How Trumps Business Venture in the Caribbean involved Russian dirty money..
If only we could get someone in the media to look into this story, inside of following shiny objects like his tweets..
The US president’s business partners in the Caribbean nation are linked to a Venezuelan tycoon who is allegedly the target of a major US investigation
President Donald Trump is involved in a major real estate project in the Dominican Republic that also has drawn in a billionaire Venezuelan banker whose business dealings are allegedly the target of a Department of Justice investigation. The banker, Victor Vargas, controls one of the largest banks in Venezuela and played a key role in the development of an expansive polo club complex that came online in late 2015 in the same real estate project — a mega-tourism development called Cap Cana — where Trump now owns investment property and is exploring further business opportunities, according to public records and Narco News sources.
Vargas’ fortunes were enhanced by alleged kickbacks from financing deals he orchestrated over the years for the Venezuelan government, which has close ties to the Kremlin and whose top officials have been linked to narco-trafficking activity. Vargas has built a financial empire that extends from Venezuela into the Dominican Republic (D.R.) as well as Panama and Antigua and Barbuda — nations known as money-laundering centers.Trump still owns investment property in or near Cap Cana worth up to $5 million. That’s after selling some $2 million worth of his land holdings to an unknown buyer or buyers sometime between mid-2015 and mid-2016, according to public records. The lead developers in the Cap Cana project are the D.R.-based Hazoury brothers, whom Trump initially inked a development deal with some 10 years ago. In addition, according to news reports, Trump has actively marketed his holdings in the Cap Cana project to Russian buyers.
Regardless of the extent of Trump’s knowledge of or participation in the Hasoury brothers’ broader business activities in the D.R., including their business relationship with the Venezuelan banker Vargas, Trump could be at risk of extortion, blackmail or other illicit pressures — should Trump’s land sales or other investment activities in the D.R. be linked to criminal actors or activity, such as money laundering.In addition, the fact that a Department of Justice investigation is allegedly underway targeting Vargas also creates a conflict of interest for Trump, since that investigation could arguably threaten the value of his business interests in Cap Cana.
The Venture
Trump’s business dealings in the D.R. date back to 2007 when his company inked a branding deal with the developers of Cap Cana, a master-planned, $2 billion luxury resort and high-end residential development located on the eastern seaboard of the D.R.
Trump and the Hazoury brothers ended up in US federal court in 2012, when Trump accused the brothers of fraud because they had allegedly failed to pay some $6 million in licensing fees to Trump’s branding affiliate, Trump Marks Real Estate. Trump and the Hazoury brothers have since patched things up and are looking to rekindle their business partnership in Cap Cana, according to recent news reports.Trump’s operating company for the Cap Cana venture with the Hazoury brothers settled the lawsuit out of court in 2013 for undisclosed terms. The settlement, according to Narco News sources in Latin America familiar with the Cap Cana project, allegedly involved the Hazoury brothers granting land rights to Trump in the Cap Cana development project.
Trump, in his financial disclosure forms filed with the US Office of Government Ethics, indicate that as of July 2015 his investment in the D.R., through various shell companies, was worth between $5 million and $25 million. A year later, in his May 2016 financial disclosure, the value of the investment was listed as being worth between $1 million to $5 million. The disclosure also noted that Trump had $2 million in income from land sales in the D.R. since his July 2015 filing. In fact, Cap Cana’s relationship with Venezuelan players dates to the early 2000s, when, according to longtime CIA, FBI and DEA asset Baruch Vega, the Hazoury brothers approached legal advisors for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez seeking capital for the resort-development project.Vega was involved with a series of U.S. law enforcement operations carried out by the DEA and FBI in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Those operations, Vega claims, involved serving as an intermediary in brokering deals with narco-traffickers by offering them U.S.-government sanctioned sweetheart plea deals in return for their surrender or cooperation. Vega is identified as a foreign intelligence source for the CIA in court records.
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Vega says Chavez’s legal advisors ultimately declined the business offer from the Hazoury brothers, deeming the project too risky. Several years later, in 2007, the Hazoury brothers convinced Trump to partner with them on the estimated $2 billion development project.The website for the 2016 Polo Challenge Dominican Republic, a major polo tournament held jointly at Cap Cana and the nearby resort Casa de Campo, where banker Vargas has played in and sponsored polo events for years, indicates that “renowned polo patron Victor Vargas” played a key role in creating the Polo Challenge tournament.
The Kremlin Touch
The Dominican Republic is a major magnet for Russian tourists and the Russian mob, according to public reports and records. And it also appears Trump in the past has actively marketed his property holdings in the D.R. to Russian investors.The D.R. is the one of the top three destinations worldwide for Russian tourists, with more than 136,000 Russian tourists visiting the country last year alone, according to media reports, and Dominican authorities have issued public warnings about the rise and strength of the Russian mafia on the island.
https://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2017/06/trump-s-business-venture-dominican-republic-could-become-strangling-all
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