Category Archives: The Denise Simon Experience

Still Defiant, Iran Doubles Uranium Centrifuges

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RFERL: The UN’s nuclear watchdog has issued a report saying Iran is preparing for possible major expansion of uranium enrichment in a fortified underground facility.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) quarterly report also says “extensive activities” — a reference to suspected sanitization efforts — at Iran’s Parchin military complex will hamper its investigation of possible past nuclear weapons development work there, if inspectors are granted access.

Nuclear Deal Silent on Iran’s Parchin Military Plant ... Parchin

The report says Iran has produced 189 kilograms of higher-grade enriched uranium since 2010 — up from 145 kilograms since May, when the previous quarterly report was issued.

The IAEA reported last year that Iran placed “a large explosives containment vessel” in Parchin in 2000 and constructed a building around it.

The facilities were designed to contain the detonation of up to 70 kilograms of high explosives — something the IAEA called “relevant to the development of an explosive nuclear device.”

Since that report, the IAEA has sought to send inspectors to the site of the suspected building but have been denied access by Iran to that part of the military base.

In recent months, the agency also has obtained information that indicates Iran has been busy cleaning up the suspected site, including tearing down some buildings and removing soil.

The last effort by the IAEA to convince Iran to let inspectors visit the site — where Iran denies clean-up activities are taking place — broke down in June when Tehran accused the agency of acting like an “intelligence organization.”

More Centrifuges At Fordow Site

ISIS NuclearIran › Iran In Brief Fordow

The IAEA’s latest report also says the number of enrichment centrifuges at Fordow has more than doubled to 2,140 from 1,064 in May.

The Fordow facility is extremely controversial for two reasons.

First, it is dug into a mountain, making it difficult to bomb — suggesting it could have a military purpose.

Secondly, the centrifuges at the facility are being used to enrich uranium to purities of 20 percent — far higher than the 4 percent needed for fuel for commercial reactors.

Iran has said it is producing the 20 percent-enriched fuel for use in research reactors to produce medical isotopes.

But arms-control experts worry that creating large stockpiles of 20 percent-enriched uranium makes it much easier for Iran to later complete the jump to 90 percent-enriched uranium needed for nuclear bombs.

In Washington, the White House said it was closely studying the fresh IAEA report.

In Tehran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, denied his country is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, adding Iran will “never abandon its right for the peaceful use of nuclear energy.”

In what appears to be a sign of the IAEA’s growing concern over Iran’s nuclear activities, the agency this week revealed it was creating a special Iran “task force.”

The task force is to scrutinize Tehran’s nuclear program and its compliance with UN resolutions — including those demanding a suspension of uranium enrichment.

Iran has denied any interest in nuclear arms.

Meanwhile, Congresswoman Liz Cheney is introducing legislation to fully terminate all of the Iran nuclear deal including the remaining sanctions waivers.

Yet, it seems that Turkey, a NATO member and in major dispute with the United States over Syria has not only defied NATO rules and the United States but has fully allied with Russia but for sure now as well Iran.

FDD: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced yesterday that it will sell its 10 percent stake in the Istanbul stock exchange after Turkey named as its CEO a Turkish banker convicted in U.S. court for his role in a multi-billion dollar scheme to evade Washington’s sanctions on Iran. Ankara’s move to reward a sanctions buster further strengthens the argument that Turkey has become a permissive jurisdiction for illicit finance.

Turkey’s sovereign wealth fund offered today to buy EBRD’s shares, which would increase the fund’s stake in the stock exchange to over 90 percent. EBRD’s exit will mean the departure of Borsa Istanbul’s only major foreign stakeholder at a critical moment in Turkey’s relations with its western allies. Ankara’s military operation in northeast Syria targeting the Syrian Democratic Forces – Washington’s key partner in the fight against the Islamic State – has drawn sweeping condemnation from the international community.

Five days after Ankara launched its Syria incursion, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on three Turkish officials and Turkey’s ministries of energy and defense. That same week, the Southern District of New York filed an indictment charging Halkbank, a Turkish public lender, for its role in the multi-billion dollar gas-for-gold scheme to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran. Halkbank’s deputy general manager, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, in 2018 received a sentence of 32 months for his role in the affair. At the time of Atilla’s sentencing, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the trial as a political attack on his government.

Atilla returned to Turkey in July after serving his U.S. sentence. Last week, just days after U.S. federal prosecutors indicted Halkbank, Turkish Finance and Treasury Minister Berat Albayrak, who is also Erdogan’s son-in-law, named Atilla as CEO of the Istanbul stock exchange.

Atilla’s promotion is part of a string of appointments that showcase Erdogan’s policy of rehabilitating Iran sanctions busters and rewarding corrupt officials who further his personal ambitions. In September, Erdogan appointed former Minister for European Union Affairs Egemen Bagis as Turkey’s ambassador to Prague. Bagis had resigned from the ministry after a 2013 corruption scandal implicated him in accepting bribes related to the gas-for-gold scheme run through Halkbank.

Members of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) who dare criticize his policy of rehabilitating sanctions evaders continue to draw the Turkish president’s wrath. After publicly pronouncing strong opposition to Bagis’s ambassadorial appointment and other party policies, a senior AKP lawmaker, Mustafa Yeneroglu, resigned from the party yesterday after Erdogan commanded him to step down.

Another minister implicated in taking bribes as part of the Halkbank scheme, Zafer Caglayan, who served as minister of Economy in 2013 before resigning due to corruption allegations, has returned to political life as an AKP delegate from the Turkish city of Mersin. Caglayan is best known for accepting bribes of cash and jewelry worth tens of millions of dollars.

