543
This chapter can be seen as expanding on Chapter A regarding Aras Agalarov and the true etymology/purpose of the Trump Tower Collusion Meeting of June 9, 2016
Finally some Aras Agalarov news. As argued in previous chapter(find it) Donald Jr’s Trump Tower Russia meeting has always had a certain Jerry Seinfeld sense about it-it was the meeting with the Russians during the Presidential campaign deemed important enough for three very senior Trump campaign aides to attend-Trump’s son, son in law-who had a high level role with the campaign-and Paul Manafort-the campaign manager.
Yet in the Trump Tower testimony (get link) everyone claims that nothing was accomplished and no one can explain if it was such a nothingburger why they were there in the first place. Rob Goldstone too insists it was a nothingburger and claims that when he wrote that email promising dirt on Clinton as part of the support of the Russian government for your father’s campaign, he was just engaging in hperbole. But he did think it was important enough to announce it on Facebook before hand, just as on the Russia side Ike Kaveladze assures us that not only was nothing accomplished but he never had any clear idea what the meeting was supposed to accomplish.
Ok, then why travel from LA to NYC with just two days notice?
“Back in January, I suggested the well-orchestrated public narrative about the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting was a limited hangout. The public narrative fed by defense attorneys (above all, Agalarov lawyer Scott Balber, representing Ike Kaveladze and with him the Agalarovs) never explained why Crocus Group Vice President Kaveladze jumped on a plane from LA to NY — with just two days advance warning — for the meeting. Additionally, the public narrative at least hinted that there was a later part of the meeting not covered by the public narrative.”
The materials released by the Senate Judiciary Committee are crystal clear on the first point: Kaveladze, not Rob Goldstone, was actually in charge. Kaveladze describes meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya before the meeting, and vetting her presentation for his boss, Aras Agalarov.
My purpose [in attending the meeting] was to read that longer synopsis, whatever she had over there, and my understanding was that longer synopsis contained something which I could alarm Mr. Agalarov about — you know, I would alarm him, and he would call off the meeting. That synopsis was about same thing [Magnitsky], so there was no alarm or nothing.
Kaveladze would again be managing Vesenitskaya later in the year, in a bid to get the second meeting Don Jr had tacitly offered, until he finally handed her off to Balber in January 2017. And a year later, when things started to blow up, Emin Agalarov described that “the meeting happened through Ike and my dad,” something Rob Goldstone — who has always gotten public credit for arranging the meeting — happily agreed with.
Then Marcy Wheeler-quoted above-makes a crucial point: it’s obvious that the true brains behind the meeting was Aras Agalarov.
“It was always clear (indeed, Vesenitskaya said so explicitly) that Aras was really the one behind the meeting. Kaveladze’s role in the meeting only reinforces the point. Yet that’s a point that the public narratives — the narratives fed by those who set up the meeting — have all obscured.”
Indeed, and this is likely deliberate. As noted in the chapter about Glenn Simpson (find) what stands out in his interview is his candor and to use-just fired-Don McGahn’s line-fulsomeness. On the other hand none of the interviewed participants in that Trump Tower meeting show any candor-they may respond to the questions but they do the best they can not to answer them. None of them tell anything close to the full truth though you suspect there was a good deal of coordination between them-which is not surprising when you remember that, for instance, Goldstone immediately started talking the the Trump lawyers when the story first broke in July, 2017.
But it’s been clear that to figure out what purpose that meeting really served, Agalarov was the guy to speak to. Both Goldstone and Kaveladze just represent themselves as employees following orders and Emin Agalarov represents himself as a pop star who just thought the whole thing would be a hoot. But their mutual employer was-Aras Agalarov. Remember the entire premise as Goldstone set it out in his June 3, 2016 email to Donald Jr promising the Hillary dirt on behalf of the Russian government’s support for Trump was that Aras Agalarov had just spoken to Russia’s ‘Crown Prosecutor’ about setting up the meeting.
This was presumed to refer to Russia’s chief federal prosecutor. In his September interview, Goldstone tried a new cover story to hand wave the whole thing away-when he said this he ‘had no idea what he was talking about.’
Rob Goldstone, the man who sent the email to Donald Trump Jr. that proclaimed “Russia and its government’s support” for the Trump campaign, now says he had no idea what he was talking about.
“In fact, not only did he not know the Russian government had launched a broader program of “active measures” against the 2016 election, Goldstone also says he made up some of the most important details in the message.”
