A Little Reported Donation of Kodak Shares, Congregation Chemdas Yisroel, Insider Trading and President Trump

As if the Outrageous Kodak Pivot to Pharma Wasn’t Absurd Enough… We Could Jokingly Commented: “All We Need is a Tax Deductible Donation to a Synagogue”

Kodak came up in an article we wrote in 2018 which is, we believe, relevant to the utter insanity of the recent Kodak transaction. Whomever concocted this folly deserves a prize for one of most creative ways to manipulate the financial markets amidst a pandemic. The greatest victims are Kodak shareholders and those unsavy investors who thought buying Kodak was a good idea. It wasn’t, unless you caught it JUST IN TIME. To do that, you had to be an Insider (with few exceptions).

Yesterday (7/28/20), President Trump surprised a LOT of people announcing that via the Defense Production Act (DPA) the US government is going to give Kodak (NYSE:KODK) $765 million to make pharmaceuticals. The tie to current COVID-19 pandemic issues, for which the Act was invoked, is at best tenuous. Somehow the announcement seems to be more about moving pharma production back to the USA. Which is why it left me, and a lot of others, asking, “why would you pick Kodak?” Seeking Alpha

Will Kodak Successfully Pivot Into Pharmaceuticals? I Doubt It

Trump’s ties to the Orthodox Jewish community is no surprise to those of us researching these topics. He did, after all, commute the sentence of Shalom Rubashkin, heavily tied to both the Chabad and the Satmar communities. This was undoubtedly a favor returned for the bloc vote, and likely other personal and professional benefits for friends and family.

Trump’s daughter and son-in-law have deep, heavily leveraged and big money ties to the Jewish community, most particularly as it connects to Chabad. Ivanka’s former business partner has millions in taxes forgiven by the Internal Revenue Service with many of us left to shake our heads. He was then accused of duping diamond dealers. It should be noted that Ivanka’s former partner denied he owed taxes. But then there’s the odd arson claim involving the same partner.

Jared Kushner’s ties to the power brokers within the religious real-estate mogulcommunity is heavily documented in numerous (questionable) transactions. He has lobbied for his personal success and his wishes have indeed been granted.

So, the only thing missing from the absurdity of the Kodak transaction was the

Ukranian Oligarchs, Money Laundering, Impeachment Hearings, Real Estate Moguls and US President Trump?

The Ukranian Oligarchs, the Ties to the US Government, Power and Money 

Dear Reader, 

LM began investigating the story of the Ukranian Oligarchs deeply embedded in US political affairs in 2019 as part of the investigation into the arrest of other Ukranian nationals tied to the government.  Actually, the investigation started earlier when LM began looking into the Dan Gertler stories in 2016.

More recently, our inquiries have  included Rudolph Giuliani’s pursuit of business in the Ukraine. The Magnitsky Act sanctions against Gertler which were toppled by executive order (more on that in a later story) and now a recent investigation into Ukranian oligarchs heavily leveraged in a number of US states who allegedly laundered and stole billions of dollars.

The story about these men and their somewhat intricate ties to high level US Government officials included a number of significant news articles about Arsen Avakov, Ukraine’s Interior Minister and Marie Yovanovitch (who, if you will recall was ousted from her position as the US ambassador to the Ukraine). We posit that Yovanovitch knew what was going on, wanted to put an end to the wholesale purchase of parts of the US to powers that be in the Ukraine and got tossed aside for that reason. Her testimony during the impeachment hearings likely missed far too much about what she knew than it brought to light. 

The information we uncovered along the way, we believe, should have been part of the US impeachment inquiry, which itself was unsuccessful; but only because of the political climate. The mistakes of that inquiry were far more about what was ignored during hearings than anything else, namely that likely all the President’s men were playing both sides of the Ukranian double-edged sword to establish relationships and with Ukranian power-brokers thereby yielding themselves significant political power and financial benefits. No politician worth his weight in corrupt political salt would have been immune to the money and power these connections could help wield.

