Punk in Finland

Giuliani says he was paid $500,000 to work for indicted associate's firm
Former Mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani gestures as he speaks during a conference
President Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani speaks during a conference in Albania in July. Photo: Gent Shkullaku/AFP/Getty Images

President Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani told Reuters Monday he was paid $500,000 in consultancy work for the fraud prevention firm Fraud Guarantee, co-founded by indicted Ukrainian-American businessman Lev Parnas.

Why it matters: Parnas and Igor Fruman were arrested this month and charged with violating campaign finance laws and conspiracy. The Trump donors had helped connect Giuliani with Ukrainian officials as part of his efforts to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.

The New York Times reported last week that New York federal prosecutors had launched a criminal investigation to determine whether Giuliani "broke lobbying laws in his dealings in Ukraine."
The federal prosecutors are looking into Giuliani's personal business relationships with Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier Monday.

What they're saying: Giuliani told Reuters Parnas' company, Fraud Guarantee, "engaged Giuliani Partners, a management and security consulting firm, around August 2018."

"Giuliani said he was hired to consult on Fraud Guarantee’s technologies and provide legal advice on regulatory issues," Reuters reports.

"Giuliani told Reuters the money came in two payments made within weeks of each other. He said he could not recall the dates of the payments. He said most of the work he did for Fraud Guarantee was completed in 2018 but that he had been doing follow-up for over a year."

The big picture: Fraud Guarantee is based in Boca Raton, Florida. The company's website states its mission is to "help reduce the risk of fraud as well as mitigate the damage caused by fraudulent acts."
https://www.axios.com/indicted-giuliani ... c1ea3.html

Washington Post wrote:Giuliani pressed Trump to eject Muslim cleric from U.S., a top priority of Turkish president, former officials say

Spoiler:

Rudolph W. Giuliani privately urged President Trump in 2017 to extradite a Turkish cleric living in exile in the United States, a top priority of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to multiple former administration officials familiar with the discussions.

Giuliani, a Trump ally who later became the president’s personal attorney, repeatedly argued to Trump that the U.S. government should eject Fethullah Gulen from the country, according to the former officials, who spoke on the condition on anonymity to describe private conversations.

The former New York mayor brought up Gulen so frequently with Trump during visits to the White House that one former official described the subject as Giuliani’s “hobby horse.” He was so focused on the issue — “it was all Gulen,” recalled a second former official — that White House aides worried that Giuliani was making the case on behalf of the Turkish government, former officials said.

“We’re not going to arrest [Gulen] to do a solid for Erdogan,” the second official said, describing the internal thinking.

However, Trump appeared receptive to the idea, pressing his advisers about Gulen’s status, the people said.

One former senior administration official recalled that Trump asked frequently about why Gulen couldn’t be turned over to Turkey, referring to Erdogan as “my friend.”

...Giuliani is not registered as a foreign lobbyist, as he would be required to do if he were being paid to lobby the U.S. government on a policy matter for a foreign interest.


...Giuliani told The Post in a phone interview late Monday that he never represented Turkey and so he does not need to register as a foreign lobbyist.

In a text exchange Tuesday afternoon, he declined to discuss whether he advocated for Gulen’s extradition, writing: “can’t comment on it that would be complete attorney client privilege but sounds wacky.”

When told that multiple people described the conversations to The Post, Giuliani responded “Bull,” and then liked the question with a thumbs-up emoji.

...However, senior administration officials were so concerned that Giuliani might have been paid to push Turkey’s interests that, at one point in 2017, they confronted him and asked him not to bring up Turkish issues when he met with the president, according to a person familiar with the conversation.

When asked via text if he recalled the conversation, Giuliani responded by liking the question with a thumbs-up emoji.

...The conversations Giuliani reportedly had with Trump about Gulen in 2017 came the same year he was representing Reza Zarrab, a Turkish Iranian accused of corruption.

The trader held embarrassing and politically damaging information about Erdogan and other top Turkish officials in his government, it was later revealed in federal court when Zarrab pleaded guilty to orchestrating a multibillion-dollar conspiracy to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran.

...In affidavits filed in federal court, Giuliani said that “at no time” he had “been involved in the representation of the Republic of Turkey” or acted as the country’s agent.

He acknowledged that his law firm did work for the Turkish government but said he was walled off from such discussions.