Erdogan’s rehabilitation of sanctions evaders continues to hurt Turkey’s image, economy, and investment climate. Ankara’s apparent disregard for U.S. sanctions, including those targeting Iran, Russia, and Venezuela, does not bode well for Washington or other NATO allies. Yet so far, President Donald Trump has shielded Erdogan from U.S. sanctions, the most recent of which he lifted after only nine days. In contrast, a biting sanctions bill focused on Turkey passed the House 403 to 16 on Tuesday. Like Congress, Trump should communicate to his Turkish counterpart that his policy of evading sanctions and rewarding sanctions busters could have dire consequences.

Iran Hostage-Takers Hold Top Roles in Government

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Primer: From the 2018 Country by Country Report on Terrorism (in part)

Iran remains the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism. The regime has spent nearly one billion dollars per year to support terrorist groups that serve as its proxies and expand its malign influence across the globe. Tehran has funded international terrorist groups such as Hizballah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It also has engaged in its own terrorist plotting around the world, particularly in Europe. In January, German authorities investigated 10 suspected Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force operatives. In the summer, authorities in Belgium, France, and Germany thwarted an Iranian plot to bomb a political rally near Paris, France. In October, an Iranian operative was arrested for planning an assassination in Denmark, and in December, Albania expelled two Iranian officials for plotting terrorist attacks. Furthermore, Tehran continued to allow an AQ facilitation network to operate in Iran, which sends fighters and money to conflict zones in Afghanistan and Syria, and it has extended sanctuary to AQ members residing in the country.

***

This is the country that Obama and Kerry gave Iran $400 million, the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement the Obama administration reached with Iran to resolve an old arms deal. This was at the same time that Iran released 4 American hostages while the United States released 7 Iranian citizens and terminated extradition requests for 14 others.

***

Forty years ago, on November 4, 1979, the United States embassy in Tehran was taken over by a group of people calling themselves “Student followers of the line of the Imam.”

Fifty-two U.S. embassy employees and diplomats were taken hostage for 444 days. Years later, the hostage-takers went on to become the most senior officials of Iran’s regime, including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, former President of the regime. Many of the hostage-takers still hold key positions in the regime. Some were wrongly dubbed as “moderates” by the West despite their loyalty to the regime’s agenda.

Where are the hostage-takers today?

Masoumeh Ebtekar, spokeswoman of the “Student followers of the line of the Imam”:

Masoumeh Ebtekar, also known as “Sister Mary,” was the spokeswoman for the hostage-takers. She vehemently defended the Americans’ detention and demanded to be tried. She is now Iran’s Vice President for women and family affairs. In the first term of Hassan Rouhani’s Presidency, she was also Vice President and head of the environmental preservation organization. In Mohammad Khatami’s administration, she was Vice President and Head of the environmental preservation organization for several years.

Hamid Abutalebi:

He is now Political Advisor to the President. For years, he held top positions in the Foreign Ministry, including the post of Deputy Foreign Minister for political affairs, the regime’s Ambassador to a number of Western countries including Italy, Belgium, Australia, and the European Union (for 15 years). He was previously General Manager of Political Affairs in the Foreign Ministry (for 5 years), Advisor to the Foreign Minister (for 5 years), and member of Foreign Ministry’s Strategic Council. In 2014, he was Rouhani’s candidate to become the regime’s representative to the United Nations in New York, but the U.S. government refused to grant him a visa due to his role in the hostage-taking and in the 1993 assassination of Mohammad-Hossein Naqdi, representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Italy.

Hossein Sheikholislam, council member of “Student followers of the line of the Imam” and member of the team reviewing U.S. embassy documents:

He is now Advisor to the Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif. Previously, for several years, he was Deputy for International Affairs to Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani. For 16 years, Sheikholislam was Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs. Subsequently, for three years, he became Iran’s Ambassador to Syria, and after two terms as a Member of Parliament, he became Deputy Foreign Minister for Middle Eastern affairs.

Mohammad-Ali (Aziz) Jafari, one of the plotters of the U.S. embassy takeover:

Until April 21, 2019, for over 10 years, Major General Mohammad-Ali Jafari was Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). He is currently in charge of the “Baqiollah Cultural and Social Headquarters.”

Hossein Dehqan:

IRGC Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan was Iran’s Defense Minister in Rouhan’s first term (2013-2017), and he is now Advisor to the Supreme Leader on Defense Industries and Army Support. From 2004 to 2009, he was Vice President and chairman of the Shahid Foundation (Bonyad-e Shahid), one of the largest economic institutions in the regime.

During Khatami’s Presidency, he was Deputy Defense Minister. Prior to that, he was Deputy Chief of the IRGC Air Force.

After the U.S. hostages were released, Hossein Dehqan joined the IRGC and went to Lebanon. In the years 1982 to 1984, he was in Beirut at the peak of terror attacks in Lebanon, especially massive explosions like the ones at the U.S. embassy and U.S. Marines barracks. He had acknowledged his key role in the formation of Lebanese Hizballah. Based on reports by U.S. media, he had a direct role in the 1983 bombing in Beirut, in which 241 U.S. marines were killed.

Reza Seifollahi, a main plotter of the embassy takeover and member of the central council of the “Student followers of the line of the Imam”:

From 2013 to 2018, Reza Seifollahi was the Political Deputy of the Secretariat of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC). From 2008 to 2013, He was deputy coordinator of the regime’s Expediency Council. He was a senior IRGC commander, including the commander of IRGC Intelligence. When the Police, Gendarmeries, and Committees (Comite) were all combined into once force, Seifollahi was appointed as the first commander of the State Security Forces (SSF). During Khatami’s Presidency, he was Deputy Interior Minister for Security Affairs.

Habibollah Bitaraf, a main plotter of the embassy takeover and member of the central council of the “Student followers of the line of the Imam”:

From 1997 to 2005, he was Iran’s Energy Minister. From 1986 to 1989, he was the Governor of Yazd Province. Also, for nearly five years, he was Deputy Minister of Energy for Educational Affairs.

