Dear CNN, here are a few true and juicy news stories you might cover if you were in the business of reporting corruption...

Llama
Jimmy's Llama
Sat, 08 Jul 2017 00:00 UTC

Dear CNN,

Let's be honest. You've had some problems lately and most people view your network as nothing more than an exploding dumpster fire. And they're right. You are a dumpster fire. But you don't have to be. Listen, since you're probably going to cut down on the Trump/Russia collusion stories and maybe lay off the doxing/blackmail business for awhile I figured some air time and column space are opening up, right? Well, you can't use that time and space for more stories about how good you think Obama looks in jeans because that's ridiculous and sad so that's where I come in! I don't want you to be upset that the Russia story isn't working out so I put together a list of leads that have everything to do with Russia. I hope this will cheer you up, motivate you to write real stories, and get you to stop publishing #FakeNews. Enjoy and you're welcome!

George Soros and the Oligarchs

George Soros is a great place to start because he's so evil and awful and everyone loves a good story about Satan - especially Satan's ties with the Clintons. You could start here, here, or here and if you still require more background information on Soros because, let's be honest, you never cover him, search Open Society Foundation, Media Matters, or Democracy Alliance. You could also read my post HERE which will provide you a fabulous background on Russia's early privatization program during which the Clinton administration, Harvard, George Soros (via USAID), the Russian mafia, and the oligarchs all took advantage. I know, I know, it's a lot of reading but I know you can do this, CNN. You owe us this much.

For an actual story I'm thinking you could go the Russian oligarch route because Western media usually only focuses on two narratives: Putin was in bed with them or Putin unjustly persecuted them. Instead, you should go with the truth: the oligarchs essentially pillaged Russia during the 1990s, the Clinton administration contributed to that fact, and then Putin put the oligarchs in their place after he was elected. And P.S. You might want to look into Al Gore and IBP International, too. You're welcome.

Then, if you really want to draw your readers in report on Soros' ties with Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky and how Berezovsky was caught holding negotiations with Chechen warlords. Mention how he was probably financing "Shamil Basayev and Khattab in their separatist campaign," and then throw in the fact that the CIA was secretly funding the Chechen and Islamist terrorists for good measure. Your viewership is going to skyrocket! If nothing else, do you have a society column where you could report on Berezovsky's "boy's dinner" with Bill Clinton? I mean, everyone likes to keep up on the latest society gossip and just look at that garden party in the Hamptons where George Soros partied with Ivanka and Kushner. That was retweeted like a million times!

But I realize that Boris Berezovsky isn't everyone's cup of tea and that's probably because he was an angry, greedy, little man before he was murdered. So maybe you could do a story on Russian oligarch Vladmir Gusinky because this is a great story and you probably remember it. This poor, filthy rich, Russian schmuck was forced to hand over his news station, NTV, to the Russian government because Putin will do just about anything to shut dissenters up, am I right, CNN? I mean, even the U.S. government backed Gusinky up when former U.S. President Bill Clinton appeared on a Russian radio show while former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott stated, "There is a pattern here, and we have seen it for some time...It has a look and feel to it that does not resonate rule of law. It resonates ... intimidation." However, if you really want to take this story to the next level I suggest you mention that at the time the Russian government seized his network, Vladmir Gusinsky was in the process of selling it to none other than George Soros and Ted Turner. Oh, oops, Ted Turner. He's the founder of CNN, right? Yeah, you might want to skip that part. You have enough problems.

Let's move on to oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky because there's a lot of material here that you could use and it's all good stuff. Surely you remember this guy, yes? He was one of the "seven bankers" that made a deal with Yeltsin in order to get Yeltsin reelected in 1996, which, at that point, Khodorkovsky was worth $15 billion and one of the most powerful men in Russia, But a word of warning: I don't think you should let on that Khodorkovsky obtained that fortune through rigged auctions and the shady as f*ck loans for shares program during the 1990s. I mean, no need to be honest about everything, right?

There are plenty of other things he was involved in that you should cover. For instance, what about the fact he was buddies with Soros and fashioned his organization, Open Russia Foundation, specifically after Soros' "Open Society Foundation." And how about the fact that Jacob Rothschild and Henry Kissinger once sat on the board? That's juicy! Or how about Khodorkovsky passing along his shares in his massive oil company, Yukos, to Rothschild after Khodorkovsky was arrested? That's good stuff. And don't forget Khodorkovsky's ties to the Carlyle Group, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) who's board of trustees once included Dick Cheney.

