"Suspicious" Transactions At Russian Embassy Sparked Deeper Bank Probe Than Previously Known
"Suspicious" Transactions At Russian Embassy Sparked Deeper Bank Probe Than Previously Known
The former Russian ambassador received a salary payment twice as large as past years, and bankers blocked a $150,000 withdrawal.
Source: BuzzFeed News
When BuzzFeed News reported earlier this year on dozens of suspicious financial transactions by Russian diplomats living in Washington, Kremlin officials objected with ferocity. A Russian foreign ministry spokesperson denounced the news organization as a “tool of the American intelligence services” and insisted the transactions were purely run of the mill.
But new documents show that American bank examiners delved deeper into the embassy's financial activity than was previously known — and reveal why they flagged two of the transactions as suspicious.
The first, made just 10 days after the US presidential election in 2016, was a $120,000 lump-sum check to then-ambassador Sergey Kislyak that was twice as large as any payment he’d received in the previous two years.
The second, just five days after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, was a blocked attempt to withdraw $150,000 in cash that a bank official feared was meant for Russians the US had just expelled from the country.
Read more: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/suspicious-payments-kislyak-russia-embassy-mueller
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