Ezzatollah Zarghami

An IRGC Brigadier General, he became head of the state Radio and Television Corporation on the orders of the Supreme Leader, and from 2004 to 2014 he played a key role in the regime’s propaganda machine. For years, Zarghami was the keynote speaker at ceremonies in front of the US embassy in Tehran to mark the anniversary of the embassy takeover.

 

Alireza Afshar:

After the hostages were released, Afshar joined the IRGC, and he has held important posts in the IRGC ever since, including as Chief of the IRGC General Staff, Commander of the Basij Force and Deputy Commander of the Armed Forces for Cultural Affairs.

In Ahmadinejad’s administration, Afshar was Deputy Minister of Interior for Political and Social Affairs.

He is now head of the Supreme Delegation for the IRGC School of thought.

 

Mohsen Aminzadeh:

During Khatami’s presidency, Mohsen Aminzadeh was Deputy Foreign Minister for Asian Affairs. He was a shadow minister when Kamal Kharrazi was Foreign Minister.

Hossein Sharifzadegan:

During Khatami’s second term as President, Sharifzadegan was a member of “the Islamic partnership front” and General Manager of the Social Security Organization and Minister of Social Security.

Mohammad Mehdi Rahmati:

During Ahmadinejad’s Presidency, Rahmati was in charge of President’s Office of Planning and Strategic Oversight

Mohammdreza Behzadian-Nejad:

In the first term of Ahmadinejad’s Presidency, Behzadian-Nejad was Deputy Interior Minister for Economic Affairs. Later, he became head of the Commerce Office of Tehran.

The seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran marked the beginning of the regime’s policy of hostage-taking and international blackmail, a policy that has become official and institutionalized as part of the foreign policy of this regime.

For 40 years, the foreign policy of the mullahs’ regime has been rooted in terrorism and blackmail. Today, it is recognized as the world’s main state sponsor of terrorism. In the past 40 years, there has never been a time that this regime has not held onto hostages. Still, under different pretexts, Americans and other countries’ citizens are kept in the Iranian regime’s prisons as hostages.

In the past 40 years, thousands of innocent people have fallen victim to the regime and its proxy groups’ terrorism in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and even Latin America.

Terrorism and hostage-taking are a part of the DNA of Iran’s regime.

The 1979 U.S. embassy takeover, which later was dubbed by regime officials as a ‘revolution greater than the 1979 revolution,’ had the goal of eliminating Iran’s democratic forces, and more specifically the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), or Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) from the political scene. Khomeini, the regime’s Supreme Leader at the time, supported the act of the students, and Khamenei the current Supreme Leader, who at the time was Friday prayers’ leader and Khomeini’s representative, was one of the main supporters of the takeover; he went to the embassy and encouraged the students.

It is no surprise then that just last week Khamenei, through his representative in the state-run Keyhan newspaper, called on regime-backed Iraqi militias known as the “Hashd al Shaabi,” who are under the command of the IRGC Qods Force, to take over the U.S. embassy in Baghdad by the same model that took place in Tehran 40 years ago.

Hossein Shariatmadari, editor and representative of the Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader in Kayhan, in the paper’s October 30, 2019 editorial called for the takeover of the U.S. Embassy by the Iraqi militias.

Shariatmadari, whose words reflect Khamenei’s opinions, wrote: “In a previous note, by mentioning the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Iran, which the Imam called the “second revolution,” the issue was raised in the context of a question that why the Iraqi revolutionary youths … are not ending the presence of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, which is the epicenter of conspiracy and espionage against the innocent people of Iraq!? And why are you not eliminating and throwing out this infected wound from your holy land? The takeover of the U.S. espionage center in Islamic Iran and eliminating that epicenter of conspiracy had many benefits for us. So why then are the revolutionary youths of Iraq depriving their holy land from these benefits?”

The Lebanon Government Just Fell

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Primer:

Lebanon’s prime minister has demanded “justice” at the trial of four members of Hezbollah who are suspected of planning and executing the assassination of his father, Rafik Hariri.

Prosecutors say Hariri, a billionaire and former prime minister, was targeted by the armed group in 2005 because he opposed Syria’s control over Lebanon.

He was killed along with 21 others on February 14, 2005, when a massive truck bomb hit his convoy in the capital Beirut.

Understand the Bigger Picture of Syria, History With An ...

Again…

In November of 2017, Saad al Hariri resigned.

Hariri had promised he would return to Lebanon in time to mark its 74th independence day on Wednesday and would clarify his position.

On Tuesday he travelled to Cairo to see the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whom he thanked for his support for Lebanon.

Hours later Hariri flew from Cairo to Larnaca in Cyprus where he met late at night with President Nicos Anastasiades, said a Cyprus government spokesman.

After a brief visit he flew on to Beirut where he is expected to take part in the independence day military parade early on Wednesday and the customary reception at the presidential palace.

Hariri’s Future Movement called on supporters to gather at his home in downtown Beirut at 1pm local time.

A dual Saudi citizen who has previously enjoyed Riyadh’s backing, Hariri resigned in a mysterious broadcast from the Saudi capital, accusing arch-rival Iran and its powerful Lebanese ally Hezbollah of destabilising his country.

But President Michel Aoun has yet to accept Hariri’s resignation, insisting he present it in person once back in the Lebanese capital.

During Hariri’s two-week stay in Riyadh, Aoun accused Saudi authorities of holding him “hostage” and demanded that he enjoy freedom of movement.

After mediation efforts by Egypt and France – which held former mandate power over Lebanon – the 47-year-old premier left Riyadh on Saturday.

He headed to Paris for talks with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and pledged he would be home by Wednesday.

“As you know I have resigned and we will discuss that in Lebanon,” he said. Hariri said he could walk back from his resignation if Hezbollah withdrew from regional conflicts, including Syria. On the day Hariri resigned, the Saudi kingdom said it intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Tehran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen at Riyadh.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Saad al-Hariri resigned as Lebanon’s prime minister on Tuesday, declaring he had hit a “dead end” in trying to resolve a crisis unleashed by huge protests against the ruling elite and plunging the country deeper into turmoil.

