'Toontime: Humpty Trumpty Has a Great Fall Coming

credit: M. Streeter, Savannah Evening News

After the conviction of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort for eight financial crimes and the guilty plea to eight counts including two election finance offenses by former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, one would think no more bombshells would go off this week in the Russian Connection investigation. NOT. The latest, and probably the most damaging defection from the Trump Gang is its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg. He was granted immunity in return for his cooperation with federal investigators. As one commentator who wrote a book on the role of CFOs in convicting top corporate executives for criminal schemes, "when the feds get to the CFO, its usually curtains." CFO evidence played a large role in the successful prosecution of Enron, WorldCom and Tyco. Weisselberg, in addition to serving as the CFO of Trump's business empire, also serves as trustee for his financial assets while he is in office. In short, he knows where the bodies are buried.

Fusion GPS, which commissioned the now famous Steele Dossier, has said there is "wide spread evidence" that Trump worked with dubious Russians in business arrangements that raise questions of money laundering. Real estate is often the investment of choice in money-laundering schemes.  Trump was selling property to Russians at a time when his only credit source, Deutsche Bank, was involved in a massive laundering scheme.  Russians own $98.4 million of Trump properties according to Reuters. A German newspaper has reported that Mueller subpoenaed the bank for information relating to Trump's deals. All this is potentially more damaging to Mr. Yuge than any Russian hacking operation to which he turned a blind eye.

Trump's dealings with bogus Russians goes back to the 1980s when the bankrupt businessman was desperate for capital.  David Bogatin, a Russian emigre with an auspicious name bought six Manhattan Trump Tower condos for cash.  According to the Treasury Department's financial crimes unit, buying real estate for cash, thereby avoiding disclosure to finance companies, is a red flag.  The Department estimates that a third of high-end real estate transactions are fronts for washing dirty money. Bogatin was convicted for a massive gasoline bootlegging scheme with Russian mobsters. After fleeing the country, his condos were seized by the government as shelters for criminal gains.  The Senate investigation of Bogatin revealed he was a major figure in the New York branch of the Russian mob.  According to one journalistic investigation, one-fifth of the condos in Trump's properties were bought with cash, many by shell companies. p; And then their his casino operation, the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City.  It was fined a relatively paltry amount for 106 violations of anti money-laundering laws in its first eighteen months of operation.  The casino was a favorite gambling hang-out for Russian mobsters living in Brooklyn.

Sure, sex sells, but it will be his financial crimes that bring Humpty Trump down from his throne of lies.   As Alena Ledeneva, an expert on Russian business practices, explained to The New Yorker: “It is possible that there is kompromat in the hands of several different business groups in the former Soviet Union. Each would have bits and pieces of damaging information and might have found subtle (or not so subtle) ways to communicate that fact to both Trump and Putin. Putin would likely have gathered some of that material, but he would have known that he couldn’t get everything.”* But witnesses like Cohen and Weisselburg, who have no personal loyalty to Hair Further, will provide the evidence of his perfidy.

credit: Kevin Siers, Charlotte Observer

BC Idonwanna sez: Maybe so, Little Orange Man, but plenty crimes!

*If this characterization is accurate, then Putin is Trump's krysha or "roof", protecting him from unauthorized leaks of damaging information, as well as providing Putin enormous leverage. Putin has amassed an estimated $40 billion personal fortune hidden in various shell companies. The source is thought to be the sell-off of government assets to private interests after the collapse of the Soviet Union.