Trump yllätti lapsensa menettäneen britti­pariskunnan Valkoisessa talossa: Epäilty yliajaja oli viereisessä huoneessa

Yhdysvaltalaisen diplomaatin vaimo Anne Sacoolas pakeni diplomaattisen koskemattomuuden turvin Yhdysvaltoihin pian onnettomuuden jälkeen.


Tim ja Charlotte Dunnia haastateltiin New Yorkissa tiistaina. (KUVA: EDUARDO MUNOZ / REUTERS)

POLIISI epäilee yhdysvaltalaisen diplomaatin vaimon Anne Sacoolasin ajaneen elokuussa väärällä puolen tietä Northamptonshiressa Britanniassa ja törmänneen vastaantulevaan moottoripyöräilijään. Kolarissa kuoli moottoripyörän kuljettaja, 19-vuotias Harry Dunn.

Sacoolas pakeni diplomaattisen koskemattomuuden turvin Yhdysvaltoihin pian onnettomuuden jälkeen.

Poikansa kuolemaa surevat brittivanhemmat Charlotte Charles ja Tim Dunn järkyttyivät tiistaina vieraillessaan Valkoisessa talossa, kun Yhdysvaltain presidentti Donald Trump kertoi Sacoolasin olevan viereisessä huoneessa. Lisäksi Trump kysyi, haluaisivatko Charles ja Dunn tavata hänet.

Asiasta kertovat useat kansainväliset mediat, muiden muassa brittilehti The Guardian.

KUOLLEEN nuorukaisen vanhemmat matkustivat sunnuntaina Yhdysvaltoihin tavoitteenaan saada Sacoolas palaamaan Britanniaan poliisitutkintaan.

Britannian yleisradio BBC:n mukaan matkan tarkoitus on saada mediahuomiota tapaukselle Yhdysvalloissa. Vaikka tapausta on ruodittu ahkerasti brittimediassa, asian käsittely Yhdysvalloissa on jäänyt vaatimattomammaksi.


Onnettomuuspaikalle Northamptonshiressa oli viime viikolla tuotu kukkia. (KUVA: LINDSEY PARNABY /AFP)

Yllättäen tiistaina Charles ja Dunn saivat tiistaina kutsun saapua Valkoiseen taloon. Vielä yllättävämpi oli tarjous, joka tuli Trumpilta ilman ennakkovaroitusta.

”Pommi putosi heti kun astuimme huoneeseen: Sacoolas olisi samassa talossa ja tahtoisi tavata meidät”, Charles kertoi toimittajille noin vartin kestäneen tapaamisen jälkeen The Guardianin mukaan.

”Teimme erittäin selväksi, että haluaisimme kyllä tavata hänet, mutta kuten olemme kaiken aikaa sanoneet, sen on tapahduttava Britannian maaperällä.”

Sacoolasin ja kuolleen nuoren vanhempien välillä oli jo aiemmin ollut puhetta tapaamisesta, mutta Trumpin äkillinen ehdotus tuli täytenä yllätyksenä.

”Olimme hieman järkyttyneitä, mutta totta puhuakseni sillä ei ole niin väliä, onko hän [Sacoolas] kilometrien päässä vai viereisessä huoneessa. Mielestäni tapaamista ei pitäisi järjestää ilman terapeutteja ja sovittelijoita”, Charles jatkoi.

Heidän mukaansa Trump ensin kielsi mahdollisuuden, että Sacoolas palaisi Britanniaan, mutta myöhemmin keskustelussa hän antoi merkkejä myös päinvastaisesta. Charles ja Dunn myös kiittelivät Trumpia lämpimästä kohtelusta ja myötätunnosta, joka ”vaikutti vilpittömältä”.

VANHEMMAT aikovat viettää Yhdysvalloissa muutaman päivän, ja lisäksi heillä on vielä kysymyksiä Britannian ulkoministeriölle.

Charlesin mukaan he ovat saaneet edistettyä asiaansa hieman saavuttuaan Yhdysvaltoihin, mutta vastauksia kaikkiin kysymyksiin ei vielä ole saatu. He tahtovat esimerkiksi tietää, minä päivänä Sacoolas palasi Yhdysvaltoihin ja kuka teki päätöksen, että tämä sai palata.

Aiemmin julkaistussa tiedotteessa Sacoolas on asianajajineen kommentoinut tapahtunutta sanomalla, että hän puhui viranomaisille onnettomuuspaikalla ja vielä uudelleen seuraavana päivänä. Sacoolas sanoo suostuvansa yhteistyöhön jatkossakin.