Hariri addressed the nation after a mob loyal to the Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah and Amal movements attacked and destroyed a protest camp set up by anti-government demonstrators in Beirut.

It was the most serious strife on the streets of Beirut since 2008, when Hezbollah fighters seized control of the capital in a brief eruption of armed conflict with Lebanese adversaries loyal to Hariri and his allies at the time.

Hariri’s resignation on Tuesday points to rising political tensions that may complicate the formation of a new government capable of tackling Lebanon’s worst economic crisis since its 1975-90 civil war.

The departure of Hariri, who has been traditionally backed by the West and Sunni Gulf Arab allies, raises the stakes and pushes Lebanon into an unpredictable cycle. Lebanon could end up further under the sway of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, making it even harder to attract badly-needed foreign investment.

It also defies Hezbollah, which was part of his coalition and wanted him and the government to stay on. Hariri is seen as the focal point for Western and Gulf Arab aid to Lebanon, which is in dire need of financial support promised by these allies.

Lebanon has been paralyzed by the unprecedented wave of protests against the rampant corruption of the political class.

“For 13 days the Lebanese people have waited for a decision for a political solution that stops the deterioration (of the economy). And I have tried, during this period, to find a way out, through which to listen to the voice of the people,” Hariri said.

“It is time for us to have a big shock to face the crisis,” he said. “To all partners in political life, our responsibility today is how we protect Lebanon and revive its economy.”

Under Lebanon’s constitution, the government will stay on in a caretaker capacity as talks begin on forming a new one. It took nine months to form the Hariri coalition cabinet that took office in January.

As night fell, protesters returned to central Beirut waving Lebanese flags, seemingly unfazed by the violence.

Some described Hariri’s resignation as a victory for the “Oct. 17 uprising” and said the attack on the protest camp had redoubled their determination.

“What happened is a point of strength for us … If the thugs come in bigger numbers, so will we,” said Kamal Rida, a protester in central Beirut. “The tents that are broken can be rebuilt, easy.”

The turmoil has worsened Lebanon’s acute economic crisis, with financial strains leading to a scarcity of hard currency and a weakening of the pegged Lebanese pound. Lebanese government bonds tumbled on the turmoil.

TENTS ON FIRE

On the streets of Beirut, black-clad men wielding sticks and pipes attacked the protest camp that has been the focal point of countrywide rallies against the elite.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, head of the heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah, said last week that roads closed by protesters should be reopened and suggested the demonstrators were financed by its foreign enemies and implementing their agenda.

Smoke rose as some of the protester tents were set ablaze by Hezbollah and Amal supporters, who earlier fanned out in the downtown area of the capital shouting “Shia, Shia” in reference to themselves and cursing anti-government demonstrators.

“With our blood and lives we offer ourselves as a sacrifice for you Nabih!” they chanted in reference to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, head of the Amal Movement. “We heed your call, we heed your call, Nasrallah!” they chanted.

Security forces did not initially intervene to stop the assault, in which protesters were hit with sticks and were seen appealing for help as they ran, witnesses said. Tear gas was eventually fired to disperse the crowds.

Hariri did not refer to the violence in his address but urged all Lebanese to “protect civil peace and prevent economic deterioration, before anything else”.

France, which has supported Hariri, called on all Lebanese to help guarantee national unity.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the formation of a new government responsive to the needs of the Lebanese people.

“The Lebanese people want an efficient and effective government, economic reform, and an end to endemic corruption,” Pompeo said in a statement.

LEBANESE POUND UNDER PRESSURE

Lebanon’s allies last year pledged $11 billion in financing to help it revive its economy, conditional on reforms that Hariri’s coalition government has largely failed to implement.

But there has been no sign of a rush to help.

A senior U.S. State Department official said last week this was not a situation where the Lebanese government should necessarily get a bailout, saying they should reform first.

Banks were closed for a 10th day along with schools and businesses.

Hariri last week sought to defuse popular discontent through a batch of reform measures agreed with other groups in his coalition government, including Hezbollah, to – among other things – tackle corruption and long-delayed economic reforms.

But with no immediate steps towards enacting these steps, they did not placate the demonstrators.

Central bank governor Riad Salameh called on Monday for a solution to the crisis in just days to restore confidence and avoid a future economic meltdown.

A black market for U.S. dollars has emerged in the last month or so. Three foreign currency dealers said a dollar cost 1,800 pounds on Tuesday, weakening from levels of 1,700 and 1,740 cited on Monday.

The official pegged rate is 1,507.5 pounds to the dollar.

“Even if the protesters leave the streets the real problem facing them is what they are going to do with the devaluation of the pound,” said Toufic Gaspard, an economist who has worked as an adviser to the IMF and to the Lebanese finance minister.

“A very large majority of the Lebanese income is in the Lebanese pound, their savings are in the Lebanese pound and their pension is in Lebanese, and it is certain it has already started to devalue,” he said.

People Schiff Refuses to Call for Testimony on the Ukraine Case

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With the newly drafted rules that the Pelosi office published to set-up the vote for a ‘formal’ impeachment inquiry sets out that the Republicans can only make requests for witnesses yet Congressman Schiff and those on the majority in the HPSCI can refuse. Swell huh? Then there is the matter that Schiff is quite selective with those he wants to testify omitting so many others with regard to UkraineGate.

This is a long very complicated affair so to boil it down, members of Congress know full well the money-laundering and even cases of murder when it comes to Ukraine and you should have a sense of it as well.

During the Robert Mueller Russian collusion investigation, there were several lawyers and FBI money-laundering experts where you can bet much of this information came across their desks. You must also understand that any sitting president and in this case President Trump just cannot deliver taxpayer dollars in the form of foreign aid to countries teeming in corruption without affecting diplomatic policy and asking for cooperation to root out corruption. Perhaps some of the Schiff witnesses that have provided testimony including LTC. Alexander Vindman should rethink some of this actions and conclusions with regard to Trump’s interactions with matters dealing with Ukraine and China and countless other countries.

