Craig Unger
158 quotes
Biography
"In 1984... David Bogatin... former pilot in the ... specialty... shooting down Americans over ... plunked... $6 million to buy... five [Trump Tower] luxury condos. ...According to ... Trump personally attended the closing... Russian mobsters were beginning to invest in high-end real estate... an ideal vehicle to launder money..."
"During the '80s and '90s, we... repeatedly saw... criminals... use condos and high-rises to launder money," says Jonathan Winer... "it was a way of turning dirty money into clean money... and it explained why there are so many high-rises... sold but no one... living in them."
"A Senate investigation... revealed that Bogatin was a leading figure in the Russian mob in New York. His ...ties ...led straight to the top: His brother ran a $150 million stock scam with ..., whom the FBI considers the "boss of bosses" of the ... Mogilevich ...was expanding his multibillion-dollar international criminal syndicate into America."
"[F]low of money from Russia provided Trump with a crucial infusion of financing that helped rescue his empire... "They saved his bacon," says Kenneth McCallion..."
"[T]he public record makes clear that Trump built his business empire in no small part with a lot of dirty money from a lot of dirty Russians—including the dirtiest and most feared of them all."
"Boris Yeltsin's shift to a market economy was so abrupt that... s and corrupt government officials were able to privatize and loot state-held assets in oil, , s, and banking."
"Yeltsin... would... describe Russia as "the biggest in the world.""
"After Vladimir Putin... Russian intelligence effectively joined forces with the country’s mobsters and oligarchs..."
"According to James Henry... $1.3 trillion in illicit capital has poured out of Russia since the 1990s."
"According to the FBI... Mogilevich paid a Russian judge to spring... Vyachelsav Kirillovich Ivankov, from a... . ...Ivankov was the enforcer ...torturing ...victims and boasting about ...murders ..."
"In Red Mafiya... Friedman documented how Ivankov organized... a multibillion-dollar criminal enterprise. According to the FBI, he recruited... "combat brigades" of Special Forces veterans from the Soviet war in Afghanistan to run the... and kill... enemies."
"The FBI concluded... one of Ivankov's partners... was Felix Komarov..."
"The "tower full of oligarchs," ...became a model for Trump’s projects ..."
"[E]xamining... deeds, bank records, and court documents... concluded... Trump SoHo had "multiple ties to an alleged international money-laundering network.""
"In ...2013 ...police ...rounded up... suspects in... gambling rings... prosecutors called "...world's largest sports book," ...in —including the entire fifty-first floor ...[A] condo ...below one owned by Trump ...served as headquarters for a "sophisticated money-laundering scheme" that moved ...$100 million out of the former Soviet Union ...into ...the United States ...under ...protection of ..."
"[W]hen was he first compromised by Russia? ...1984 ...David Bogatin, who allegedly had ties to the most powerful crime gang in Russia... who doesn't... [seemingly] have [legitimate] means of making a living... meets with Donald Trump, and... buys... five luxury condominiums for more than $6 million... in ... [T]he State Attorney General Office ...ruled ...that was money laundering for the .<!--1:17; &t=77s-->"
"...35 Trump Towers ...8,000 or 10,000 units. It would be interesting to figure out ...the scale of ...[D]uring the same period, since Putin's been in power ...$1.3 trillion in flight capital from Russia... to launder.<!--2:45; &t=165s-->"
"If you're in a relationship with the , they're the boss. You're . ...[T]hey have compromised him, and they are ...an arm of the Russian government. Russia is a .<!--4:14; &t=254s-->"
"Putin's greatest achievement... weaponized organized crime... effectively a powerful foreign policy tool... [T]hey've compromised... the president of the United States...<!--4:30; &t=270s-->"
"[H]is first trip to Russia... hoping to build a Trump Tower in Moscow... ...the first ...presidential ambitions surface. ...in '88 ...a full page ad in The New York Times and ... the same kind of foreign policy... since ...president, attacking , attacking NATO... that appears to be in Russia's interest...<!--4:56; &t=296s-->"
"[A] free-for-all where he's laundering massive amounts of Russian money?<!--6:08; &t=368s-->"
"Mogilevich... probably the most powerful mobster in Russia for more than 30 years. ...According to FBI files... in... prostitution... drug running... elaborate stock fraud scandals... [etc.] [R]enowned for... . ...the "brainy don" ...[came] up with... elaborate schemes... trusted by ...mobsters to launder their money... $1.3 trillion... it would be great to have a real estate mogul who had thousands... of luxury condos you could trade... through shell companies...<!--7:12; &t=432s-->"
"I would argue Mogilevich... has a direct relationship to Putin... [T]hat's come out in ...WikiLeaks releases... David Bogatin, going back to 1984, was tied to the Mogilevich crime gang, and Mogilevich is tied to Putin.<!--8:46; &t=526s-->"
"Sater's ... did not appear to be a deal breaker for Trump. "Donald is happy with me...""
"In Vladimir Putin's regime, business... organized crime and intelligence... can... be used as weapons of the state. ...[O]ne company that potentially questionable Russian money flowed through was Bayrock."