Buyers tied to Russia, Soviet republics made 86 all cash sales

Was it for favors or things beyond the condos, or were they just laundering money?

Was it for favors or things beyond the condos, or were they just laundering money?

— BY ANITA KUMAR

Aleksandr Burman, a Ukrainian who engaged in a health care scheme that cost the federal government $26 million and was sentenced to a decade in prison, paid $725,000 cash for a condo at a Trump Tower I in Sunny Isles Beach, Fla. in 2009.

Leonid Zeldovich, who has reportedly done extensive business in the Russian-annexed area of Crimea, bought four Trump units outright at a cost of more than $4.35 million, three of them in New York City between 2007 and 2010.

And Igor Romashov, who served as chairman of the board of Transoil, a Russian oil transport company subject to U.S. sanctions, paid $620,000 upfront for a unit at a building adorned with the future U.S. president’s name in Sunny Isles Beach in 2010.

Buyers connected to Russia or former Soviet republics made 86 all-cash sales — totaling nearly $109 million — at 10 Trump-branded properties in south Florida and New York City, according to a new analysis shared with McClatchy. Many of them made purchases using shell companies designed to obscure their identities.

| McClatchy Washington Bureau
via Buyers tied to Russia, Soviet republics made 86 all cash sales | McClatchy Washington Bureau

 

Pork Bubbles: Graphic Representation of the Stimulus Bill

Pork Bubbles

Now that the porkathon in Congress is over and the Stimulus bill certain to pass, it’s time to look at what your congresscritters hath wrought. There’s a great graphic representation of it over at the Washington post that breaks it down into proportionally representative bubbles. A quick glance will show you that Health and Human Services gets a lion’s share, while military spending is a small bubble, and from the labeling it looks like “lights on” maintenance, and nothing new for the military. Please stop by to take a look.

Meanwhile, Washington Times points out how recipients of previous bailout dollars keep donating to politicians with your tax dollars. Isn’t there something morally wrong with that, if not legally?

A Washington Times analysis found that executives and employee-funded political action committees of banking companies that received bailout money have donated more than $2 million to members of Congress and other politicians since lawmakers approved the federal rescue of America’s financial system in October.

Over the next few years most conservative bloggers are going to be obsessed with Obama – you aren’t going to see me focuing there too much. Instead I think it better to keep the heat and light on Congress, because that’s where the next generation’s problems will arise from.