a conflict with his government duties. But he faced no questions about Navigator and its significant financial relationship with Sibur.

...Ross’s business practices have occasionally drawn criticism for moving American jobs overseas in an effort to improve profits. A Reuters analysis of Labor Department statistics found that his takeovers shifted 2,700 jobs in automotive, textiles and mortgage finance to, among other places, China, India, Mexico and Nicaragua.

...As one of the largest gas companies in Russia, Sibur is not just any private business.

It was created by the Russian government and maintains a close dependency on Moscow, even after its sale in 2010 to Mr. Timchenko and Leonid Mikhelson. The two men are typical of Russian moguls who have benefited from state-owned assets and are expected to remain loyal to the Putin government, said Amos J. Hochstein, a top energy diplomat under the Obama administration.

“When you start doing business with Russian energy companies like Gazprom and Sibur, you’re not just getting into bed with the company,” Mr. Hochstein said. “You’re getting into bed with the Russian state.”

The ties to the Russian president, however, proved to be a double-edged sword for Sibur’s owners. In 2014, after Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine, American and Western allies imposed economic sanctions on key Putin associates, including Mr. Timchenko. A few months later, the United States barred banks from providing new financing to another gas company, Novatek, belonging to Mr. Mikhelson.

Sibur itself was not targeted. But financial institutions, including Bank of America and the Royal Bank of Scotland, backed away from loans to the company, according to news reports at the time. Moscow stepped in to help in May 2014, when a government-backed financial consortium bought a shipping terminal from Sibur and pledged to expand export capacity, while allowing Sibur to remain the terminal’s sole exporter of gas.

Then, in September 2014, as sanctions pressure was growing, Mr. Timchenko reduced his holdings in Sibur by selling a 17 percent stake to a junior shareholder, Mr. Shamalov. A year earlier, Mr. Shamalov, whose father is a friend and former business partner of Mr. Putin’s, had married the Russian president’s daughter Katerina. His Sibur purchase, which pushed the 32-year-old Mr. Shamalov’s investment to more than 20 percent of the company, was financed by a $1.3 billion loan from the state-backed Gazprombank. Mr. Shamalov sold part of his stake in April, reducing it to 3.9 percent.

Most of these financial machinations were carried out through offshore companies on Cyprus, where Mr. Mikhelson and Mr. Timchenko held their investments in Sibur and did business with several Cypriot banks. During the summer of 2014, Mr. Ross had become the Bank of Cyprus’s vice chairman, though there is no indication that he crossed paths with the two oligarchs during his tenure there.

His position at the bank required him to step down from the board of Navigator, however, even as he retained his investment in the company. His close associate at WL Ross & Co., Wendy L. Teramoto, took his place at Navigator and, later, left to join Mr. Ross as chief of staff at the Commerce Department.

Despite the reticence of Western financial institutions to do business with Sibur and its owners, Navigator’s relationship with Sibur continued to grow.

From 2014 to 2015, the portion of Navigator’s total revenue that came from Sibur jumped to 9.1 percent from 5.3 percent, making the company one of its top five clients, according to securities filings, before dipping to 7.9 percent last year.

As WL Ross & Co. expanded over the years, it used Appleby, the offshore specialist, to set up an increasing number of entities in tax havens, many in the Cayman Islands. This British territory in the Caribbean levies no corporate or personal income tax on money earned outside its jurisdiction, and requires little disclosure of corporate ownership. By 2014, Mr. Ross and his investment company were among Appleby’s top 20 clients.

After he was nominated as commerce secretary, Mr. Ross filed an agreement with the federal Office of Government Ethics saying he would resign from WL Ross & Co. and divest from 80 companies and partnerships, but would keep a stake in nine others that held assets in “real estate financing and mortgage lending” and “transoceanic shipping.” The underlying assets were not specified.

His financial disclosure form offered more detail, including a list of assets that had been held by each of the partnerships that he retained. Navigator Holdings appeared in connection with four Appleby-managed Cayman partnerships. Mr. Ross’s ethics filing valued his stake in those partnerships at between $2.05 million and $10.1 million, a fraction of the partnerships’ combined 31.5 percent stake in Navigator, which, based on the firm’s recent stock price, was worth roughly $179 million. In all, WL Ross & Co. remains Navigator’s largest shareholder, according to the shipping company’s most recent annual report.

Federal ethics law requires officials to recuse themselves from matters that would have “a direct and predictable” effect on their financial interests or cause a reasonable doubt about their impartiality. During his confirmation hearings, Mr. Ross sought to reassure senators that he would avoid any conflicts of interest between his continued business holdings and his cabinet post.

“I intend to be quite scrupulous about recusal and any topic where there is the slightest scintilla of doubt,” he said.

Not even a scintilla of doubt-- not when it comes to scrupulousness inside the Trumpanzee Crime Family! Mark Hays, Anti Money Laundering Campaign Leader at Global Witness: "This is yet another instance of conflicts of interest within the Trump administration. Wilbur Ross influences US trade and sanctions, yet he is still making millions from a Russian company that could be targeted by these decisions. This is highly problematic for an administration at the center of investigations into collusion with the Russian state." You want these people making tax policies for our country? For your family? Paul Ryan, John Kelly and Mitch McConnell will make sure nothing untoward happens? Good luck to you, matey.

Frank Clemente, executive director, Americans for Tax Fairness: "The Paradise Papers are a window into the financial secrets of the world's biggest corporations and wealthiest individuals, including over a dozen members of Donald Trump's inner circle who have already been named in documents. While journalists and investigators are digging through over 13 million pages, one thing is clear: there's one set of rules for the rich and powerful and another set for everybody else. The tax code is laden with special loopholes that benefit billionaires and big corporations at the expense of everyone else. The Paradise Papers require Congress to first investigate, then legislate. Instead of passing a huge tax giveaway for yacht-owning island-hoppers, Congress should launch a major investigation into how corporations and the wealthy use offshore loopholes to dodge taxes. We must not give one penny in tax cuts to millionaires and corporations. We call for an immediate halt to consideration of the current GOP tax bill, which rewards tax dodging and encourages companies to send more of their operations offshore."

By this morning, in light of the Paradise Papers, the Washington Post was offering its readers a primary on who Wilbur Ross is. Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal is quoted saying that he's "astonished and appalled because I feel misled... Our committee was misled, the American people were misled by the concealment of those companies." And they illustrated it with a twitter storm:

Bernie was less gentle, warning of an international olograchy, controlled by a tiny number of billionaires. His statement to The Guardian: "The major issue of our time is the rapid movement toward international oligarchy in which a handful of billionaires own and control a significant part of the global economy. The Paradise Papers shows how these billionaires and multinational corporations get richer by hiding their wealth and profits and avoid paying their fair share of taxes."

The same tax breaks, he said, were being seized upon by super-wealthy members of Trump’s cabinet “who avoid billions in US taxes by shifting American jobs and profits to offshore tax havens. We need to close these loopholes and demand a fair and progressive tax system.”

...Further responses to the Paradise Papers came from the Democratic leader in the US Senate Chuck Schumer, and the ranking Democratic member of the Senate finance committee, Ron Wyden. In a joint statement they accused Republicans in Congress leading the push towards a reform of the tax code of failing to close egregious loopholes revealed by the leaks.

As a result Republicans were rewarding, the duo said, “wealthy billionaires like secretary Wilbur Ross for dodging taxes, while punishing many in the middle class with new tax hikes. If you deduct medical expenses or student loan interest from your taxable income, the Republican plan comes after your wallet. But if you stash your billions in secret bank accounts overseas, their plan gives you the green light to keep doing what you’ve been doing.”

