Good day all. About a week ago, there was a massive document drop from a Panamanian law firm. This firm specializes in setting up shell companies for rich people to avoid taxes.
In and of itself, there’s nothing illegal about this, unless you’re using these shell companies for tax evasion or other criminal enterprises. One of the interesting things is that to date, no Americans have been found in these papers….Until now. Guess who is being implicated in this? I’ll give you a hint. She’s running for President. Here are some of the juicy and complicated details from The Observer:
The revelations of the so-called Panama Papers that are roiling the world’s political and financial elites this week include important facts about Team Clinton.
This unprecedented trove of documents purloined from a shady Panama law firm that arranged tax havens, and perhaps money laundering, for the globe’s super-rich includes juicy insights into how Russia’s elite hides its ill-gotten wealth.
This sort of leak is the type that gets people killed. The Russians alone will be looking very carefully for the leaker. As for the Clintons?
Almost lost among the many revelations is the fact that Russia’s biggest bank uses The Podesta Group as its lobbyist in Washington, DC. Though hardly a household name, this firm is well known inside the Beltway, not least because its CEO is Tony Podesta, one of the best-connected Democratic machers in the country.
He founded the firm in 1998 with his brother John, formerly chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, then counselor to President Barack Obama, Mr. Podesta is the very definition of a Democratic insider. Outsiders engage the Podestas and their well-connected lobbying firm to improve their image and get access to Democratic bigwigs.
And I have no doubt that the Podestas and the Clintons both wished they were not well known. So who used the Podestas to purchase a little influence?
Which is exactly what Sberbank, Russia’s biggest financial institution, did this spring.
Long story short, the Podesta firm is required by law to list themselves and the individuals who will be bribing lobbying government officials.
It should be noted that Tony Podesta is a big-money bundler for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign while his brother John is the chairman of that campaign, the chief architect of her plans to take the White House this November.
Sberbank hired the Podestas to help them polish their nefarious image and get some sanctions that were hurting them and their customers in the Kremlin Mob.
It’s hardly surprising that Sberbank sought the help of Democratic insiders like the Podesta Group to aid them in this difficult hour, since they clearly understand how American politics work. The question is why the Podesta Group took Sberbank’s money.
Probably because they are part of the Clinton Crime Family of course. Basically, greed and a willingness to turn a blind eye.
That financial institution isn’t exactly hiding in the shadows—it’s the biggest bank in Russia, and its reputation leaves a lot to be desired.
The Observer story lists all sorts of interesting things the Sberbank is alleged to have been involved in.
Ukraine has pointed a finger at Sberbank as an instrument of Russia’s aggression against their country. In 2014, Ukraine’s Security Service charged Sberbank with “financing terrorism,” noting that its branches were distributing millions of dollars in illegal aid to Russian-backed separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Adding to shadiness of all this, the Podesta Group is playing along with the useful charade that Sberbank is simply a private financial institution, rather than the state-owned bank that it is, since that would require the lobbyists to register as agents of the Russian government under the Foreign Agent Registration Act.
Gee, Democrats and Clintons playing fast and loose with the laws? Who would have thought?
John and Tony Podesta aren’t fooling anyone with this ruse. They are lobbyists for Vladimir Putin’s personal bank of choice, an arm of his Kremlin and its intelligence services. Since the brothers Podesta are presumably destined for very high-level White House jobs next January if the Democrats triumph in November at the polls, their relationship with Sberbank is something they—and Hillary Clinton—need to explain to the public.
These are Democrat bigwigs. Explaining anything is something that they never do. However, there are a few little things that have come up thanks to Hillary’s closet email server. One of them was how she closed a deal as Secretary of State to sell a large segment of the American uranium mines to…Russia.
I don’t expect the Clintons to have used this law firm to set up a shall company. So far, no American’s have been caught in this web. However, as this story on the Podestas shows, there will be a lot of secondary connections, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the Clintons and others caught up in it. Who knows? Perhaps the FBI is doing a scan on her emails for any connections to the Panama Papers.
Thatisall
~The Angry Webmaster~
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