”Anne on järkyttynyt tästä traagisesta onnettomuudesta. Mikään menetys ei ole verrattavissa lapsen menetykseen”, tiedotteessa todetaan The Guardianin mukaan.

Näin Trump kommentoi tapausta aiemmin, torstaina 10. lokakuuta, kun häneltä asiasta kysyttiin:

"Inhoan tapausta", Trump kommentoi kuolonkolaria

BRITANNIAN pääministerin Boris Johnsonin mukaan Sacoolasin tulisi palata Britanniaan. Johnson on sanonut, että hänen mielestään diplomaattista koskemattomuutta ei pitäisi hyödyntää tällaisessa tapauksessa.

Britannian ulkoministeri Dominic Raab puolestaan kertoi sunnuntaina, ettei Scoolasin diplomaattiselle koskemattomuudelle ole enää perustetta, kertoo muiden muassa yhdysvaltalaiskanava CNN. Tämä voi tarjota Britannian viranomaisille mahdollisuuden aloittaa oikeustoimet Sacoolasin saamiseksi takaisin Britanniaan.

Britannian hallituksen kanta on Raabin mukaan se, että koska Sacoolas on jo palannut kotiin, koskemattomuudelle ei enää ole perustetta. Britannia on ajanut voimakkaasti koskemattomuudesta luopumista, vaikka Yhdysvallat on sinnikkäästi vastustanut sitä, Raab kirjoittaa kirjeessä Dunnin perheelle.

”Nyt Yhdysvallat on tiedottanut, että myöskään he eivät enää katso koskemattomuudelle olevan perustetta”, Raab kirjoittaa.

”Haluamme oikeutta Harrylle ja olemme valmiit viemään asian niin pitkälle kuin on tarpeen varmistaaksemme, että näin tapahtuu”, kuolleen nuoren äiti Charlotte Charles totesi The Guardianille.

J-Dawg not in da hizzouse wrote: ↑

16 Oct 2019, 12:18

Kunnon tosi-tv-paskaa tosi-tv-pressalta.

US charges Turkish bank, linked to Giuliani client, over Iran sanctions evasion scheme

Federal prosecutors in New York announced charges on Tuesday against a Turkish bank with ties to a gold trader connected to Rudy Giuliani, accusing the financial institution of a multi-billion dollar scheme to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran.
The six-count indictment for fraud, money laundering and sanctions offenses comes a year after a former executive at the bank, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, was sentenced to prison for working with international gold trader Reza Zarrab, whom Giuliani has represented, to hide transactions involving Iran.

Spoiler:

“As alleged in today’s indictment, Halkbank’s systemic participation in the illicit movement of billions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil revenue was designed and executed by senior bank officials,” U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a statement.

“The bank’s audacious conduct was supported and protected by high-ranking Turkish government officials, some of whom received millions of dollars in bribes to promote and protect the scheme,” he said.

Giuliani’s involvement with Zarrab has recently been in the news. The former New York mayor, along with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had pressed President Donald Trump to drop a case against Zarrab after he was detained during a trip to the U.S. in 2016, Bloomberg reported last week.

Zarrab ultimately pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in the case against Atilla.

Bloomberg also reported that, in 2017, Trump asked then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to get the Justice Department to drop Zarrab’s case. Tillerson refused, according to the outlet.

Giuliani’s attempts to influence American foreign policy have come under scrutiny in recent weeks also in connection to Ukraine.

In the whistleblower complaint that spurred Democrats’ impeachment efforts, Giuliani was accused of being a “central figure” in Trump’s July 25 request that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky “look into” unsubstantiated corruption allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

A representative for Giuliani didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Markets blow off US sanctions

The federal charges against the Turkish bank come a day after the White House issued an array of punitive measures against Turkey over its invasion of northern Syria and subsequent attacks on the Kurds, who were fighting ISIS forces there.

Markets did not take the White House sanctions seriously. The Turkish lira rose Tuesday after the Trump administration announced the measures, because investors did not see them as especially painful for Turkey’s economy.

Turkey, which has long clashed with the Kurds, began its attacks after the White House announced a withdrawal of U.S. troops on the border. Trump signed an executive order issuing new sanctions on Turkish officials, hiking tariffs on Turkish steel imports and putting trade negotiations with the country on ice.

Giuliani is now reportedly under investigation over whether he broke lobbying laws as part of his Ukraine efforts.

—CNBC’s Natasha Turak contributed to this report.