House probe of Deutsche Bank and Trump should be taken seriously - 6:11 PM 2/20/2019
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Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks℠
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Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks℠  | |||||||
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| House probe of Deutsche Bank and Trump should be taken seriously | |||||||
The surest sign that House Democrats plan to conduct an in-depth investigation of Deutsche Bank’s dealings with President Trump — rather than the sort of slapdash, shallow probe that Congress often stages — came in a little-noted recent hiring decision.
The House Financial Services Committee reportedly added to its staff Bob Roach, a seasoned congressional investigator who specializes in complex financial inquiries and has a long history of tangling with Deutsche. During Roach’s tenure as a staffer on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, he worked for Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who staged lengthy hearings where he grilled famous witnesses such as Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and Apple CEO Tim Cook. Roach did much of the behind-the-scenes work that led to those on-camera showdowns. He also had a hand in at least five separate Senate reports that examined Deutsche Bank. Those five reports, which were released between 2003 and 2014, ought to be required reading for lawyers representing both Deutsche and President Trump. They offer a glimpse of the kind of congressional scrutiny that’s coming. I got to know Roach as a good-humored lawyer who was quite serious about the investigative work he was conducting. I recall him once lamenting that Congress no longer had the staff-level expertise that it once enjoyed. Roach’s own expertise as a financial investigator is apparent in the various work the subcommittee has published on Deutsche Bank. All five reports are thorough, and they all deal with the sort of financial industry arcana that typically makes eyes glaze over in Washington. Four of the five reports drew bipartisan support — an outcome that seems far-fetched in any probe of President Trump’s finances, since that topic is far more politically charged than the issues that Roach has typically examined in the past. In 2003, Roach played a key role in a Senate report that examined the role of Deutsche, the accounting firm KPMG and other companies in the development, marketing and implementation of tax shelters that investigators deemed abusive. A follow-up Senate report in 2005 delved further into the tax shelter industry — looking at the role of Deutsche, as well as other banks, accounting firms, law firms, investment advisory companies and even charitable organizations. The 2005 report found that Deutsche provided billions of dollars in lending that was critical to transactions that the bank knew facilitated potentially abusive or illegal tax shelters. Within 10 months of the second report’s release, federal prosecutors in Manhattan had reportedly begun investigatingDeutsche Bank’s role in questionable tax shelters. In 2010, the German megabank admitted criminal wrongdoing and agreed to pay $553.6 million. A nonprosecution agreement between Deutsche and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan cited many of the same specific tax shelters that Roach and his colleagues had identified years earlier in the Senate reports. Deutsche again came under an unwelcome spotlight in 2011 when the Senate subcommittee issued a massive report on the role of Wall Street in the financial crisis. (Although I worked for the subcommittee during the early stages of that investigation, I was not involved with the portion that dealt with Deutsche Bank.) The report’s 46-page section on Deutsche focuses on the activities of a trader named Greg Lippmann, who made a large bet against the U.S. housing market even as his employer was pumping out collateralized debt obligations made up of subprime residential mortgage-backed securities. Lippmann was also the basis of the character played by Ryan Gosling in the 2015 film “The Big Short” — adapted from a best-seller by Michael Lewis — which focused on a small number of short sellers who correctly predicted the housing market crash that began in 2007. Gosling’s character, who serves as the movie’s narrator, says at one point, “I never said I was the hero of this story.” The 2011 Senate report spells that point out in great detail. The report explains that while Lippmann referred to certain housing-related securities as “crap” and “pigs,” he simultaneously did not object to inclusion of those same securities in collateralized debt obligations that Deutsche was marketing to clients. One of those clients, M&T Bank, eventually wrote down the value of its securities in a CDO called Gemstone 7, which was underwritten by Deutsche, to $1.87 million. Their original value was $82 million. “M&T Bank told the subcommittee that had it known about Mr. Lippmann’s views, it might have ‘thought twice’ before purchasing Gemstone 7 securities,” the Senate report stated. Roach also worked on a 2008 report that looked at how offshore entities dodge taxes on U.S. stock dividends. Deutsche was one of six investment banks whose role came under examination. In 2014, Roach and his colleagues published a report that looked at the use of structured financial products to avoid taxes and leverage limits. It examined the conduct of hedge funds and the British bank Barclays, in addition to Deutsche Bank. Roach has also worked on Senate investigations involving money laundering, though those probes did not focus on Deutsche. The House Financial Services Committee, chaired by California Democrat Maxine Waters, is reportedly planning to investigate allegations that Deutsche Bank helped launder money on behalf of Russian customers, in addition to looking into the bank’s business dealings with the president and his family. Trump is said to have borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars from the German lender. White Paper Reducing friction and false positives
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“Deutsche Bank is engaged in a productive dialogue with those committees to determine the best and most appropriate way of assisting them in their official oversight functions,” the bank said in an emailed statement. “We remain committed to providing appropriate information to all authorized investigations.” The German bank knows the drill here. Another comprehensive probe is coming.  Kevin WackKevin Wack is a California-based reporter for American Banker who covers the U.S. consumer finance industry. | |||||||
| M. N.: The New Abwehr enjoys and employs the deep and intimate connections with the criminal Underworld which go back to the early 1920-s... - 5:48 PM 2/20/2019 | |||||||
 M. N.: The New Abwehr enjoys and employs the deep and intimate connections with the criminal Underworld which go back to the early 1920-s, the conditions after the Germany's defeat in the WW1 and the resulting "Restrictions" (I almost typed "Sanctions") which made the symbiotic and sometimes parasitic relations with Police and Criminals the matter of survival for the Abwehr which based itself at that time at the Military Police Stations. Money Laundering is another, related sub-specialty which was a matter of survival and necessity at that time, and the Abwehr under Canaris (which really is the Abwehr we are talking about) made both areas the traditional historical "fields of excellence". Money Laundering, from Deutsche Bank to Chabad dealers to Oligarchs, e.g. Lev Leviyev and others, and most notably by our pretty laundry girls and boys from the Trump-Kushner Crime Family, was and is one of the truly heart felt activities for the Abwehr, and after the WW2, for the New Abwehr. It is reasonable to assume that it is the New Abwehr which ultimately controls the organised crime today, precisely because it is itself their creator and organizer. This thesis or the working hypothesis has to be looked into, researched, and investigated. Michael Novakhov 2.20.19
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| Mueller's interest in Kushner grows to include foreign financing efforts | |||||||
This is the first indication that Mueller is exploring Kushner's discussions with potential non-Russian foreign investors, including in China.