And when you're done telling your readers about how he stole his fortune from the Russian people, and about his ties to Soros and Western think tanks, then tell them that Putin had him arrested. Let your readers judge the situation for themselves.

As an after thought, you might want to add that after his arrest, Khodorkovsky not only had the support of George Soros, U.S. Senator Tom Lantos can be seen in this video along with Robert Amsterdam, joining the Soros bandwagon during Khodorkovsky's trial. Not surprisingly, Lantos once sat on the board of George Soros' Central European University and in 2003, Soros donated to Lantos' campaign fund. Fun fact: Attorney Robert Amsterdam who is seen in the video above with Lantos was hired by Khodorkovsky. He also represents Kim Schmitz who's extradition from New Zealand is currently being sought by the U.S. government. Kim Schmitz aka Kim Dotcom is the same guy who claimed he was going to release inside information about Seth Rich then failed to produce literally any evidence whatsoever. Big shocker.

Edgar de Picciotto

I believe that any of the topics I mentioned above would not only educate the public and give them a new perspective on Russia, they would definitely boost your ratings. However, I understand if you're not feeling the whole Clinton administration/Russia privatization/Soros/oligarch thing so maybe you could report on Soros' associate Edgar de Picciotto who passed away last year. Edgar de Picciotto, the founder of Union Bancaire Privee (UBP), once sat on the board of Soros' Quantum Industrial Holdings - you know, that company Soros started in the Netherlands Antilles in order to avoid paying taxes on his billions. What you may not know is that de Picciotto was born in Lebanon and had a close relationship with Hermitage Capital's Edmond Safra. Remember Hermitage Capital and the Magnitsky Act? Don't worry, I'm getting to that. As for Edmond Safra he was once described as de Picciotto's "compatriot and one-time friend" and it was Safra's bank, Trade Development Bank, which had been previously sold to American Express, that was purchased by de Picciotto and then merged with his bank, CBI, to form Union Bancaire Privee (you should probably look into CBI, Marc Rich, and Nordex as well). And here's the fun part: UBP was involved in the Bernie Madoff debacle, tax evasion, and money laundering between Miami and Geneva. Remember the Swiss bank in the Wolf of Wall Street? That's UBP. But I'm sure Soros or Safra had absolutely nothing to do with their buddy's extracurricular activities. And here's a helpful hint: If you want to play up the "boy's club" angle you could also report on this letter from Edgar de Piciotto's cousin which was sent to President Bill Clinton in support of Marc Rich because it's not shady at all that Soros was tight with de Picciotto who was tight with Marc Rich and all of them were tight with Bill Clinton:

Hermitage Capital

If you don't think I've offered any good ideas so far what about covering Edgar de Picciotto's "one-time friend," Edmond Safra? As a news outlet I'm sure you don't mind reading a little more at this point so maybe you could check THIS out before I continue. It's just that I would be more comfortable knowing that you had a full understanding about how Edmond Safra was partners with Bill Browder at Hermitage Capital, how millions of dollars were stolen from the Russian government through a 2007 tax refund scheme via Hermitage's subsidiaries, how fingers were pointed at Renaissance Capital (RenCap) as one of the suspects, and how Bill Browder was obsessed with getting the Magnitsky Act passed in the States with the help of his buddies, John McCain and Ben Cardin.

Bill Browder

See, maybe there are a few things you don't know about this story. Like, maybe you didn't know that Bill Browder first asked Bill Clinton's, "Air F*ck One" buddy, Ron Burkle, (see also The Yucaipa Companies, LLC) to be his partner at Hermitage before making the offer to Edmond Safra. Or maybe you didn't know that HSBC took ownership of Safra's bank, Republic Bank of New York, after his death/murder in 1999 and became the trustee of Hermitage Capital at the same time. Did you just notice that HSBC became involved with Hermitage Capital well before the tax refund scheme? Mmhmm. Something to think about. Another interesting detail in all of this is that in January, 2013, James Comey joined the board at HSBC before leaving to become director of the FBI. And if you didn't read my post like I asked you to, you may not know that:

"HSBC's background is as dirty as anyone else in this story. For instance, the bank was sued in 2016 for laundering millions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels. Then, based on leaked files given to the ICIJ by French newspaper "Le Monde," it came to light that HSBC also "profited from doing business with arms dealers who channeled mortar bombs to child soldiers in Africa, bag men for Third World dictators, traffickers in blood diamonds and other international outlaws." In the case of the Mexican drug cartels, U.S. Attorney General at the time, Eric Holder, declined to prosecute the HSBC which I'm sure had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that FBI Director James Comey once sat on its board in 2013."