“Yes, Goldstone says, his client, Russian pop singer Emin Agalarov, did ask him to reach out to Trump Jr. and communicate the offer of help that Emin’s father, Aras, said he’d received from someone influential.”
“But the email’s reference to “the crown prosecutor of Russia” — which led subsequent reports to identify the person as Yuri Chaika, Russia’s chief federal prosecutor — was all Goldstone, he now says.”
So he simply made up the story about Agalarov and the crown prosecutor out of whole cloth? Or has Scott Balber had a chat with him? In any case, it’s clear that if we are to have a chance to learn what that whole meeting was really about, we need to speak to Aras himself.
FN: As noted in Chapter A Mueller had sought but ultimately failed to secure an interview with Emin Agalarov which certainly would have been very helpful-he could have explained more about why his father setup the meeting-did Aras speak with Yuri Chaika as a logical reading of Goldstone’s email would suggest? Certainly Goldstone’s on dissembling here is not very plausible.
There hasn’t been a lot of public information about Agalarov Sr. Not surprisingly, Mueller wants an interview with both Agalarovs.
Speaking of which, we finally have some Agalarov Sr news.
A Russian billionaire who orchestrated the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting formed a new American shell company a month beforehand with an accountant who has had clients accused of money laundering and embezzlement.
FN: So yet another interesting coincidence-number 894 in the whole Trump Russian Collusion saga-is there a relation between that and the meeting he set up? He set up this shell company around the same time he was setting up the Trump Tower Russia Collusion meeting.
“The billionaire, Aras Agalarov, created the US company anonymously while preparing to move almost $20m into the country during the time of the presidential election campaign, according to interviews and corporate filings.”
“The company was set up for him in May 2016 by his Russian-born accountant, who has also managed the US finances of compatriots accused of mishandling millions of dollars.”
But it gets even better as one of the clients of this Russian born accountant with clients who have been accused of money laundering and embezzlement has its own connection to the Trump Tower meeting.
“One of those clients has its own connection to the Trump Tower meeting.”
“In June 2016, Agalarov allegedly offered Trump’s team damaging information from the Kremlin about Hillary Clinton, their Democratic opponent. The offer led Trump’s eldest son to hold a meeting at their Manhattan offices that is now a focus of the inquiry into Moscow’s election interference by Robert Mueller, the special counsel.”
“Agalarov’s previously unreported shell company is another example of intriguing financial activity around the time of the Trump Tower meeting. Mueller is looking into such activity and whether any of the money involved could have been used to fund Russian meddling in the US election, which Agalarov denies.”
Scott Balber, Agalarov’s attorney, said the company was formed for “real estate transactions” and did not elaborate. Ilya Bykov, the accountant, said it was created to “handle certain investment projects which never materialised”.
Balber said in an email: “For the avoidance of any doubt, no Mr Agalarov has not used his accountant – or anyone else – to commit any wrongdoing and no Mr Agalarov has not used the money you referenced – or any other money – to fund any activity relating to the US election.”
Ok so we have our denial-which is not surprising. When a potential witness or target issues a denial this can mean one of two things: either they are innocent, or they are guilty and trying to cover up their guilt. So a denial is never logically the end of a legitimate investigation.
Of course, if this is the GOP Congress this would be the end of it-Ok Democrats he didn’t have anything to do with collusion as he said so-and that would be the end of it. On the other hand, if we’re trying to run a legitimate investigation that follows the facts wherever they lead this is just the beginning-next we have to confirm or deny Agalarov’s denial.
“On 9 June, one of Agalarov’s top executives and several other Russians met Donald Trump Jr and two other senior Trump aides at Trump Tower to discuss the offer.”
“A month earlier, Bykov, Agalarov’s US-based accountant, had incorporated a corporation for him in Delaware, a state favoured by businesses for its low taxes and protection of corporate secrecy. Agalarov was not named in the paperwork but Bykov was listed as the company’s president and director.”
So this shell company account was set up a month prior to the Trump Tower Russia Collusion meeting. But it gets even better as Buzzfeed later reported that he moved millions to the account 11 days after the meeting.
“BuzzFeed News reported last month that Agalarov moved $19.5m from an offshore investment vehicle to a US bank account 11 days after the meeting. The transfer was reportedly flagged to US Treasury officials as suspicious. The Delaware company used the same name, Silver Valley Consulting, as the offshore vehicle.”
Yet another interesting correlation-on this very same day:
“On the day of the money transfer, Trump fired his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, leaving his campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, in charge. Manafort, who has extensive business links to the former Soviet Union, is now cooperating with Mueller after having been convicted of financial crimes.”
