Friday, February 02, 2018

Dutch Intelligence, Prevezon, Veselnitskaya, Trump Tower

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-02/russian-firm-tied-to-trump-tower-chat-told-to-pay-5-9-million

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-02/russian-firm-tied-to-trump-tower-chat-told-to-pay-5-9-million

A Russian-backed company involved in a decade-long drama that touched the highest levels of the U.S. and Russian governments must hand over $5.9 million that it had agreed to pay to avoid a trial in New York.

A U.S. judge, who said events of the case "read like a John Le Carre novel,” ordered Prevezon Holdings Ltd. on Friday to pay the settlement, rejecting the company’s claim that it didn’t have to pay the entire amount until assets seized in the Netherlands were released.

Prevezon had struck a deal with U.S. prosecutors to resolve the case in May on the eve of a trial that threatened to shed light on a $230 million Russian tax fraud and an associated money-laundering scheme.

The Cyprus-based investment company was represented in part by Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer who sat down with President Donald Trump’s son during the 2016 election campaign, in a meeting that was sold as an opportunity for them to get dirt on Hillary Clinton.

The meeting came on the same day a New York court was hearing arguments in the Prevezon case and about a year before the lawsuit was settled.

 Veselnitskaya represents Russian businessman Denis Katsyv, the owner of Prevezon.

Prevezon had argued that it didn’t have to pay the entire amount of the settlement because about $3 million euros ($3.7 million) of debt was seized by Dutch authorities as part of a separate investigation

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/01/26/dutch-media-reveal-country-to-be-secret-u-s-ally-in-war-against-russian-hackers/?utm_term=.a9eeaab01e65

"BERLIN — The Dutch domestic intelligence service AIVD had access to the infamous Russian hacking group Cozy Bear for at least a year starting in mid-2014, local media outlets reported Thursday. 

According to the reports, the Dutch government alerted the United States to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election after Netherlands-based officials watched the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and other operations by the Russians, including a 2014 State Department hack."

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