As an example of the complications that Congressman Schiff and his committee are ignoring include at least two Ukrainian oligarchs that essentially stole an estimated $5.5 billion from Ukraine, Ihor Kolominsky and Gennady Bogolyubov. He is also ignoring seeking the testimony of Congresswoman Debbie Jessika Mucarsel-Powell. She represents the Florida 26th District and prior to that she was a volunteer for John Kerry’s presidential campaign and then later the Obama presidential campaign. Debbie’s husband, Robert Powell was paid $700,000 is on retainer as an attorney for Ukrainian Oligarch Ihor Kolominsky’s companies. Daily Beast reported in part last year: “Kolomoisky, who sicced his own private army on the Russians after they invaded eastern Ukraine, has been accused of sponsoring contract killings.” Swell client there Robert.

The matter of the corruption with regard to Ukraine extends quite beyond the Bidens and Burisma. In fact it goes far past just a few million dollars, in fact the numbers really exceed 6 billion. More on that later.

Corruption in Ukraine should be measured in not years but rather decades. The corruption does not stay within Ukraine but spreads to Cyprus, the United Kingdom and even all the way to Delaware and Ohio.

On January 16, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) published key findings from a report by Kroll that backed allegations of large-scale fraud at PrivatBank, which was taken over by the state in December 2016. These include claims by employees that the bank acted as a “vacuum cleaner”, with business development geared towards attracting deposits that were then dispersed as loans to companies related to the bank’s owners, Igor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Bogolyubov. According to Kroll, a “loan recycling scheme” was devised to conceal the fraud, whereby new loans were continually issued to new related parties to repay the principal and interest on older loans. Multiple internal transactions within the Privat group, including between the Ukrainian operation and units in Cyprus and Latvia, were also reportedly used to disguise fund flows.

***

Prior to this, in fact in 2007 and 2008, the US has been active in Ukraine for some time. In 2007, the firm Vanco won a contract to extract gas from the Black Sea, a deal that was annulled by Tymoshenko after the firm passed on the rights to another company that included eastern Ukrainian and Russian business interests.Yanukovych’s government worked hard to win over US and multinational firms for oil and gas extraction in Ukraine. Kyiv signed a contract with the US-based Chevron at the end of 2013 to extract shale gas in the west of the country. Another deal with the energy giant ExxonMobil – for gas in the Black Sea area – was abandoned following opposition protests.

But the news about the appointment of Hunter Biden has sparked allegations of nepotism – not least because it was revealed just a few weeks after his father’s visit to Kyiv on April 22. Neither Burisma or the US State Department responded to DW’s requests for comment. White House spokesman Jay Carney would say only that Hunter Biden was a private citizen and that his job had no impact on US policy. Ukrainian media reports about Burisma reveal an impenetrable web of companies, most of which are registered in Cyprus. One name, Mykola Slotshevski, appears more than once. The 47-year-old is thought to have been the original owner of the company – at least until recently.

Now Schiff compelled Rudy Giuliani to preserve all documents. Others named in the Schiff schedule include: Igor Framan, Lev Parnas, Joseph di Genova, Victoria Toensing, Hunter Biden, Burisma Holdings Ltd., Joseph Biden, the Democrat National Committee and even Hillary Clinton. This had to be just a gesture as none of them have been called for testimony.

What does Congress know? Plenty. Back in September, there was some interesting floor presentations on key Ukraine corruption items. Reference the congressional record from September 25, 2019, pages 4 and 5. Ukraine corruption reached Delaware and Ohio, beyond our congresswoman in Miami.

Will America see any real consequence of some of these people anytime soon? Hardly. In case you want to know why, we have to get somewhat technical and in fact we may have to wait on the UK to finish their own legal process prosecuting all things Ihor Kolomoisky and this banking scam involving PrivatBank where that pesky $6 billion went missing. By the way, that bank had to be nationalized by Ukraine in an effort to stabilize and recover some of the monies.

So if you do want to get into the weeds, read on. Courtesy of Kyiv Post.

Ihor Kolomoisky is a Ukrainian oligarch and the former governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. He owns media, steelmaking, ferroalloy, oil and gas assets, as well as luxury real estate, water terminals, and airplanes. All of these assets are part of the informal Privat business group controlled by him and business partner, Gennadiy Bogolyubov. Due to ongoing court cases, the assets are now partially frozen.

However, the freeze was imposed only on those assets directly registered to the billionaire or involved in an a series of alleged schemes to withdraw $5.5 billion dollars from PrivatBank, the country’s largest financial institution.

Other Kolomoisky assets are hidden in offshore or registered on trusted individuals.

Law enforcement agencies aren’t the only ones who want to see the ownership structures of Kolomoisky’s companies. His former business partners are also curious.

Businessman Vadym Shulman has been pursuing Kolomoisky in court since 2015. Earlier, in 2014, another oligarch, Victor Pinchuk, engaged in litigation with Kolomoisky and accused him not only of appropriating his business, but even of murder.

Shulman and Pinchuk are demanding that the ownership structure of the long list of companies registered in offshore jurisdictions be disclosed. These companies own real estate, steel and ferroalloy plants in the United States and Georgia.

None of these companies is directly registered to Kolomoisky. But all of them have common managers, lawyers, and even addresses. According to both businessmen’s lawsuits, they are all controlled by Kolomoisky.

The same group of managers run not only these companies, but also several groups of firms involved in the PrivatBank case.

Panikos Symeou is the managing partner of the Cypriot law firm Symeou & Konnaris LLC. According to its website, this company highly values privacy and trust.

Fugitive Ukrainian businessmen like oligarch Serhiy Kurchenko and former National Bank head Serhiy Arbuzov apparently also appreciate these qualities. Panikos Symeou was the head of their Cypriot firm Sabulong Trading, LTD.