Of course, Manafort was at Agalarov’s meeting. Speaking of Lewandowski, I noted in (chapter Z) he has recently been amassing huge legal bills which suggests he’s a person of significant interest for Mueller-if not a subject or even target like Roger Stone. Lewandowski says he hasn’t been interviewed by Mueller, a fact which actually increases the probability that he is.
FN: In retrospect it’s not clear it you would call Lewandowski a target-clearly he was an important witness-Mueller’s focus was mostly on Trump’s attempt to get him to fire Jeff Sessions.
More on Agalarov’s accountant:
“Having initially said that Agalarov’s Delaware company was formed to handle investments that did not materialise, Bykov later said it was actually set up specifically to receive the $19.5m money transfer, but that the money was ultimately sent to Agalarov’s personal US bank account instead.”
“Bykov said Agalarov used some of the transferred funds to buy an apartment in Florida and to pay down personal debt. Property records from Miami-Dade county state that Agalarov bought an apartment there in April 2016, before the company was created and the money was transferred. Bykov said the money was used to buy a different apartment, but did not give details.”
“A 60-year-old US citizen and graduate of New York University, Bykov leads a Manhattan-based firm that provides US legal and financial services for some of Russia’s wealthiest people. Among them is Igor Krutoy, a composer and prominent Putin supporter, who was part of a consortium that tried in 2011 to develop a hotel in Latvia with Trump. Krutoy was not accused of any wrongdoing.
Another coincidence, another opportunity to quote Nance’s Law-coincidences take a lot of planning.
Bykov dismissed suggestions that Agalarov was part of Russia’s election interference as “sensationalism” from critics of Trump. “Aras is a fantastic guy,” he said. “A great guy. Very accomplished, very fair, very likable, very open, very down to earth, very smart.”
Of course, Agalarov could be very likable and smart and still been part of Russia’s interference. The two don’t necessarily contradict.
Meanwhile, another of Bykov’s clients is also separately linked to the Trump Tower meeting: yup, Natalia Vesselntiskaya herself. She, as is well known, represents Prevezon Holdings. Speaking of Pevezon Holdings:
“Corporate filings to New York state regulators show that several of the Prevezon companies allegedly used for money laundering were registered to Bykov’s offices.”
How does Bykov explain this one? By pretending he represents a different Prevezon Holdings.
But he later confirmed his firm “provided bookkeeping and tax services for a short period of time” for the Prevezon pursued by the US government. The company was officially owned by Denis Katsyv, a Russian businessman.
T”he justice department announced in May last year that Prevezon would pay a $5.9m settlement to halt the government’s legal action. No wrongdoing was admitted and Prevezon maintained its innocence.”
Aras Agalarov’s accountant has still other interesting clients:
“Bykov also managed the US financial affairs of Larisa Markus, the ex-president of Russia’s Vneshprombank. Markus is now serving a nine-year prison sentence in Russia, having been convicted of embezzling about $2bn of the bank’s money before it collapsed in 2016.
Bykov said lawyers who reviewed Markus’s financing for him were satisfied it was legitimate. “I have to be very, very careful, because on one hand I have a response for the client and on the other hand I have a response for the law,” said Bykov. “And they’re not always identical.”
He said Markus was innocent and was made a scapegoat for Vneshprombank’s collapse. “Larisa was a victim of what’s going on in Russia,” said Bykov. “Not for one second do I believe she was involved in stealing this money.”
Bykov said he had no involvement in misconduct and that the vast majority of his clients had spotless records. He said: “If, out of 500 clients over 15 years, three were accused of doing something wrong, that’s a pretty good number, don’t you think?”
This would no doubt please Devin Nunes-‘That’s a good number Democrats. Now let s go back to Emailgate and Uranium One.’
But we need further investigation to say the least. This is no doubt information that will be helpful to Mueller-and the incoming Democratic House-I’m presuming.
UPDATE: In September Buzzfeed revealed Mueller was interested in these financial transactions of Aras Agalarov’s around the time of the Russia Collusion meeting at Trump Tower. Soon after a Russian language report revealed Agalarov emptied out his US bank accounts soon after this news.
So what did Mueller learn about Agalarov’s transactions?
Mike followup on Emptywheel’s analysis of the Trump Tower meeting for the bigger picture.
It Is False to Claim There Was No Follow-Up to the June 9 Meeting
Did Akhmetshin and Kaveladze Coordinate Before or After Jared Disclosed the June 9 Meeting
Quid Pro Quo Redux, Part Two: Russian Government Involvement in All Three Conspiracy Agreements