They added that the Paradise Papers were “proof positive that the Republican tax plan favours the wealthy and betrays the middle class in this country, who are the ones left carrying the financial burden of massive corporate tax avoidance.”

Jeff Sessions’ Excuse

-by Noah

How long before we witness the following dialog on Sean Hannity’s show:

Jeff Sessions: “Well, uh, ya see, suh, ah just didn’t know it was the Russian ambassador ah was speaking to because I had mistakenly put my KKK hood on backwards that day.”

Sean Hannity: “Well, gee. I’ve done that many, many times! Who wouldn’t understand that? I gotta tell you that there isn’t a one of us here at FOX hasn’t done that! Damn libruls just don’t get it!”

When this week’s Jeff Sessions/Russia story broke, Sessions’ real answer as to why he lied about having any conversations with Russia during the campaign was that he didn’t remember or recall his conversations with the Russian ambassador during the presidential campaign. That’s right, he used the old Tricky Dick Nixon “You can always say you don’t recall” approach: lawyer speak. But, obviously, Sessions knew he had something to hide so he tried to get away with it by lying under oath. Senators often speak with foreign officials. That’s allowed. There’s nothing wrong with it, per se. So, the only reason Sessions had to deny that he had had contact with the ambassador was that he was hiding something.

An Attorney General as morally bankrupt as Jeff Sessions is what we get when we keep electing a Senate full of morally bankrupt senators like Jeff Sessions. But, this particular White House has a proven aversion to even the idea of ethics, so much so that they shut down the traditional ethics training for incoming White House staffers.

Most of the Trump mafia, and that’s what they are, a mafia. (Trump learned a lot in Atlantic City), have taken the “selective memory” approach when it comes to their personal history of contacts with Russians. Ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, a crazy who has a large tattoo of Richard Nixon’s face on his back, the recently dumped National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and other Trump associates come to mind. The other day on Democracy Now, David Cay Johnson remarked that his colleague, Jim Henry "has spent a lot of time digging into the Russian connections here, and they are vast, deep. They go back more than 30 years. And an important element to understand about why this matters with the Russians, who are the Russian oligarchs? They are a state-sponsored network of international criminals. And Donald Trump has had so many involvements with them, involving the Trump SoHo hotel, the sale of property and other things Jim can talk about. And then we get Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, who is in bed with these guys right up to his eyeballs."

When it comes to the Trump Administration’s Russia problem, Trump and his party are trying to paint what is really an issue of subversion as merely a partisan issue. Republicans have all too often referred to Vladimir Putin as a real leader, a leader they admire. If only they would move to Russia so they could see how they like it there. We should let them go where they would be happy living a totalitarian dream. One condition, though: Once republicans leave to go live in their dream world, they will be banned from ever returning to the United States of America. Seems fair to me.



Jeff Sessions is at the core of Trumpism. Trump would hate to see him go probably more than anyone in his administration except, maybe, Steve Bannon (Trump’s brain and chief strategist). Sessions was the first prominent republican to appear with Trump in his campaign. They are brothers in racism. Session is there, as Attorney General, to bend, obfuscate and, to put it nicely, selectively enforce the law. But, the biggest question about Sessions now is no longer about his attitudes about rights. It’s no about his and his boss’s racism. It’s not just about his misogyny. Things like that are well-documented by his voting record an public pronouncements.

The biggest question about Jeff Sessions also isn’t about, as the media and Washington hacks would have us believe, his recusal and removing himself from any investigations pertaining to Trump. As I write this he has at least recused himself from participating in a Russia inquiry but, at this point that only amounts to throwing a bone to those who seek truth. Besides, our U.S. Department of Justice is already compromised by the lack of integrity on the part of FBI Director James Comey who also willingly handed over his soul to Trump and therefore Putin. The FBI was, in fact, already investigating Sessions’ contacts with Russians and knew about them, while Sessions was having his confirmation hearing but they said nothing to the Senate. Rep. Adam Schiff is now asking why.



The biggest question about Jeff Sessions is not even about whether he should resign or not. An Attorney General, as the top representative of our nation’s laws, has to be beyond reproach, so, of course he should now resign. Any real moral code of decency dictates that. But, recusal and resignation are basically symbolic anyway. Whatever lowlife deputies Sessions has will, no doubt be just like him. They are capos in Trump’s Justice Department. That all leaves us with this: The biggest question about Jeff Sessions is how soon can he be investigated and, if the facts warrant it, put on trial for treason.

******************

My fellow Americans, it’s come to this: Any politician, from any political party in this country who is not now calling for and supporting the impeachment of Trump is an accomplice and an accessory to his damaging actions, criminal and otherwise. Enough!

Over the past few weeks, this is the thought that has often been the last thing on my mind at night and the first thing in my mind each morning. Only corruption can be the cause of continued delay.

Even without the Russian issues, Trump needs to be gone if only for reasons of a severe mental illness that is every bit as dangerous to the wellbeing of each and every citizen of America and, therefore the entire world. Trump is a purveyor of human misery of epic proportions. He is a throwback to the medieval times of kings and despots whose brains were so syphilis-ridden that their dysfunction rained daily chaos and living hell down upon their subjects.

Every day it’s something new. One day it’s Trump wiping out a regulation that prevents corporate assholes from dumping coal ash into our water and then promising clean air and water in a speech before Congress that very night. Another day, it’s signing a law that permits the mentally ill (like himself) to buy guns. One day Trump says he knows Putin. The next he says he doesn’t.



Trump has given us a White House full of mind-amputees like Sean Spicer and Kellyanne Conway. His 31 year old speechwriter and spokescretin Stephen Miller, a former aide to Sessions, has a traceable background in white supremacy statements,. Let’s not forget the aforementioned Steve Bannon either.

Trump himself is an avowed fan of not just crazies like FOX and Friends but even more bizarre nutters like Alex Jones and World Net Daily. We’ve all heard of Trumpies that really do believe that Hillary Clinton was, and maybe still is, running some sort of pedophile child sex slave ring out the back of a pizza shop in suburban Maryland. Once a person’s mind has gone that far over the falls without a barrel, there’s no telling where it’ll go. We can only imagine what the rest of the Trump White House staff is like, what they say among themselves, what despicable websites they enjoy, etc. Four more years of this? Can we survive four more months?

We have cabinet secretaries who see it as their mission to dismantle the departments they have been put in charge of, all with the enthusiastic approval of their heinous nihilistic accomplices in Congress. A whole political party has embraced the krazy. History has previous examples of this kind of insane, devoid of logic behavior. It has never ended pretty.

Trump is America’s own version of Kim Jong-un. That is no exaggeration. The only thing that stops Americans from seeing it that way is that they think it would never happen here. Such naivete is deadly. The sooner we see what Trump is, the better off America and the world will be. Trump is not just a bad human. He is an insane bad human. Both douchbags manifest the same lack of familiarity with the concepts of rationality and maturity. They both share the same sense of rabid entitlement, megalomania and an non-stop, unbridled need for mindless self-aggrandizement.

If I look at this situation through my snark lens, I think that, maybe, just like high schools have student exchange programs, there could even be some sort of Presidential Exchange Program. Kim Jong-un and Donald J. Trump seem more and more interchangeable each day. They are brothers in bombastic insanity. If Trump wasn’t such a racist and so obsessed with how rich Putin is, he would probably dream of being Kim Jong-un, instead of Vladimir Putin. Both Kim Jong-un and Donald J. Trump are envious of each other to the extreme. Both want to launch nukes. Both see everyone except the clown in the mirror as lesser human beings and enemies of, if not the state, of themselves. Both can rationalize away any behavior at all, as long as it suits their titanic egos and offsets their massive baby-like insecurities. Sure, Kim Jong-un has better hair and bigger hands but so do lots of people. Does Trump dream of Kim Jong-un topless on a horse?