US officials briefed on the probe
had told CNN in May
that points of focus related to Kushner, the White House senior adviser and son-in-law of President Donald Trump, included the Trump campaign's 2016 data analytics operation, his relationship with former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and Kushner's own contacts with Russians.
It's not clear what's behind Mueller's specific interest in the financing discussions. Mueller's team has not contacted Kushner Companies for information or requested interviews with its executives, according to a person familiar with the matter.
During the presidential transition, Kushner was a lead contact for foreign governments, speaking to "over fifty contacts with people from over fifteen countries," according to a statement he gave to congressional investigators.
Before joining the administration, Kushner was also working to divest his interests in Kushner Companies, the family company founded by his father. In early 2017,
Kushner also divested from the 666 Fifth Avenue property
that his family's company purchased in 2007 for $1.8 billion. The interests were sold to a family trust that Kushner does not benefit from, a spokesperson said at the time.
Kushner's contacts with Chinese investorsOne line of questioning from Mueller's team involves discussions Kushner had with Chinese investors during the transition, according to the sources familiar with the inquiry.
A week after Trump's election, Kushner met with the chairman and other executives of Anbang Insurance, the Chinese conglomerate that also owns the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York,
according to The New York Times
.
Mueller's team has also asked about Kushner's dealings with a Qatari investor regarding the same property, according to one of the sources. Kushner and his company were negotiating for financing from a prominent Qatari investor, former prime minister Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani,
according to The Intercept
. But as with Anbang, these efforts stalled.
Vornado last week disclosed its intention to sell its stake in a regulatory filing, saying, "We do not intend to hold this asset on a long-term basis." A representative for Kushner declined to comment prior to the publication of this story. After publication, Kushner attorney Abbe Lowell told CNN in a statement, "Another anonymous source with questionable motives now contradicts the facts -- in all of Mr. Kushner's extensive cooperation with all inquiries, there has not been a single question asked nor document sought on the 666 building or Kushner Co. deals. Nor would there be any reason to question these regular business transactions." A representative for Anbang declined to comment. Al Thani could not be reached for comment. A spokesman for the special counsel declined to comment.
Also during the transition, Kushner met with Sergey Gorkov, chairman of Russian state-run Vnesheconombank. Kushner testified on Capitol Hill that the meeting was for official US government purposes.
But the Russian bank maintains
that the sit-down in New York was part of their "roadshow of business meetings" and that Gorkov met Kushner because he ran Kushner Companies.
The Washington Post reported
that Mueller's investigators are scrutinizing this meeting.
Investigators' interest in Kushner
Last fall, Kushner turned over documents pertaining to the campaign and transition to both Mueller and congressional investigators,
sources told CNN in November
. Kushner spoke to investigators in November for less than two hours, and the dominant topic was Michael Flynn, according to two people familiar with the meeting who spoke to CNN at the time.
Flynn,
who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI
and is cooperating with the investigation, attended some of Kushner's meetings with foreign nationals. Under his plea deal, Flynn is obligated to tell Mueller's investigators everything he knows about these meetings.
Update: This story has been updated with comment from Kushner attorney Abbe Lowell. | |||||||
| Russia interference in elections is 'warfare', says Nikki Haley - 12:23 PM 2/20/2019 | A warfare with the wrong (incorrectly identified) enemy is the wrong warfare. Und ziz iz not to "protect the Russians" but to protect the clear vision and the correct analysis and decisions. - M.N. | |||||||
Russia interference in elections is 'warfare', says Nikki Haley - 12:23 PM 2/20/2019 | A warfare with the wrong (incorrectly identified) enemy is the wrong warfare. Und ziz iz not to "protect the Russians" (very far from it) but to protect the clear vision and the correct analysis and decisions. - M.N.
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| Gerhard Schroeder and The New Abwehr Hypothesis of The Operation Trump | |||||||
 Gerhard Schroeder and The New Abwehr Hypothesis of The Operation Trump Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks℠ Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks℠ - 25 - | |||||||
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| Gerhard Schroeder and The New Abwehr Hypothesis of The Operation Trump - Google Search | |||||||
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| Gerhard Schroeder and The New Abwehr Hypothesis of The Operation Trump - Google Search | |||||||
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| Gerhard Schroeder and The New Abwehr Hypothesis of The Operation Trump - Google Search | |||||||
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| Gerhard Schroeder and The New Abwehr Hypothesis of The Operation Trump - Google Search | |||||||
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| Gerhard Schroeder and The New Abwehr Hypothesis of The Operation Trump - Google Search | |||||||
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| Gerhard Schroeder and The New Abwehr Hypothesis of The Operation Trump - Google Search | |||||||
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| Gerhard Schroeder and The New Abwehr Hypothesis of The Operation Trump - Google Search |
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