So that's fun, huh?

I guess what I'm saying to you, CNN, is that maybe you should investigate the unsolved tax refund theft case that involves Hermitage, HSBC, Browder, Renaissance and many others. Maybe if I told you that Renaissance Capital is the same group that promoted the sale of Uranium One (for more go here) to the Russians and that they paid Bill Clinton $500,000 in speech fees during that same period that might jumpstart your research. And Renaissance was actually in the news recently because the DOJ "traced proceeds of the [Hermitage Capital tax] fraud to a bank account in Bournemouth held by Renaissance Capital Investment Management Ltd." But that got buried by the MSM so maybe you didn't hear about it.

And yes, now that you mention it, Hermitage Capital did donate to Hillary Clinton's campaign back in 2015. Thanks for asking.

Uranium

Let's be honest, CNN, there are so many angles you could cover in the Hermitage Capital case including the stolen money trail that it's enough to make your head spin. But if you're not feeling this story either or, let's be honest, you're not allowed to roll with it because seeking the truth has never been your strong suit we could move from Renaissance's support of the uranium deal to the uranium deal itself. And don't kill me but I need you to read some more stuff and it's kind of lengthy and you can find it HERE. Once you've read through it maybe you could do an honest report about the uranium deal or, even better, Canaccord Capital's involvement in more than one shady company including Nelson Resources (where the Boston bombers' uncle worked), Big Sky Energy (where the Boston bombers' uncle worked), or UrAsia/Uranium One (where, surprisingly, the Boston bombers' uncle did not work but he did submit a witness statement on behalf of the man who sold Frank Giustra the uranium during the man's trial).

More Canaccord, GMP Capital, and the Russian Mafia

If you really want to whet the appetites of your viewers you could first discuss how much freaking money Clintons' buddies from Canaccord Capital (Paul Reynolds) and GMP Securities (Eugene McBurney) have donated to both the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership. But, what would really get everyone's attention would be the YBM Magnex scandal. Not familiar? Here, let me help. In the late 1990s, both Eugene McBurney (GMP Securities) and Canaccord Capital became involved with Russian mafia kingpin Semion Mogilevich's company, YBM Magnex. According to GMP Securities' documents they "acted as underwriters for, provided research coverage of, and traded in securities of, YBM Magnex International Inc" between May, 1995 through May, 1998. Canaccord Capital was another underwriter as was the "European arm of HSBC Asset Management," James Capel.

Paul Reynolds

YBM Magnex which was actually established in the United States and located in Newtown, Pennsylvania was eventually shut down by U.S. authorities and pulled off the Toronto stock exchange. However, in the four years that the company was in business they went from "an obscure penny stock to a multinational worth nearly $1 billion." It was further reported that that their "net sales quadrupled, net income jumped ninefold, earnings rose by a factor of five, and the future looked just as promising"...

... all with the help of Clintons' friends.

So definitely highlight the fact that some of Clinton's biggest financial supporters literally worked directly with the Russian mafia, made gobs of money because of it, were never brought up on any charges for snowing investors, and, if we take Sally Yates' statements regarding General Michael Flynn's vulnerability to Russian blackmail to heart, Clintons' friends have been at high risk for Russian blackmail literally since the 1990s. I mean, let's be honest, do you just up and walk away from the mafia after you've been in business with them?

Semion Mogilevich

If you want to run with the YBM Magnex story you could also throw in Semion Mogilevich's ties to the Bank of New York money laundering scandal back in 1999. That was a doozy, you have to admit. And not only was Mogilevich tied to the scandal, so was Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the Russian oligarch who was once worth $15 billion, was associated with Soros, and was represented by Kim Schmitz's current attorney. You see, Mogilevich took control of Inkombank in 1994, but the bank (along with its attorney, former Federal Prosecutor Arthur Christy) was sued by its stockholders in 1999 for defrauding investors and laundering their money. At the same time, it was coming out in the wash that Mogilevich and Khodorkovsky had laundered over $7 billion (yes, billion) through the Bank of New York. I suppose one of your investigative journalists could easily find out how this scam went down but let me save you the trouble:

Semion Mogilevich

All of the accounts linked to the $7 billion had one common denominator: Benex. Benex was a company set up by Russian Peter Berlin who's wife was the vice president of the Bank of New York. Benex would later be "publicly listed as a customer of YBM Magnex International" and remember Boris Berezevsky that I talked about earlier, the guy working with both Soros and the Chechen warlords? Yeah, that guy. He owned part of Sobinbank and Flamingo, both of which were used as fronts for Peter Berlin's companies. The other cozy relationship in all of this was that Mikhail Khodorkovsky's partner at Bank Menatep (which Khodorkosvsky owned), Kostantin Kagalovsky, was also married to Bank of New York employee, Natasha Gurfikel Kagalovsky.