But, all of this aside; regardless of whether the cause of this Trump-led treachery is because he is in league with his friend Putin or because of his mental condition, he has to go, immediately.

The Russian issues that scream to us more and more with each long-passing day can’t just be coincidence and circumstantial. Howie wrote a fine post about Trump’s Russian Connection earlier this week. Every concerned person should read it.

As far back as the day that Paul Manafort was forced to resign as the head of Trump campaign last summer, over allegations of Ukrainian payments, it has been obvious that there is a major smell about Trump. Interestingly, Republican Party platform language about the Ukrainian situation had been radically softened when Trump was nominated.

The recent past meets the near future

The calls for Sessions to resign are growing and they will grow every day and every hour until he does the right thing (Not bloody likely. It’s not in his character). In some lands, that would mean falling on his sword, literally. As far as I’m concerned, we are at the point where millions of Americans should start flooding his office with sets of cheap steak knives. They’ll do the job as well as a more dramatic sword or a ceremonial hari-kari blade.

Sessions has always demonstrated that he is the epitome of the old southern racist. He didn’t just mislead the Senate about his contacts with Russians. He also misled them on his civil rights record. What a surprise! One would hope that, given his age, he’s the last of his kind but you have to know that he has built a whole staff of like-minded jackasses, young and old. After all, racism is a cherished republican value. Stephen Miller is only Exhibit A. There are plenty more like him and Trump is gathering as many as he can to staff his administration. So, how long do we let not just Sessions “serve”? How much longer do we allow Trump to continue wiping his obese butt with our Constitution and soiling the reputation of America every time he speaks, signs an executive order, or tweets?

The answer, of course is immediate impeachment. If it makes Comrade Trump feel better, I’m sure we can offer him a tremendous impeachment, the very best impeachment! We know he loves huge, bigly crowds. Impeachment can give him that. More Americans would come to see him publicly removed from the White House than came to all of the women’s marches on January 21st combined. We could put him in a nice orange jumpsuit that says “Making America Great Again” on the back. We can even give him some souvenir orange handcuffs. Americans won’t get sick of winning but they better win this one soon.

With any luck at all, Jeff Sessions may have been the final thing that unravels not just the Russian scandal but the whole scandal that is the Trump presidency itself. There would be a tremendous irony in the fact that Trump, in his insanity, inflicted Sessions upon us and brought himself down. It would be the best irony if it was Trump’s friend Sessions that finally led to the collapse of his presidency. But, a word of caution: No one should let the troubles of Jeff Sessions deflect and distract us from the bigger problem of Trump himself.

Sad. This Sessions mess could have been prevented if Sessions hadn’t been rammed down our throats by $enate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his merry band of repugs who were in such a rush to please their boy and embrace and confirm him. It’s all the more reason that McConnell should have let Elizabeth Warren read that letter from Corretta Scott King, but McConnell was being a good little Trumpanzee and in such a hurry to give his boy everything he wanted. He didn’t want Reince, Bannon, or Vladimir to be mad at him. Now, it's all exploding in his face. He's not a leader and neither is Trump.

Wilbur Ross And The Russian Roots Of Trump's New Kleptocracy/Kakistocracy

You may have come to expect cowardly conservative careerists in the Senate like Joe Manchin (D-WV), Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) to cross the aisle and rubber-stamp virtually all of Trump's horrendous nominees for high public office. But the vote Monday on billionaire Trump crony and murderer Wilbur Ross didn't follow the regular pattern. Ross was confirmed as Secretary of Commerce-- no one really questioning him on the Sago Mining disaster or on his financial connections to Putin's kleptocracy-- 72-27. Every Republican, of course, voted yes. But so did 21 Democrats (not including Manchin, who, presumably out of deference to the families of the dead miners Ross killed, broke with the Trump Regime on this one). These are the Democrats who voted to confirm Ross:

• Michael Bennet (CO)
• Sherrod Brown (OH)
• Tom Carper (DE)
• Bob Casey (PA)
• Chris Coons (DE)
• Catherine Cortez Masto (NV)
• Joe Donnelly (IN)
• Tammy Duckworth (IL)
• Dianne Feinstein (CA)
• Maggie Hassan (NH)
• Heidi Heitkamp (ND)
• Tim Kaine (VA)
• Angus King (I-ME)
• Amy Klobuchar (MN)
• Claire McCaskill (MO)
• Bill Nelson (FL)
• Gary Peters (MI)
• Brian Schatz (HI)
• Jeanne Shaheen (NH)
• Jon Tester (MT)
• Mark Warner (VA)

I just watched Señor Trumpanzee signing a couple of executive orders on TV while I was putting on my shoes and socks. He thanked a gaggle of right-wing hacks in the room to witness it-- Joni Ernst (R-IA), John Barrasso (R-WY), Lamar Smith (R-TX), Nan Fischer (R-NE) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND). These are all members from states and districts that went for Trump in November and all of them see themselves-- for whatever reason-- as rubber stamps for his horrific agenda, You may have noticed that one is a Democrat, Heitkamp. She has the single worst voting record in the Senate of any Democrat-- a 57.87 lifetime crucial vote score (obviously, an "F"). Few people realize she's actually been a worse voter than Joe Manchin, albeit not by much. She has to face North Dakota voters in 2018. I don't know who she expects to support her. Democrats are sickened by her acquiescence to all things Trump and Republicans will have their own even worse right-wing nut to vote for. Trump beat Hillary in North Dakota 216,784 (63.0%)-93,758 (27.2%), one of Clinton's worst performances. She only won 2 tiny counties in the state, Rolette and Sioux (both of which had been won by Obama in 2012, although he won 6 counties and 124,827 votes (39%). On that same day in 2012 that Obama was taking 124,827 votes, Heitkamp was winning her first Senate term with 161,163 votes, less than 3,000 more votes than Congressman Rick Berg. Many North Dakotans were prepared to split their tickets.

Just over half the Democrats who voted for confirm Ross are up for reelection in 2018. Like Heitkamp, their names are bolded above. Why do these senators always appear to be frightened of Trump and his voters instead of being frightened by Democratic voters who may be angry that they are rubber-stamps for Trump? For example, Feinstein-- if she decides to run again; she'd be nearly 86 wen her next term begins-- might want to consider that a mainstream California Democrat could primary her. Trump lost California 8,753,788 to 4,483,810 and she doesn't have to worry about his 31.5% of the voters and kiss his ass for political reasons. Trump lost the 13 biggest counties in the state-- including GOP-leaning areas like Orange, Riverside and Fresno counties.

Who's going to be held responsible when Wilbur Ross, a top Russian money laundering asset, swings into action? Are people going to wonder why Ross wasn't properly vetted by Democrats like Feinstein-- not to mention Sherrod Brown, Brian Schatz, Bill Nelson, Amy Klobuchar and Tim Kaine? Isn't that their job? Recall when the Mafia congressman from Staten Island (since arrested and imprisoned and released), Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm, disappeared while on a trip too Israel with a bunch of GOP skinny-dippers? He wasn't skinny-dipping with Kevin Yoder in the Sea of Galilee because he was working on a deal for the Russian Mafia in Nicosia. (And yes, he was dating Bannon crony Tulsi Gabbard at the time.) And who's on the board of that money laundering bank, Trumpy-the-Clown's new Commerce Secretary, Wilbur the murderer (along with some Russian mobsters) one of whom helped arrange a $60 million payoff to Trump (watch the video at the top of the page).