In 2017, this company was among the offshore companies that the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine confiscated $1.3 billion from. They had been stolen from the country by the criminal organization created by ousted former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

Ihor Kolomoisky entrusts Panikos Symeou with a much wider list of assets — for example, media, steel factories, tire production companies and water terminals.

Symeou’s role is very clear in the ownership structure of Dnipropetrovsk television channel Pryvat TV Dnipro (Channel 9). Symeou is the trusted individual through whom Kolomoisky owns the channel. 

The ownership structure of Pryvat TV Dnipro, LLC (Channel 9). (Nadiya Burdey/Anti-Corruption Action Center)

Steel business in the US

Panikos Symeou also has a clear role in the ownership structure of steel factory Warren Steel Holdings LLC in the state of Ohio. The company is nominally registered to the offshore firm Halliwel Assets, Inc in the British Virgin Islands. But, in 2015, one of owners of the factory disclosed the names of all its beneficiaries in court.

According to case materials, the factory belongs to three Ukrainian businessmen: Vadym Shulman, Bogolyubov and Kolomoisky. The latter controls the factory through Symeou.

Shulman initiated that court case. In 2001, he bought the derelict factory and relaunched it. Then, in 2006, Bogolyubov and Kolomoisky became its co-owners.

In 2012, Schulman said he began to suspect his partners of fraud. During his own investigation, he discovered that Warren Steel had concluded loan agreements and sales contracts with other companies controlled by Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov on conditions that were unprofitable for the factory.

According to Shulman, his partners burdened the factory with debts to their own companies in order to receive full control over the assets of Warren Steel.

Shulman’s hypothesis was confirmed in August 2014 when Kolomoisky’s representative, Panikos Symeou, agreed to another $25-million loan for Warren Steel Holdings from the company Optima Acquisitions, LLC. That company was also controlled by Kolomoisky, Shulman said. The media repeatedly reported this without providing any evidence.

In 2015, Shulman filed suit against Warren Steel Holdings, LLC, Panikos Symeou, the company Halliwel Assets, Inc and the president of the Warren Steel factory Mordechai Korf.

TRUSTED PERSON № 2: Mordechai Korf

Mordechai Korf is Ihor Kolomoisky’s American business partner and the director of his multiple steel and manganese enterprises in the United States. In particular, Korf was not only the president of the Warren Steel factory, but also the co-owner of Optima Acquisitions LLC, which gave loans to the factory.

Optima Acquisitions is an investment company registered in Delaware, a state that does not disclose firms’ beneficiaries. Korf has run this company since 2008. Optima Acquisition also owns another American company, Optima Specialty Steel, Inc., which owns several steel factories in various U.S. states.

Journalists have previously tied the name Kolomoisky to the Optima group of companies, but this connection was only confirmed during Optima Specialty Steel’s bankruptcy case. According to case materials, Korf, Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov each owned 33 percent of Optima Acquisitions LLC in 2017.

The connections of Ihor Kolomoisky and Mordechai Korf. (Nadiya Burdey/Anti-Corruption Action Center)

At the end of 2017, Optima Specialty Steel completed its plan of reorganization (bankruptcy) and was rebranded as Specialty Steel Works, Inc. The corporate agent was changed as well as the entire leadership of the company.

In an official press release, the company stated that it would continue to manufacture and sell steel products through its four wholly-owned subsidiaries: Michigan Seamless Tube & Pipe, the Niagara LaSalle Corporation, the Corey Steel Company and Kentucky Electric Steel. Each of  these companies owns a factory in the United States.

Michigan Seamless Tube & Pipe predictably owns a factory located in Michigan. The company manufactures seamless cold-drawn pipes for the aerospace, mining, construction, automotive and agricultural industries.

The Niagara LaSalle Corporation owns a factory that manufactures steel parts for automotive, construction, and agricultural machinery in Indiana.

The Corey Steel Company’s factory is located in Cicero, Illinois. It manufactures steel bars.

 

At the end of 2018, another American company, Steel Dynamics, Inc., acquired Kentucky Electric Steel.

Kolomoisky’s tires

In Ukraine, the name Panikos Symeou is not only connected with the business structures of Kurchenko and Kolomoisky’s Dnipro television channel. The Cypriot is also the co-owner of a Ukrainian plant for producing oversized tires through the company Manita Investments Limited.

The beneficiary controller of the tire plant is Dnipro resident Anna Yesipova. One hundred percent of the plant’s shares is the Cypriot company Manita. It, in turn, is owned by another Cypriot company Sykon Secretarial Limited. Fifty percent of the latter belongs to Panikos Symeou.

The Ukrainian Factory of Oversized Tires and a Romanian factory operate under the same brand name and have one website. An excerpt from the State Register of Romania contains the address of company Euro Tyres Manufacturing SRL’s website: www.eurotire.net. The same website also contains the address of the Ukrainian branch, the Ukrainian Factory of Oversized Tires, that owns factory premises.

Therefore, according to the Eurotire website, the factory is part of a large international corporation which manufactures oversized tires for Eurotire’s mining equipment. The representative offices of this company are located in the United States, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, Ukraine and Russia. The factories that manufacture such tires are only located in Ukraine and Romania.

A screenshot from the EuroTire YouTube channel showing the countries where the company operates. (Youtube/Eurotire)

In particular, the corporation supplied tires for the company Ferrexpo PLC in Ukraine, which is controlled by Ukrainian dollar billionaire Kostyantyn Zhevago. Ferrexpo PLC owns the Ukrainian Poltava Mining and Processing Plant OJSC, which mines iron ore.

EuroTire’s advertising video states the company cooperates with Ferrexpo PLC.

According to a report published on the Euro Tyres website, more than $300 million were invested in this factory in 2007.

As of March 15, 2019 the owner of the factory is the Romanian company Euro Tyres Manufacturing SRL. This company belongs to two other offshore companies: EuroTyre S.A from the British Virgin Islands and the American Euro Tyres Corporation.

