Craig Unger

"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."

"[A]ccording to the FBI... [] was the key money-laundering contact for the Solntsevskaya Bratva... one of the richest criminal syndicates in the world. ...[R]unning a multibillion-dollar worldwide racket ...drug trafficking and prostitution rings ...accused of selling ...stolen ...ground-to-air missiles and armored troop carriers, to Iran. ..."He uses ...wealth and power ..." the FBI says, "...to influence governments and their economies.""

"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..."

"James Moody... told Friedman. "...we found out that Ivankov] was living in a luxury condo in ." ...high-level Russian mobsters came to view the future president's properties as a home away from home."

"[U]ntold millions from the former Soviet Union... wasn’t enough to save Trump from his... failings as a businessman. He owed $4 billion to... 70 banks... [F]ortunately... his... economic crisis coincided... In 1998, Russia defaulted on $40 billion... causing the ruble to plummet and... banks to close... oligarchs and mobsters scrambling to find a safe place... [for] their money. ... ...[c]onstruction got underway in 1999 ...one-third of the units on the ... priciest floors... [were] snatched up ...by individual buyers the former Soviet Union ...or ...companies connected to Russia."

"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 ."

"I found... 13... episodes... , the president's home, was... a [] center for operations for... a long period..."

"...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."

"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 ."

"Putin's greatest achievement... weaponized organized crime... effectively a powerful foreign policy tool... [T]hey've compromised... the president of the United States..."

"[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..."

"[A] free-for-all where he's laundering massive amounts of Russian money?"

"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..."

"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."

"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."

"[Jody] Kriss... alleged that Bayrock was "covertly mob-owned and operated... backed by oligarchs and money they stole from the Russian people... engaged in... financial-institution fraud, tax fraud, partnership fraud, , , , and, on occasion, real estate.""

"The suit claimed... the real purpose... in addition to marketing... condos bearing the Trump brand, was "to launder many millions... and evade taxes.""

"[A]ttorneys Frederick Oberlander and Richard Lerner... qui tam suit against Bayrock... charged ...laundering $250 million in profits from Trump SoHo and other projects, and... evading] $100 million in... taxes."

"Jonathan Winer... [said] "What anyone in Trump’s position should have done is investigate those allegations [about Sater’s criminal past] to ensure that there was not a money-laundering operation.""

"Bayrock’s relationship with Trump dates... to 2002... Trump was ... licking wounds over his Atlantic City over-expansion a decade earlier, after which he had a more difficult time borrowing money."

"Foreign money, often untraceable, began transforming the high-end real-estate market, and the pools of cash that Bayrock promised appealed to Trump."

"Trump would not... put up a ... penny, but... get 18 percent of... profits... for licensing... as Bayrock financed and developed... Trump... SoHo."

"The Oberlander and Lerner lawsuit... alleged... $250 million of Bayrock’s projected profits as... co-developer of Trump SoHo and three other projects were "to be laundered, untaxed, through a sham Delaware entity to Iceland (and reportedly then Russia), intending to evade up to $100,000,000 of U.S. taxation.""

"Trump SoHo... changed hands in 2014, after a foreclosure sale, but, according to Pro Publica, the Trump Organization still manages and markets the property, for which it pays Trump 5.75 percent of the condo tower’s operating revenues."

"Without the 's move into New York, Donald Trump would not have become president of the United States."

"Russians had begun collaborating with Italian mobsters as early as 1980..."

"[[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|[D]isintegration of the Soviet Union]]... opened... hundreds of billions of dollars in flight capital... from oligarchs, wealthy s, and mobsters... Trump’s zeal to sell condos, no questions asked, to shell companies meant... Russians could launder vast amounts of money while hiding... personal identities."

"Trump appears to have taken advantage of... weak regulations to sell en masse to the Russians. ...1,300 condos, one-fifth of all Trumpbranded condos sold in the US since the eighties, were... "in secretive, all-cash transactions that enable buyers to avoid legal scrutiny by shielding their finances and identities." ...[T]he total value of these... sales... that match the US Treasury’s criteria for possible ... $1.5 billion... may understate the... dirty money..."

"Within... intelligence, assets... include those who... prefer... [a foreign country's] ideology, those who betray... for monetary gain, those... ed, and... useful idiots who... provide... information through... lapses or blind pursuit of their own agendas."

"Trump, the Soviets... discovered... was... intoxicated... with boatloads of cash... in dubious transactions..."

"Doing business with Trump allowed the ... to assault America’s most essential democratic institutions..."

"[A]s long as they had money... Trump was listening."

"Vladimir Putin... waged a shadow... "virtual" war... of s, disinformation, and cyber warfare."

"Russian intelligence; hijacked social media and exploited algorithms to make... provocative "fake news" go viral; transformed Facebook into one of the biggest purveyors of Russian propaganda... used... "" and... bogus s that pretended to correct fake news, and... upended the... notion of truth, of reality..."

"[I]n Russia... scores of people... died mysteriously after investigating the alleged crimes of Putin and his oligarchs."

"Americans cracked down on organized crime, Putin co-opted...[and] weaponized it."

"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..."