James Henry wrote the story up for DCReport.org Tuesday morning. Even though over 24 hours have passed, it's a must-read if you want to understand Trump's carefully constructed kakistocracy. "Wilbur J. Ross, Jr., the billionaire investor who is one of Donald Trump’s closest advisors on trade and economics," he wrote, "has extensive Russian financial ties that the Senate should thoroughly explore before voting on his nomination as Commerce Secretary." Oops... too late; wrong tense. Thanks Sherrod, Ranking Dem on the Senate Banking Committee.

Central to this inquiry is the question of Ross’s  role as Vice Chair and a leading investor in the Bank of Cyprus, the largest bank in Cyprus, one of the key offshore havens for illicit Russian finance. Ross has been Vice Chairman of this bank and a  major investor in it since 2014. His fellow bank co-chair evidently was appointed by none other than Vladimir Putin.

The Bank of Cyprus is just one of more than 100 direct and indirect investments that Ross listed on his U.S. Office of Government Ethics financial disclosure form last month. He recently promised to resign as Vice Chairman of the Bank and disinvest from it within the next 90 days if his nomination is approved.

Mere divestiture will not suffice here, even if it was immediate. Exiting a brothel in a hurry doesn’t explain what you were doing there in the first place.

Ross’ involvement in the Bank of Cyprus raises many questions about his judgment, but also about the Trump Administration’s seemingly endless direct and indirect connections with friends and associates of Vladimir Putin, who all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies say conspired to interfere in the November 2016 U.S. election on behalf of Donald Trump.

Whether or not these connections involve any criminality, these are the kind of relationships that most American business people would not tolerate for 30 seconds.

After all, as discussed below, since the 1990s Cyprus has served as one the top three offshore destinations for Russian and former Soviet Union flight capital, most of it motivated by tax dodging, kleptocracy, and money laundering. As of 2013, just before the banking crisis, Russian deposits accounted for at least a third of all bank deposits in Cyprus. As one leading newspaper put it, “Russian money is in fact at the heart of the island’s economy.”

Nor is Ross’ Bank of Cyprus in particular-- now probably at least half owned by Russians, as we‘ll see-- any stranger to money laundering, tax dodging, or odious finance. With a market share of 30 percent,  Bank of Cyprus has long been the market leader in Cypriot financial chicanery:

• As of 2013, for example, more than 81 percent of the bank’s deposits were accounted for by 21,000 mainly foreign depositors, up to half of them Russians, who each had at least €100,000 on deposit.
• By 2013, after a decade of rampant inflows of offshore capital and irresponsible lending, Bank of Cyprus alone had €11.5 billion of delinquent loans on its books-- 60 percent of the country’s entire gross domestic product. At that point, it required €11.3 billion of Emergency Liquidity Finance from the Central Bank of Cyprus to survive.
• The top 20 Bank of Cyprus borrowers reportedly accounted for €3 billion of these non-performing loans. This is consistent with the patterns found in other recent credit booms-- dodgy real estate projects, bust-out loans to insiders, and rampant control fraud.
• In March 2015, it was discovered that 19 of the Cyprus Parliament’s 56 Members of Parliament, owed BOC €51.2mm, including 13 MPs whose non-performing loans totalled €35.3m. The following month, the Parliament adopted a new pro-bank law to accelerate foreclosures. Evidently the revelations increased the pressures to act.
• In a series of recent criminal trials in Nicosia, five former CEOs, Board Chairmen, and managers of Bank of Cyprus have been charged with a wide variety of financial misconduct pertaining to the pre-2013 period. The charges include conspiracy to defraud investors, forgery, and market manipulation.
• No one has yet been convicted.

There are also disturbing reports of several recent high-profile money laundering cases in Cyprus.[There are also reports that attempts to clean up money laundering and improve financial transparency stalled, and that as of 2016 Geldwasching may be back, not only in Cyrus as a whole, but also at the Bank of Cyprus.]

So this is the fundamental question:

How did a prospective U.S. Commerce Secretary come to play a lead role in what turns out to be one of the world’s leading haven banks for laundering Russian money, precisely at a time when the U.S. Government and the EU have been trying so hard to enforce economic sanctions against Russia and Putin’s wealthy allies?

Before the U.S. Senate approves Ross’s  nomination, it is essential to get to the bottom of these curious relationships.  Unfortunately, no one bothered to ask Ross even a single question about them, the Bank of Cyprus, or dirty Russian money at his January 18 confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee, where he received unanimous approval along with a ringing endorsement from his Florida Senator.

In “TrumpLand,” however, as we have recently come to appreciate, that was eons ago.  And there are now signs that the U.S. Senate may finally be waking up.

In July 2014, Ross became Vice Chairman of the Bank of Cyprus. At that point the bank was in deep financial trouble, having nearly failed in 2013.

Ross, who specializes in buying troubled firms cheap and then reselling them, organized a group of U.S. and European-based investors to spend €1 billion (U.S. $1.3 billion then) to acquire 17 percent of the common stock of this deeply troubled bank, including Ross’ own 1.6 percent stake.

Since then, Ross has played an active role in recruiting and nominating its senior management team, especially its board chairman, Josef Ackermann, the long-time former Chairman of Deutsche Bank-- one of the few banks in the world that would make loans to Donald Trump.

As we have recently explored elsewhere, from the mid-1990s on, this massive reconcentration of wealth gave way to an extraordinary outflow of flight capital, and the proliferation of tax dodging and criminal enterprises.

Among the key beneficiaries of this economic crisis was Vladimir Putin, who rode it to power. But the tsunami of illicit Russian money also greatly benefited Donald Trump, who, as discussed in more detail in a previous article, simply could not have financed his bankrupt business empire in the early 2000s without it.

Of course, Trump has reiterated time and again—most recently at his White House press conference on Feb. 17-- that he has no business deals with Russia. Significantly, Trump said nothing about Russians, investors from other former Soviet Union states like the Ukraine or Kazakhstan, or ventures with Russians outside of Russia and the former Soviet Union.

In the past, even Trump has boasted repeatedly about raking in many millions from Russian oligarchs who bought luxury Trump apartments and joined his golf clubs. Nor has he denied that he was paid $13 million to hold the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. His three oldest children also made 13 trips to Moscow over 18 months, in what the Trump Organization described at the time as business trips intended to recruit Russian investors.

Furthermore, as noted below, one Russian oligarch shelled out at least $95 million to Trump in one Florida real estate deal. This allowed Trump to more than double his $41 million investment in that property in four years. This profit were earned at a time,  when by Trump’s own account, the U.S. real estate market was a “disaster”-- so dead that he actually sued Deutsche Bank, his one remaining global creditor, in a failed effort to avoid repaying a $40 million real estate loan.

...According to money laundering experts, the Bank of Cyprus also has a long history of being up to its ears in Russian flight capital. Indeed, Like Trump and Putin, Cyprus in general-- and the Bank of Cyprus in particular-- have been huge beneficiaries of Russia’s 1990s economic crisis and the extraordinary deluge of dirty money that it produced. Especially since Cyprus was admitted to the EU in 2004 and the Eurozone in 2008, the island has captured the bronze medal, just behind more venerable havens like the Switzerland and the UK. And,  as noted, the Bank of Cyprus was the market leader, as the island’s largest single financial institution, which for a time also had branches in Moscow, the Ukraine, Greece, and Rumania.