But Panikos Symeou is not the only person who ties Kolomoisky to the international Eurotire corporation. There are also two other links. One of them is the oligarch’s business partner, Uri Laber.

TRUSTED PERSON №3: Uriel Tzvi Laber

Uriel Tzvi Laber is an American who has been actively developing business in Ukraine since the 1990s. Laber is especially interested in oil. During 1997-1999, he founded two fuel companies, Mavex LLC and Petroleum-Invest, LLC.

And, in 2010, Laber became a member of the Supervisory Board of Ukrnafta PJSC. As of March 11, 2019, he still holds this position. Laber is also the director of the American company Optima International of Miami, Inc. According to Bloomberg, this company manufactures tires and is s subsidiary of CB PrivatBank PJSC.

And, of course, Laber himself is director of the Eurotire group of companies.

The connections of Ihor Kolomoisky and Uri Laber. (Nadiya Burdey/Anti-Corruption Action Center)

The connections between Eurotire and Kolomoisky don’t stop there. The Ukrainian and offshore Eurotire companies are involved in PrivatBank-related cases.

As of 2019, the Ukrainian plant for producing over-sized tires is the subject of criminal proceeding by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine over the embezzlement of money from CB Privatbank PJSC, allegedly committed by the management and owners of a substantial part of the bank. Prior to the bank’s nationalization in 2016, one of its co-owners was Igor Kolomoisky.

The Ukrainian plant for producing over-sized tires received a loan in the amount of several million dollars from PrivatBank and did not return the money. When the National Bank uncovered problems inside PrivatBank and Kolomoisky committed to restructure its loan portfolio, employees of the bank transferred the debt from 193 existing companies to non-operating, newly-created companies, which did not have sufficient funds to service the loans. In particular, the debts of actually existing assets — like the the oversized tire plant, were transferred to a newly-created company.

Another offshore company, British Virgin Islands-registered Eurotyre S.A., which owns 99 percent of the factory in Romania, is connected to another embezzlement scheme

According to case materials, PrivatBank officials and owners created a criminal organization and, in 2008-2015, withdrew Hr 12,5 billion ($478 million) in the form of loans to 15 Ukrainian companies. Instead of mortgages, these companies transferred contracts for paid goods to the bank.

So in 2014, Ukrainian company Mondial, LLC concluded an agreement with the non-resident Eurotyre S.A. for the purchase of 21,000 tons of natural rubber for $77 million. This contract was created in the form of a mortgage which Mondial transferred to PrivatBank when it received the loan. Therefore, the company Eurotyre S.A. is obliged to transfer rubber worth $77 million to the bank.

In February 2019, the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv granted the Prosecutor General’s Office access to the contract and a number of other documents located at the office of Eurotyre S.A (Vanterpool Plaza, P.O. Box 873, Wickhams Cay I Road, Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands).

The court granted access to documents in criminal proceeding No. 42017000000001823 as of June 6, 2017 “on the fact of creating a criminal organization, as well as operating such an organization and participation in it in order to obtain the cash funds of CB PrivatBank PJSC in especially large volumes during 2008-2016 by former officials of CB PrivatBank PJSC.”

The court’s decision states that former PrivatBank officials involved “owners and managers of a number of business entities, as well as representatives and final beneficiaries of a number of foreign companies that are connected to the bank through individuals” in order to bring the bank to insolvency.

Kolomoisky’s silico-manganese industry 

Kolomoisky’s partners Korf and Laber also operate the oligarch’s ferroalloy business in the U.S. and Georgia.

In 2015, Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Pinchuk pursued Ihor Kolomoisky in the High Court of London.

Pinchuk stated that, in the mid-2000s, he gave Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov money for the purchase of one of the largest iron ore mining companies in Ukraine. But he received neither the company, nor money from them. Pinchuk estimated the profit lost during all these years at $2 billion.

But in January 2016, a few days before court hearing, Pinchuk, Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov reached a peace deal: Kolomoisky pledged to give part of the money from the ferroalloy business to Pinchuk.

The ferroalloy holding includes the Nikopol, Zaporizhzhya and Stakhaniv ferroalloy factories and the Marganets and Ordzhonikidze mining and concentrating combines in Dnipropetrovsk region. In fact, none of these Ukrainian ferroalloy enterprises belong to either  Pinchuk or Kolomoisky.

In 2016, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) published a presentation on the import of silico-manganese. The report also contains a list of Ukrainian ferroalloy factories. According to the Commission, these companies are controlled by Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov. The report also contains a list of the oligarchs’ other ferroalloy assets located in the United States, Georgia and Australia.

A slide from the 2016 report by the United States International Trade Commission (USITC).

Viktor Pinchuk filed an appeal to a Florida court with a request to disclose the ownership property ownership of Georgian American Alloys, Inc. (Delaware), CC Metals and Alloys, LLC (Delaware), Felman Production, LLC (Delaware), and Felman Trading, Inc. (New Jersey). Although these companies are formally registered in offshore jurisdictions and, accordingly, the companies’ owners are not visible, the directors of all these companies were and remain Kolomoisky’s partners Korf and Laber.

Another manager of the companies Felman Production, LLC, Felman Trading, Inc., and the Euro Tyres Corporation is Robert Powell, the husband of Florida Democratic Representative Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.

In the November 2018 midterm election, Debbie Powell won her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. That same year, the The Miami Herald reported that the Democrat’s husband had been working as the general lawyer in companies controlled by Ihor Kolomoisky for over 10 years. Robert Powell has earned $695,000 while working for these companies in the past two years.

  • “I have never worked for, represented…or received any payments from Kolomoisky,” Powell stated during his wife’s campaign.

Mordechai Korf confirmed the statement. He said that Powell concluded his contracts and that he did not have any direct relationship with Kolomoisky. According to Korf, Powell left the company in 2017.