And just so we're clear here, CNN: During this time period Bill Clinton was still in office, his buddies who would later become major donors and involved in the uranium deal were in bed with a Russian mafia kingpin and making tons of money off of that by lying to investors while at the same time that very same Russia mafia figure and Soros' friend, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, were money laundering billions of dollars through The Bank of New York. Huh.

Figure that one out.

IMF Scandal

Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin

But I know you, CNN, and so does everyone else. You won't run that full story on Clintons' ties to the Russian mafia just like you would prefer not to run a story on how the Clinton administration pressured the IMF into giving Russia another loan in 1998, after which the $4.8 billion loan simply disappeared. Did you know that $4.2 billion of that was moved through Benex and the Bank of New York, the same exact company and bank that Russian mobster, Semion Mogilevich, and Russian oligarch, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, used to money launder more than $7 billion dollars? I mean, come on. And as The Guardian reported on October 16, 1999, the "IMF knew about the Russian aid scam" so there's that bit of insanity, too. Former House Representative Dick Armey said that the Clinton administration's handling of Russia was "the biggest foreign-policy failure since Vietnam" and that's probably putting it mildly.

You can find the Congressional Hearing on Russian Money Laundering HERE.

Georgian Mafia

Of course, the Bank of New York and IMF cases were much more complicated than what I've given you but no one has the time. Half of my readers probably haven't made it this far so I'm sure your investigative reporters can uncover much of what I didn't cover. For instance, they might find that Marc Rich (there's that name again) was both also implicated in the Bank of New York scandal and had ties to Georgian mafia figure Grigori Loutchansky of Nordex. The Washington Times reported that "Mr. Loutchansky, who has Israeli citizenship, is considered by law-enforcement authorities to be a major figure in the Russian organized-crime network" and Italian investigator, Paolo Giovagnoli, went on to say, "I have an Interpol report that states that Marc Rich was one of the founding partners of Nordex,"

But here's the really fun part. The Clintons invited Grigori Loutchansky to a $25,000 plate dinner at the White House back in 1995. R. James Woolsey, President Clinton's former director of Central Intelligence, stated,

"At bare minimum, any DNC invitation to Loutchansky in 1995 would show a severe lack of scrutiny and appalling bad judgment. It would be unwise in the extreme for there to be any ties between the U.S. government and Loutchansky or Loutchansky's company, Nordex."

Grigori Loutchansky

Yeah, I'm sure. The good news is that the invitation was withdrawn "after the DNC received the information from political operatives at the White House," meaning that someone from the NSA allegedly gave up intel on Loutchansky in order to prevent him from attending the dinner. In one of your own articles, CNN, you seem more upset that a Russian organized crime figure didn't attend the dinner because of the NSA more so than anything else but that's not really surprising, is it? Old habits die hard.

Whether or not the NSA did or didn't, should or shouldn't have disclosed pertinent intel on mafia figure Grigori Loutchansky, the entire debacle didn't stop Hillary's brothers, Anthony and Hugh Rodham, from almost doing business with Aslan Abashidze, a known associate of Loutchansky. According to the LA Times,

"First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's two brothers pulled out of a $118-million proposed business venture in the former Soviet republic of Georgia on Thursday night, only hours after saying they would carry it through."

The article goes on to say that apparently the NSA had to tell the Clintons once again that Loutchansky was bad news to which the brothers stated that, "They had no reason to believe that their associates were involved in illegal activities." As if this wasn't bad enough, Tony Rodham agreed to be the godfather to Aslan Abashidze's grandsons. According to Mother Jones, Abashidze eventually fled to Russia before he was sentenced to fifteen years behind bars by a Georgian court for embezzlement.

John Podesta

We all know that you know that we know that John Podesta has ties to Russia through Joule Unlimited but that you don't really like to talk about it, right? Right. Well, first of all, don't feel bad, lots of news outlets out there refuse to put forth any truly honest, in-depth stories on the Clintons' ties to Russia so it's not just you. But how about Joule Unlimited and Skolkovo? I mean, it's such a shady story.