...For Wilbur Ross and his fellow private vulture capitalists, this Russian-flight induced crisis presented an irresistible investment opportunity. (Exactly who introduced Wilbur’s group to the island is an interesting question that the Senate should explore.)

The bank’s management and board spent the first year after the March 2013 crisis staving off bankruptcy with the help of €10 billion in ECB and IMF emergency assistance-- including €6.5 billion for the Bank of Cyprus alone. In 2014  it decided to raise new capital. In July 2014, in exchange for €1 billion, Ross and his group were able to acquire 17 percent of the bank’s stock, the largest single ownership block, plus the Vice Chairmanship and significant management influence.

The only trouble was that Ross and his group could not afford to be too discriminating about who their co-investors were. To this day, as noted, not only is Bank of Cyprus at least half owned by Russian investors, but several of the largest ones are “super-garchs” who have business and personal histories that are, to be polite, colorful.

Nor could Wilbur’s investment group afford to be too particular about the uses these co-investors made of the bank, or the fact that Bank of Cyprus’s new business model-- apart from financial chicanery and more MP loans-- requires an awful lot of hard work trying to collect money they don’t have from thousands of recalcitrant borrowers.

Under the terms of  Cyprus’ 2013 agreement with the ECB and the IMF, to qualify for for their €10 billion bailout-- fully €7.3 billion of which went to bail out the Bank of Cyprus and other private banks-- the country was compelled to agree to “bail-in” “large depositors”-- those with over €100,000 on deposit.

In return for seizing 47.5 percent of their deposits, 21,000 of depositors-- and especially a core group of about 560-- initially received 81.5 percent percent of the bank’s stock. When the Ross group arrived this was slashed. The Bank’s financial disclosures don’t permit us to say precisely how this ownership is distributed. But at least a third to fifty percent accrued to wealthy Russians who received stock in proportion their confiscated deposits. In addition, our three leading identified Russian ‘garchs also ended up owning at least 14.3 percent of the bank.

The Russian Connections

Vladimir Strzhalkovsky: Vice Chair, Bank of Cyprus, October 2013- June 2015

For a year after Wilbur Ross arrived on the scene at the Bank of Cyprus in July 2014, until June 2015, his fellow Co-Chair and leading co-investor was none other than Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, described by the New York Times and the FT as “a former KGB agent” and as a “long-time associate of Putin’s.”

Strzhalkovsky reportedly owned 2.5 percent of the Bank of Cyprus from  October 2013 until June 2015. He told an interviewer that his family would retain at least 1.8 percent of the Bank-- more than Ross owns.

How did Strzhalkovsky become the Bank of Cyprus’ Vice Chair in October 2013?[52] It is most likely that he was appointed by Putin, his “long time associate” and fellow former KGB agent, to represent the estimated 33-50 percent of the bank’s 2013 “large depositors” who were Russian, and who had had nearly half of their deposits confiscated and converted into stock.

Strzhalkovsky continued to serve as Bank of Cyprus’s Vice Chair until he sold part of his stake-- 0.7 percentBank of Cyrpus-- to Viktor Vekelsberg. (See below.)

Before joining Bank of Cyprus, from 2008 to 2012, Strzhalkovsky had served as Chairman/ CEO of the Russian mining giant Norilsk Nickel. In 2010, the Polish business community reportedly lobbied him to appeal directly to Putin to adopt a softer line toward Poland-- more evidence that he have a direct line to the Russian President. In 2012 Strzhalkovsky gained the distinction of receiving the largest management buyout in Russian corporate history-- a $100 million payment for leaving his post at Norilsk. It was described by the New York Times as follows:

“…(A)nother data point in the shift of corporate wealth and influence away from the first generation of former Soviet businessmen-- known as the oligarchs-- and toward a coterie of well-connected former security service agents who made their mark under President Vladimir V. Putin…”

Before that, from 2004 to 2008 Vladimir Strzhalkovsky had run Rostourism, the Russian equivalent of the FSU’s Intourist tourism agency—long a source of invaluable “kompromat” for the Russian secret service. He had also served on the boards of several leading Russian companies, including Aeroflot and the giant energy company Inter RAO UES.

Interestingly, even while Vice Chair of the Bank of Cyprus from 2013 to 2015, Strzhalkovsky had also served on the board of  Olympstroy, a corruption-ridden state company that in 2014 grew to be notorious for mismanaging the construction of sports facilities at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The Sochi Olympics cost a record $51 billion-- four times the cost of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics... Here are a few questions that Senators should ask Ross, under oath, in public hearings about Strzhalkovsky:

• Have you ever visited Cyprus? Have you ever met with Vladimir Strzhalkovsky? When, where, how many times and for what purposes? What records of those meetings do you or the bank have, and will you produce them? Did you or your associates have email, messaging, mail or phone contacts with Strzhalkovsky and his associates? Can you provide records of those communications?
• During the year that you and Strzhalkovsky were co-chairs and co-investors in the Bank of Cyprus, were you aware of Strzhalkovsky’s KGB background? Of his extensive connections with Putin? If not. how do you explain this lack of diligence?
• As a “turn-around king” with a special focus on banking, how would you assess Vladimir’s Strzhalkovsky special bank management expertise? What other special skills does he have?
• To you knowledge, did any of the Russian intelligence services ever make use of the Bank of Cyprus? Which ones? What efforts did you make to learn of Russian intelligence services regarding Bank of Cyprus activities?
• What conversations, if any, did you have directly or through associates with Putin or his associates? Did you keep records of such contacts and, if so, will you provide them?
• What inquiries did you make about the money flowing into Bank of Cyprus?
Did you ask for reports about criminal proceeds? Tax evasion? Russian interference in the affairs of other countries, including especially Cyprus and the United States?
• It is true that Vladimir Putin selected Strzhalkovsky to be Vice Chair of the Bank? If so, given the fact that Putin appointed Strzhalkovsky, did you see any indications that Putin, his family of entities he controls did business with the Bank of Cyprus? Did it occur to you to make such inquiries?
• What reports, if any, did you make to U.S. banking, money laundering, terrorist finance and intelligence agencies about Bank of Cyprus and its customers? Please describe the Bank’s activities with respect to controlling flight capital, money laundering, and tax dodging during your tenure.
• Are you aware that Strzhalkovsky’s family is still an investor in The Bank of Cyprus?
• Did you discuss the Sochi project and its huge costs with Strzhalkovsky? Were you aware of published reports that the Sochi Olympics contracts were riddled with fraud? That Strzhalkovsky was one of Olympstroy‘s directors?
• What, if any, conversations did you have with Russians, including Strzhalkovsky, Putin and their associates concerning Donald Trump, the Trump Organization or the Trump family? To your knowledge, has Strzhalkovsky ever met Donald Trump or any members of his family?

Viktor Vekselberg: Bank of Cyprus board member and largest single shareholder (9.3 percent stake); Russian aluminum tsar, reportedly worth $11-$17 billion; long-time business partner of Ukrainian-born billionaire Len Blavatnik, the UK’s wealthiest citizen; reportedly enjoys good relations with Vladimir Putin.

As of now, Ross maintains a joint Co-Chairmanship in Bank of Cyprus with Maksim Goldman, who represents Lamesa Holding S.A., a part of the Renova Group, an aluminum and oil conglomerate that is majority-owned by Vekselberg.

As of 2014, Lamesa’s stake in the Bank was 5.5 percent; in 2015 it was increased to 6.2 percent  with the purchase of the 0.7 percent stake from Strzhalkovsky. In January 2017, it increased again to 9.3 percent, making Renova Group the bank’s largest single shareholder.