The Democrat’s husband submitted companies Felman Trading and Robert Powell PA as the source of his income in his latest financial report in 2017.

However, according to Florida’s official register, he signs reports on behalf of Felman Production, LLC even in 2019.

Symeou, Privat, and water terminals 

Panikos Symeou and Uriel Laber’s entanglements don’t end with factories and the media. They are also tied to Ukrainian water terminals.

In an interview with the Ekonomichna Pravda news site, Igor Kolomoisky mentioned the Borivazh water terminal a few days before the second round of presidential election. The oligarh stated that former national bank chief Valeriya Gontareva was interested in this asset.

The head of the National Bank allegedly wanted to purchase the terminal for Hr 100 million ($3.8 million) and resell it for Hr 250 million ($9.5 million). That is why, Kolomoisky claims, she conducted the nationalization of Privatbank without any formal grounds. That was a violation of his rights, he alleges.

The American corporate investigations firm Kroll, which looked into PrivatBank before nationalization, has effectively refuted this claim. But in this context, the very mention of the terminal is interesting: it has never formally belonged to the oligarch.

The company Borivazh

According to case materials, the property of three companies — the Black Sea Fuel Terminal, the Illichivsk Sea Fishing Port and Borivazh — was re-registered at an underestimated value to three other controlled companies: Optima Trade, Agroterminal Logistic and Dar Torg.

The founders of Dar Torg are Cypriots Panikos Simeou and his partner Christakis Konnaris.

And wasn’t complete strangers who re-registered the property of all three terminals, which was valued in total at Hr 683 million ($26 million). According to the investigation, Anatoliy Tereshchenko, the 73-year-old head and accountant of Optima Trade, and Volodymyr Kigitov, founder of Black Sea Fuel Terminal PJSC at that time, did the re-registering.

Anatoliy Tereshchenko is no stranger in Kolomoisky’s world. He was officially employed at the company Mavex, which was co-owned by Kolomoisky partner Uriel Tzvi Laber until 2007.

Laber has been a member of the Supervisory Board at Ukrnafta PJSC since 2010. Fifty percent of this enterprise belongs to the state, while the other half is owned offshore and controlled by Kolomoisky.

And, of course, companies from this group — which formally do not belong to Kolomoisky — received hundreds of millions of dollars in loans from PrivatBank when it belonged to the oligarch. Borivazh LLC received more than $120 million. , the money was not returned to the creditor, and the property has already been re-registered to another firm.

Agroterminal Logistic also received a loan. This company has already paid Hr 996 million ($38 million) to the National Bank of Ukraine. But this is only a third of the Hr 3.6 billion ($137.4 million) in debt, according to loan agreement No. 120.

Recently, Ihor Kolomoisky explained that fear motivates him to register all his assets to trusted persons or offshores. He is supposedly afraid to disclose the ownership structures of companies because they could then be appropriated by President Petro Poroshenko. But Kolomoisky started registering businesses in offshores long before Poroshenko’s presidency. He started after 2000, during a period of active privatization.

This  publication is the first of an upcoming series of stories on the trusted persons of Ukrainian oligarchs by the pep.org.ua project of the Anti-Corruption Action Center. More information and documents about politically exposed persons and their close associates are available at pep.org.ua.

 

 

 

The Secret X-37B Just Landed After 2 Years in Space

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Though the Air Force doesn’t disclose the X-37B’s precise orbit, keen-eyed amateur astronomers have managed to track the vehicle from the ground — and so can you, thanks to their efforts.Check out Space.com’s satellite tracker to see where the X-37B is overhead during a mission. The view won’t be dramatic; the space plane usually looks like a star of middling brightness moving across the sky. More here.

The U.S. Air Force’s top secret spaceplane, the Boeing X-37B, landed in Florida early Sunday after 780 days—over 2 years and one month—in orbit around the Earth. And we still have no idea what it was doing while it was up there.

The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle-5 (OTV-5) mission was the fifth time that the uncrewed vehicle has flown around the world, beating the duration of the fourth mission, which landed in May of 2017 after 718 days in orbit. This most recent mission launched from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on September 7, 2017.

 

“The X-37B continues to demonstrate the importance of a reusable spaceplane,” Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett said in a statement posted online. “Each successive mission advances our nation’s space capabilities.”

What are those capabilities? We don’t know the specifics. But according to the Air Force, the X-37B has the unique ability to “test new systems in space and return them to Earth” and the mission “successfully completed” all of its objectives.

Military leaders, many of whom were previously skeptical of the need for an entirely new branch of the armed services, appear to be excited about President Donald Trump’s Space Force and the way that the X-37B might play a role in that branch of the military. At least that’s the gist you get reading the Air Force’s press release.

“The safe return of this spacecraft, after breaking its own endurance record, is the result of the innovative partnership between Government and Industry,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein said in a press release. “The sky is no longer the limit for the Air Force and, if Congress approves, the U.S. Space Force.”

This latest mission launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida and landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility on October 27, 2019 at 3:51 a.m. The last time this spaceplane came back to Earth there was video of the landing. This time, however, there was no video, perhaps because the landing took place in the predawn hours.

“This program continues to push the envelope as the world’s only reusable space vehicle. With a successful landing today, the X-37B completed its longest flight to date and successfully completed all mission objectives,” said Randy Walden, Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office director.

“This mission successfully hosted Air Force Research Laboratory experiments, among others, as well as providing a ride for small satellites.”

The Air Force says it plans to launch the sixth X-37B mission from CCAFS in 2020. And you can bet good money we won’t know much about that launch either.

What do you think they were doing up there? A couple of missions ago, something like “aliens” may have been a ridiculous guess. But we’ve sure learned a lot about U.S. military contact with unidentified flying objects since this mission first launched in September of 2017.

I’m not saying they’re flying aliens around in a super secret Air Force spaceplane. But they’re probably flying aliens around in a super secret Air Force spaceplane.