If the Russians wanted to launder massive amounts of cash

[Arkansas Granny]

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

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Could this somehow explain why Trump has greater support among evangelicals than with other religious groups?

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http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/03/18/evangelical-approval-of-trump-remains-high-but-other-religious-groups-are-less-supportive/

[unblock]

1. let's not forget the nra!

[Lindsay]

2. You beat me to that one!

Definitely the NRA.

[triron]

3. Deutsche Bank.

[Leghorn21]

4. And speaking of Falwell Jr! - hey, Cohen, can you shed some light on Jr and the $1.8 mill pool boy?!

....But it's also pretty darn curious that Falwell Jr. recently admitted in court that he paid $1.8 million to a pool attendant at Miami Beach's Fontainebleau resort who had befriended the Falwell family. It was part of an exceedingly odd business deal in which the group tried to buy the Miami Hostel at 810 Alton Rd. in South Beach. The building is attached to the popular Italian restaurant Macchialina and also houses the 120-bed hostel, where a bed costs just $20 per night....

Snip

...A source also told BuzzFeed that Cohen and Falwell discussed the Miami-Dade County lawsuit before Falwell endorsed Trump. But there is currently no direct evidence that the real-estate deal with Granda influenced Falwell's Trump endorsement. New Times was not able to independently corroborate BuzzFeed's reporting....

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/jerry-falwell-jr-funded-miami-pool-attendants-alton-road-real-estate-deal-10960428

[SWBTATTReg]

6. $1.8 Million for a pool boy? Some church leader, eh? Wonder what's going on w/ this? NT

[bobbieinok]

5. Many Evangelical churches refuse to let their members know how the $$$ is spent

There is NO oversight on income or spending.

IIRC it was Mark Driskoll's church in Seattle that finally folded when members learned the massive amounts of $$$ they'd donated for one specific purpose was being spent for many other things. Little or no $$$ was going where they thought.

[smirkymonkey]

7. Interesting how low he polls with the religiously unaffiliated.

Just saying.

[DFW]

8. They could employ the two favorite methods of drug gangs here in Europe, too

1. Taxi companies. Have a taxi company in an area that doesn't do a lot of business. Take your cash, bring it to the bank regularly and declare it as taxi fares. The more, the merrier. The cash is from a believable, unverifiable source (just manipulate the meters to reflect the cash reported). Pay the taxes, and poof, your cash is clean.

2. Video game arcades. There are some video game arcades that are so desolate, you practically have to part the cobwebs to get in the entrance. But they do a huge booming business, reporting hundreds of thousands a week (if not a day), which is duly brought to the bank, reported, tax paid, and again *poof* the cash is clean.

[rufus dog]

9. Have stated this many times

I always wondered where the money comes from. In SoCal there is a church in Newport Beach that grew into a large campus, a lot of Real Estate Developer money. And the donors were out in the open, that is the large donations were brought up, Joe Blow donated millions to assist in the campus build. Other mega churches are much less open about who are the big donors. Large campus multiple buildings, etc. So spending a five million for flood control on the upper parking lot,... ok that may be reasonable.

The Ozarks (TV show) actually touched on using church building as a money laundering tool, and I would be shocked if some actual mega churches are in reality just fronts.