Together with his long-time business partner Leo Blavatnik, Vekselberg is a major aluminum and oil industries investor through Renova Group, their corporate umbrella group.  He also reportedly owns the world’s largest collection of Faberge eggs, and a yacht, the Odessa II, that is valued at $150 million.

Vekselberg is the 7th wealthiest Russian, according to the Russian edition of Forbes magazine. He is reportedly also on reasonably good terms with President Putin. In fact, he reportedly delighted the “new Tsar” by spending millions to buy up the Faberge eggs and return them to a special museum he has created for them in Moscow. Vekselberg has denied reports of some tension between him and Putin. There have been some recent reports of tensions in the relationship, but VV has denied it.

Here are a few questions that Senators should ask Ross in public hearings about Viktor Vekelsberg:
 

• When, where and under what circumstances have you ever met or communicated with Viktor Vekelsberg or his business partners? How frequently do you communicate directly or through Maksim Goldman or anyone else associated with Renova Group?
• What business dealings, if any, have you had directly or indirectly with Vekelsberg and his various business enterprises? With his partner Len Blavatnik, directly or indirectly? What role has he and his family played in the bank? Do other members of his family do business with the Bank?  Do other members of his affiliated companies do business with the Bank or with other investors in the Bank? To your knowledge, has he or his business partners done any business with the Trump Organization?
• What has been Renova’s role at the Bank of Cyprus? How does Vekelsberg use the bank, as a depositor, investor or borrower? What loans or advances were extended to him or at his direction to others? Has Vekelsberg brought any new clients to the bank?  If so, who?
• What can you tell us about business dealings between Vekelsberg and others associated with the Bank of Cyprus and Renova Group and Donald Trump, his organization and his family?
• Were you aware that Vekselberg’s long time business partner is Len Blavatnik? Were you aware that on October 25 2016, AI ALTEP Holdings Inc., a company reportedly based in New York City and owned directly or indirectly by Vekselberg’s business partner Len Blavatnik, made a $1 million contribution to Senator Mitch McConnell’s “Senate Leadership Fund?”

Dmitry Rybolovlev: Reportedly owned the largest stake in the Bank of Cyprus as of 2010 (9.7%); bought Donald Trump’s Palm Beach house in 2008 for $95 million, at the time the most expensive property in the U.S., more than doubling what Trump paid four years earlier; his personal jet’s flight pattern shows an odd coincidence of airports with Trump’s appearances on the fall campaign trail. (See the discussion below.)

Wilbur Ross also has a direct link through the Bank of Cyprus to a third leading Russian oligarch who, as of 2010, was the bank’s largest single investor and appears to still own a significant position in the Bank.

This is Dmitry Rybolovlev, a 50-year old Russian once known as the country’s “potash king.” During the “Wild West” days of Russian privatization back in the mid-1990s, “Rybo” had acquired a two-thirds stake in a critical fertilizer company, Uralkali, which eventually supplied up to 30 percent of global potash sales. Beginning in June 2010, however, shortly before Rybolovlev invested €233 million in the Bank of Cyprus,  he rather wisely started to dispose of his 66% stake in UralKali, completing the divestiture in 2011. Since then potash prices have slumped, so in hindsight, this was an adroit move.

Even after an expensive divorce, in recent years Rybolovlev’s net worth has variously estimated at $5 to $13.8 billion, depending on the year and source, with $7.8 billion being the most popular guesstimate. According to published reports, he has a very impressive €500 million art collection, although some of it was recently the subject of nasty litigation concerning provenance. He has also reportedly acquired xCitbank CEO Sandy Weill’s $88 million penthouse in New York, a $20 million mansion in Hawaii that used to belong to the actor Will Smith, a waterfront property in Palm Beach that he purchased from Donald Trump,(see below), two luxury villas in Gstaad, two personal jets that are reportedly worth over $100 million, including a private Airbus A319 (see below), a mansion on the Rue de l’Elysée in Paris that overlooks the Presidential Palace, the  entire island of Scorpios, a $68 million 67-meter yacht, and the football club in Monaco.

If this fellow had invented fertilizer, it is hard to believe that this collection of toys and lucre or his collection of invoices from divorce attorneys would be any more elaborate.

In addition to just being yet another fabulously rich Russian natural resources billionaire-- for our purposes Rybolovlev is interesting for at least three other reasons.

First, as noted, in 2010 Rybolovlev bought 9.7% of the Bank of Cyprus, becoming at that point by far its largest single investor. By 2013, just before the crash, he had reportedly increased that to 9.9 percent. Even after the 2013 crash and refinancing that produced a “haircut” for existing Bank of Cyprus investors, he appears to have retained at least a 3.3% stake. Although this stake is larger than Ross’s 1.6 percent, Rybolovlev does not have a seat on the board of directors.

Second, like many other hypertense members of the Russian elite, since the early 2000s Rybolovlev has been on of a crusade to diversify his wealth internationally. The potash mines were hard to relocate physically, so he sold off some his stake in it, and has focused since 2007 on purchasing foreign properties, joining the Russian émigré flood abroad.

In particular, in addition to all the other foreign properties described earlier, in June 2008 he purchased a Palm Beach waterfront property from Donald Trump for $95 million plus a sales commission, one that Trump had reportedly purchased himself in July 2004 for just $41 million. The unusual nature of this transaction is only underscored by the fact that the property had been valued at just $59.8 million on Palm Beach County’s tax rolls as of 2013. Eight years later, in 2016, Rybolovlev had the 60,000 square foot mansion that Trump built torn down, subdivided the property in three, and sold off a 2.74-acre plot for $34 million-- nearly $3 million per acre less than he had paid for it.

This price gain is also especially interesting because in mid-2008, Trump was complaining loudly the American real estate market was “dead” and that many of his projects were cratering. Indeed, as we noted earlier, that same year he fought tooth and nail to avoid repaying a $40 million real estate loan to Deutsche Bank.

Now precisely at that crucial point in mid-2008, just as the Great Recession was unfolding, this extraordinary $50 million Russian cash injection into Donald Trump’s balance sheet may well have saved him from personal bankruptcy. On top of his six other corporate bankruptcies, that one, in turn, might well have been the beginning of the end for Donald Trump’s political ambitions.

Third, according to flight logs from FlightRadar24 and PlaneFinder, as well as photos of planes on the ground taken from Jetphotos.co and amateur photos taken at airports by amateur Twitter journalists, an Airbus A319-133X(CJ) with the registration M-KATE that very much appears to belong to Dmitry Rybolovlev appears to have followed some very unusual flight patterns during the fall 2016 American presidential campaign.

When Rybolovlev still owned his potash company, he reportedly maintained an Airbus A319 that was outfitted for personal use. This plane, with the registration M-KATE, is registered to Sophar Property Limited, a British Virgin Islands company. While this company was originally registered to UralKali, the potash company that he disposed of by 2011, apparently Rybo, as he is known, enjoyed this plane and another, a Falcon, so much that he retained ownership or at least use rights to the two planes, this Airbus and, a Falcon jet. The Airbus A319’s registration is reportedly named after one of his two daughters, Ekaterina.

For our purposes, the intriguing thing is that this plane, normally based in Moscow and Switzerland, can be tracked. According the flight logs available from FlightRadar24, it made numerous flights all over the U.S. from August 2016 through November 2016, the peak season for the U.S. 2016 Presidential campaign-- of course right at the moment when Moscow was supposedly trying to jack the election on Trump’s behalf.