Russia's Skolkovo initiative which, according to Business Insider, "was launched in 2010 to create a Russian version of Silicon Valley" happened right after Hillary Clinton's "reset" with Russia in 2009. Not surprisingly she was a major figure in its development and according to FOX, the State Department "paid for a delegation of 22 private tech entrepreneurs to go to Russia" and "encouraged American firms to participate in Skolkovo," including Boeing, Google, and Microsoft.

John Podesta

But eventually the FBI started freaking out that Skolkovo along with Russian investments within the United States were a means for Russia to gain U.S. technology secrets. And they were probably right. Rusnano alone, a Russian state-funded company where the president of the Skolkovo Foundation, Viktor Vekselberg, is a board member, invested $35 million in Joule Unlimited, a biotechnology company based in Boston, Massachusetts. And the funny thing about this is that John Podesta had joined the executive board of Joule Unlimited two months prior to this investment and was paid an "undisclosed amount of money" for doing so. Furthermore, he transferred 75,000 shares of Joule Unlimited to a shell company called Leonidio LLC because shell companies are almost always, always, shady and John Podesta is one shady guy.

And there's more. An article on Roger Stone's website, StoneColdTruth.com, alleges that Viktor Vekselberg made two money transfers in 2015 and 2016 to a "private Clinton Foundation account in the Bank of America" and that $55 million dollars from Vekselberg's Skolkov Foundation, which had been deposited in Vekselberg's bank, Metcombank, went missing. The article goes on to say that this money was "allotted from the Russian government's budget for the Skolkovo technology cluster's development." So more thievery from the Russian government? You don't say.

In February, 2013, former Skolkovo financial director Kirill Lugovtsev and the head of the Skolkovo center's Customs Finance Company, Vladimir Khokhlov, came under investigation for the alleged embezzlement of almost $800,000 from the Skolkovo center's budget. In April, 2013, police raided the Skolkovo Foundation's office as part of the continuing investigation into Lugovtsev and Khokhlov and then in July, 2015, an arrest warrant was issued in absentia for the former vice president of Skolkovo on charges of embezzlement.

For the Wikileaks email that completely did John Podesta in go HERE.

Tony Podesta

The last idea I'll give you is Tony Podesta's lobbying history. I mean, it's nothing short of astounding when you look at the history there and the fact that he's John Podesta's brother. This guy lobbied for Uranium One, the company that was eventually sold to Russia giving Russia control of 20% of all U.S. uranium, the Russian bank Sberbank, and Troika Dialogue.

John and Tony Podesta

So listen, I'm not even going to touch the whole Uranium One thing because it's so shady and ridiculous and obvious that I won't waste your time. However, Tony's lobbying gig for Sberbank and Troika Dialogue are worth diving into. First of all, Troika Dialogue, now known as Sberbank CIB, is a major Russian financial institution that was acquired by Sberbank in March, 2011 for one billion dollars (yes, billion). Now here's the thing: If you thought that Renaissance Capital paying Bill Clinton half a million dollars for a speech while talking up Uranium One's stock was bad or Tony Podesta lobbying for Uranium One at the same time was suspect, how about the fact that Troika Dialogue acted as one of the lead managers of the bonds placement by Uranium One and only a few years later Tony started lobbying for them? And yes. This whole thing is that incestuous.

Even better, remember Joule Unlimited and John Podesta? The chairman and CEO of Troika Dialog, and the company's managing director both sat on the board of Joule. Then there's the Hermitage Capital tax refund theft, remember that? And remember how Bill Browder pointed the finger at Renaissance Capital, the same company that a. Paid Bill Clinton half a million dollars b. Promoted the sale of Uranium One and c. Was in the news recently for being involved in the Hermitage Capital tax scheme. Well, when the whole Hermitage Capital thing was going down, Igor Sagiryan was the president of Rennaisance. However, shortly thereafter he left and joined Troika Dialogue as president of investment banking. I'm not saying that any of this proves anything but what I am saying is that maybe you, CNN, a news organization, might want to look into this and see if it proves anything.

And with that, I've come to the end of my list. So there you go, CNN, there's no reason to give up your Russian reporting and many of us would be thrilled if you finally threw the Clintons under the bus where they deserve to be. And you'll soon realize there is so much more to each of these stories that it will keep you busy for awhile which is a good thing because you know what they say, "Idle hands are the devil's workshop." So chop chop, CNN, because realistically how long can a dumpster fire burn before they die out completely?