Moreover, in at least three cases, Airbus A319M-KATE showed up at very same airports, where candidate Trump was-- in the North Carolina cities of Charlotte and Concord and in Las Vegas, for example. Indeed, in the case of Charlotte, local photographers took pictures of M-KATE and the Trump campaign jet at the very same airport on November 3, 2016. During a presidential campaign close aides often arrive before and after the candidate, times that overlap with the Rybolovlev jet in several cities.

Local photographers took pictures of M-KATE and Trump’s Boeing 757 the Trump campaign jet at the same airport on November 3, 2016.

Indeed, earlier this month-- on Friday, Feb. 10 2017-- Rybolovlev‘s Airbus A319 M-KATE flew all the way from Switzerland to Miami. That airport is near where the White House said that the president was partying with hedge fund mogul Steven Schwartzman in Palm Beach on Saturday night. Rybolovlev’s jet returned to Switzerland on February 12, flight records show.

There were also M-KATE flights to Westhampton, New York and Los Angeles in early August 2016 and October-November, 2016, but the intersections with Trump’s travels are less clear.

Why would Rybolovlev’s plane scurry back and forth from Moscow to odd destinations like Charlotte and Concord, as well as to Las Vegas, New York, Burbank, and Miami, to arrive there precisely when Trump was there? The obvious question: was Rybolovlev a Putin emissary?

These flight patterns that were first noted by observant ‘Twitter journalists” like @Observer14 and @AceInCharlotte back on Nov. 3, 2016, just as they were occurring.

But what could Rybolovlev possibly have been carrying that couldn’t have been ported more efficiently and discretely by other methods? Furthermore, are we sure that relations between Putin and Rybolovev are all that good?  After all, in 2008,  Igor Sechin, Putin’s Deputy Prime Minister at the time-- and now the Executive Chairman of the fabled Rosneft, the world’s largest publicly-traded oil producer-- reportedly threatened to prosecute Dmitry Rybolovlev’s potash company over a mine disaster, exposing it to huge fines. Soon after this threat, Rybolovlev’s potash company, UralKali, reportedly paid $250 million of “voluntary” compensation to the government. After that Rybolovlevalso accelerated his efforts to diversify abroad. The Financial Times does say that relations between Putin and Rybolovlev are now fine. But this pattern also fits the standard Putin stratagem whereby oligarchs are pressured into becoming semi-feudal servants of the de facto modern Tsar.

In any case, these flights remain a genuine enigma. We do yet not have any eyewitness reports or photos that show that Rybolovlev was actually on the planes or actually met with Trump or any of his staff. But these coincidences, combined with everything else we know about Rybolovlev’s connections to Trump and Ross, certainly deserves further scrutiny.

This prompts still  more questions for Wilbur Ross, this time regarding Dmitry Rybolovlev:

• How long have you known Dmitry Rybolovlev? How much of the Bank of Cyprus does he currently own? What role has he and his family played in the bank?  Do other members of his family do business with the Bank?  Do other members of his affiliated companies do business with the Bank or with other investors in the Bank?  What contacts have you or associates had with Dmitry Rybolovlev?
• What attention did you and your team pay to Rybolovlev because of his 3.3 % (and at one time nearly 10%) stake in the Bank of Cyprus? What due diligence did you or your associates perform regarding Rybolovlev and Trump? What did you find?
• When and how did you learn of the lucrative deal Trump made with Rybolovlev in 2008 to sell his Florida property at a huge profit? As a long-time Trump friend and associate, were you involved in that deal?  Did you meet Rybolovlev at the time? To your knowledge, has Donald Trump had any other business dealings with Rybolovlev or his associates? 
• Have you or your businesses done any business with Rybolovlev or entities associated with him?
• When and when if ever, have you or your team met or communicated by telephone mail, email or through intermediaries with Rybolovlev? Are you aware of any occasions where Dmitry Rybolovlev may have met with Donald Trump or other members of his staff?  Were you present at any occasions in the last year in the U.S. or elsewhere where Dmitry was present?  How do you account for the unusual flight patterns listed above?  Do you know who recently bought one-third of Rybolovlev’s Palm Beach property?  Did you attend the Schwartzman party in Palm Beach on February 11? Was Dmitry there? Did you meet Donald Trump or other members of his staff that weekend? If so, what was discussed?

Josef Ackermann: Chairman of the Board, The Bank of Cyprus since 2014; former Chairman of Deutsche Bank (2002-12) during period when it engaged in a wide range of corporate misbehavior, including laundering $10 billion of Russian money, incurred fines that nearly bankrupted the bank, which is the largest single lender to the Trump Organization; “Friend of Vlad” who reportedly knows Putin well.

When Wilbur Ross became Vice Chairman of The Bank of Cyprus in July 2014, one of his first acts was to nominate Josef Ackermann, who had headed Deutsche Bank from 2002 to 2012, to become Bank of Cyprus’s new board chairman. He assumed that role in November 2014 and still holds it.

Even back in July 2014, it was difficult to make Ackermann’s decade running Deutsche Bank look like an achievement, to say the least. Since then, it has become even clearer that he presided over a period of spectacular chicanery at Germany’s largest bank. Given this, his nomination by Ross to head the Bank of Cyprus in 2014  seems peculiar, to say the least.

Wilbur und Josef

One possible explanation is that Wilbur Ross is a long-time financial ally of Donald Trump, dating back to an effort to restructure his casinos in 1990. From 2002 to 2012, under Ackerman, Deutsche Bank had become Trump’s largest bank creditor by far, with more than $650 million of loans to the Trump Organization and even more to other Trump partnerships, as of 2008. Trump’s 2016 financial disclosures show that out of $650 million owed by him and his organization, $364 million was owed to Deutsche Bank.

Meanwhile, ever since Trump failed to repay more than $900 million of bank loans in the early 1990s, other major U.S. and European banks had largely rejected him. He did not help his own cause by bragging in print that he had borrowed from the banks knowing full well that he would never repay.

To this day, why Deutsche Bank has continued lending to Trump and his organization remains a mystery.

Indeed, according to recent press reports, Deutsche Bank has recently been looking into allegations that the Russian Government may have guaranteed some of the bank’s  more generous loans to Trump during the Ackerman period, either directly, or through offshore banks and companies.

This would resemble a similar approach that was used by Putin in France. In 2014  he helped secure €11 million for Marine Le Pen’s cash-starved National Front from the “First Czech-Russian Bank,” a Moscow-based bank, as a reward for her support for Russia’s March 2014 invasion of Crimea and other Putin policies.

In any case, as noted, during Ackermann’s tenure at Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Bank had indulged in an incredible range of financial misconduct, from sanctions-busting, interest rate rigging, and mortgage fraud to facilitating tax dodging, illicit trading, illegal foreclosures, rigging energy markets, and money laundering. By no means were any of these full-blooded “white collar crimes” that were prosecuted to conviction and sentence; in most cases, they were disposed of by settlements and, at worst, deferred prosecution agreements. But in many ways that is the point-- leniency may explain why they kept recurring.

Since 2010 all this misconduct has finally caught up with the bank, if not its former senior executive. Although no one has gone to jail, Deutsche Bank has already had to pay nearly $20 billion in fines and settlement costs.

Those already booked include a  recent $7.2 billion U.S. Justice Department settlement for issuing fraudulent mortgage-backed securities in the 2008 financial crisis-- the largest penalty of its kind to date. This was also coupled with a $5.3 billion fine against Ackermann’s previous employer, Credit Suisse, for the same exact kind of toxic RMBSs. Another case led to a $650 million fine for laundering $10 billion of Russian money, by way of Deutsche Bank’s  offices in Moscow, New York, and Cyprus.

All these penalties were announced in January 2017. They all pertain to behavior that took root on Ackermann’s watch.  As a New York State financial regulator remarked when he announced the Russian money-laundering fine for Deutsche Bank in January, “This Russian mirror-trading scheme occurred while the bank was on clear notice of serious and widespread compliance issues dating back a decade.”

Since 2016, all this misbehavior has finally caught up with Deutsche Bank’s stock price. DB’s stock price has sharply underperformed other bank stocks because of the billions of litigation expense and penalties, to a large extent for offenses that originated during the Ackerman years. This, in turn, has led to huge job cuts, and even some serious concerns about whether Germany’s largest bank may soon require a bailout of its own.

Meanwhile, Ackermann has moved on, bonuses and all, despite recent demands from shareholders to claw them back.

As the saying goes, however, “A shoemaker does not just make one shoe.” There are some reports from investigative journalists that Cyprus is still up to its old tricks, albeit on a smaller scale. As a German ZDF TV investigative program concluded last year after succeeding in laundering €15 million through the Bank of Cyprus and other Cyprus banks, “Money laundering in Cyprus is still possible.” If so, the mere force of competitive pressures mean that Bank of Cyprus cannot stay far behind.

This is especially irritating to money laundering experts. After all, one of the key conditions for the €7.3 billion bailout that Cyprus received from the ECB and IMF in 2013-2016 was that Cyprus banks would commit to much tougher programs for monitoring compliance with “anti-money laundering” rules and statutes. As Ackermann acknowledged in a June 2016 interview, however, “There may still be individual cases… Money laundering had been the business model of Cyprus, and it is a difficult struggle.”

Evidently, it is not a struggle for everyone. In addition to becoming Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Cyprus, Ackerman has also joined the board of directors of Viktor Vekselberg’s Renova Group. This is consistent with the fact that Ackermann also reportedly enjoys a long-standing, warm relationship with Vladimir Putin. While at Deutsche Bank, he met with Putin  and other senior Russian officials frequently, served on Russia’s Foreign Investment Advisory Council and its “consultative committee” to form an “International Financial Center” in Moscow, and strongly endorsed Putin’s peculiar idea of a “free trade zone” between Russia and the EU. In Putin’s own words, “It would take ages to describe everything that Deutsche Bank is doing in Russia.”

Indeed I fear that it may.

So we also have a  few more questions that Senators should ask Ross, under oath, in public hearings, with respect to Josef Ackermann:

• How long have you known Josef Ackerman? What loans or other business dealings have you had with Credit Suisse or Deutsche Bank? Do you have a private banking relationship with Deutsche Bank? With Credit Suisse?
• Are you aware of Deutsche Bank’s history with respect to Donald Trump? To your knowledge, does Josef Ackerman know Donald Trump? To your knowledge, was he involved  in the lending relationship between Deutsche Bank and the Trump Organization or between the private banking side of Deutsche Bank and Donald Trump or is family? Was this a factor in your decision to hire him?
• What due diligence did you do with respect to Josef Ackermann? What questions did you ask Ackermann about his connections to Trump, Putin and Russian oligarchs? Are you aware that Josef Ackerman has a very cordial relationship with Vladimir Putin? Was that a factor in your decision to nominate him? Does Vladimir Putin ever any banking relationships with The Bank of Cyprus? 
• Given Ackerman’s track record, and in light of your own reputation for bank turn-around management, why did you hire Josef Ackerman to be Chairman of the Board of The Bank of Cyprus?  How confident should its shareholders be in his leadership?

WILBUR ROSS-- SUMMARY

At 79, Wilbur Ross’s energy level and sheer capacity to take on new challenges are impressive. If approved, he would be by far the oldest U.S. Commerce Secretary ever. But his nomination is actually not that surprising.

To begin with, Ross’ relationship with Trump goes back at least to the early 1990s, when he helped to finance one of Trump’s first Atlantic City casino deals. Ross has also been one of the most generous donors to Trump’s 2016 campaign. And he is widely reported to be one Trump’s most trusted advisors-- in so far as Trump listens to anything other than the voices in his head.

Ross fits right in with the ruling financier elite, way more easily than the President. Of course, Trump campaigned against all these folks when he was courting the lumpen proletariat back in the fall, but when he realized for the first time on Election Eve that he might actually have to govern, he immediately began to invite the hard-working Ivy elite in to do a reverse takeover.

Most important, while Ross’ investment funds have had trouble raising money lately, reportedly out of concern about his age, he does provide Trump with a certain degree of respectability in the investment community. While Trump falsely claims a degree from the Wharton School (he actually attended Penn’s undergraduate real estate economics program), Ross has a degree from Yale and earned a Harvard MBA. While Trump has no record of public or community service of any kind, Ross serves on the boards of a dozen prominent non-profits, including the Japan Society (Chair), Brookings, and the Dean’s Advisory Board at the Harvard Business School. He also holds seats on the boards of 70 for-profit firms, including 7 banks and 19 offshore haven companies.

The January 15 “Ethics Agreement” Ross signed with federal Office of Government Ethics promises that he will divest up to 80 of these investments within 90 to 180 days and that he will resign from most of his board seats as well.

Unfortunately, however, this does not put an end to potential conflicts of interest, especially in the Ross case.

First, from the standpoint of potential conflicts, as the Wall Street Journal recently reported, Ross still insists on retaining tens of millions of dollars in investments in non-transparent offshore entities.

These include a major co-investment with the Chinese government, a stake in a shipping company that will probably be subject to Commerce Department regulations, and a Cayman Islands “fund of funds” whose underlying assets and co-investors are completely invisible-- for all we know they include “friends of Putin.” Ross hasn’t been asked.

Second, the proposed terms of disinvestment are pretty slack. Three months is an eternity on Wall Street-- plenty of time to alter their value if Ross were so inclined.

Third, there are no limits on Ross’ partners’ investments in the Bank of Cyprus or any other enterprises. They might decide to reward him in Heaven for favors done now.

Fourth, Ross is not required to unwind his extensive loan portfolio, including the very large sums that he and his group owe to big banks like JP Morgan. These banks may well be within the range of various federal government regulations that official actions by Ross could impact.

Fifth, If Mr. Ross were so inclined, an endless variety of murky dis-invest and buy-back deals might be constructed to offset his formal disinvestments. This is the essence of the problem with trying to enforce conflict of interest rules against extremely rich business people who have built up global networks of other rich business people over decades. Favors are discretely provided and reciprocated. Just ask Vladimir Putin.

Just for the sake of argument, however, let’s assume for the moment that Wilbur is too long in the tooth to take advantage of such loopholes or be motivated by selfish considerations. Let’s also stipulate that he really does believe that what he is serving the public good, as he sees it.

Even then,  there is still another valid concern-- the most important. From this angle, classic “conflicts of interest” analysis and Ross’s pledges to discontinue his investments and board seats both miss the point.

For just as with the President, the stench of dodgy associations lingers on. In other words, even if  Ross divested everything down to his garters, there would still be this annoying puzzle:

Why, at the ripe old age of 77, way back in 2014,  did Wilbur  Ross step in with a lot of his and his associates’ money to save this feral bank in Cyprus? Why did he  pursue all these associations with dodgy  Russian “investors,” including “close associates of Putin?”

Before it confirms Mr. Wilbur Ross, the U.S. Senate needs to conduct a full investigation and demand public testimony to help us understand this glaring puzzle.

So... if you run into Sherrod Brown or Amy Klobuchar or Brian Schatz, ask them why they voted to confirm Wilbur.