Ukranian Oligarchs, The Congressional Record, Optima, Privatbank, Purchase of Vast Swaths of Real Estate and PPP Loans

FBI Raids U.S. Company With Ties to Ukrainian Oligarch

A U.S. company affiliated with the Ukrainian billionaire Igor Kolomoisky that has been accused of participating in an international fraud scheme was raided by the FBI in two locations on Tuesday.

Agents conducted “law enforcement activity” in Cleveland and Miami at addresses that correspond with the offices of Optima Management Group, according to FBI Special Agent Vicki Anderson.

No arrests were made, she said. Photographs published by the Cleveland Plain Dealer show agents taking boxes from the Cleveland location.

Optima was part of an international scheme in which billions of dollars were siphoned from a Ukrainian bank by Kolomoisky to buy U.S. real estate, according to a civil lawsuit filed last year in Delaware. A grand jury in Cleveland is investigating Kolomoisky’s suspected role in the scheme, BuzzFeed News reported.

Optima is controlled by three Floridians accused in the suit of serving as Kolomoisky’s business representatives in the U.S., acquiring assets in their own name with money allegedly diverted from Privatbank, which Kolomoisky co-founded.

 

No Challah Today, a Poway Chabad Rabbi, Millions in Tax Evasion and Fraud, Since the 1980’s, and Chabad did not Know?

Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney’s Office

Southern District of California

---

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Former Director of Chabad of Poway and Several Co Defendants Plead Guilty to Multi Million-Dollar Tax Evasion and Fraud

For Further Information, Contact:

Assistant U. S. Attorneys Emily W. Allen (619) 546-9738,
Andrew Young (619) 546-7981, and Oleksandra Johnson (619) 546-9769

 

SAN DIEGO – Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, former director at Chabad of Poway, and five of his associates pleaded guilty in federal court today and Monday to fraud charges, admitting that they participated in a complex, years-long, multi-million dollar tax-evasion scheme and other financial deceptions involving theft of public money.

According to his plea agreement, while Rabbi Goldstein was director of the Poway synagogue, he received at least $6.2 million in phony contributions to the Chabad and affiliated charities and secretly refunded up to 90 percent of the donations to the “donors.” After Rabbi Goldstein provided these donors with fake receipts, they illegally claimed huge tax deductions for these nonexistent donations, and the rabbi kept about 10 percent – more than half a million dollars over the course of the fraud – for himself. Tax losses to the IRS were more than $1.5 million. At least 20 taxpayers were involved in this and related tax-evasion schemes.

This case was under investigation for more than two years before Rabbi Goldstein was shot and wounded during the April 27, 2019 attack on worshippers at the Chabad. In that case, federal civil rights and hate crimes charges are pending against John T. Earnest of Rancho Peñasquitos.

The rabbi was aware of the investigation at the time of the shooting. FBI and IRS agents had searched his home in October of 2018, and he began cooperating with the investigation shortly after that time.

According to his plea agreement, Rabbi Goldstein has agreed to cooperate with ongoing investigations of uncharged co-conspirators and to forfeit $1 million in proceeds and pay restitution of $2.5 million.

“This case has brought us all a great deal of anguish because of the attack on Chabad of Poway,” said U.S. Attorney Robert Brewer. “But whatever a defendant’s dire personal circumstances, or stature in the community, we will always seek justice, first and foremost. We cannot, and will not, sweep serious criminal conduct under the rug. We cannot look the other way because a perpetrator of crime has suddenly become a victim of crime.”

“This case shows the FBI’s dedication to untangling the web of fraud in a complex, multi-million dollar charitable donation scheme that violated the trust of the Chabad of Poway and defrauded the United States government,” said FBI San Diego Acting Special Agent-in-Charge Omer Meisel. “The FBI is committed to holding those accountable who use their position and stature in the community as a disguise to commit fraud.  All the defendants in this case, including Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, have admitted their guilt in these fraudulent schemes and will no longer be able to use deceit and lies to cheat those who were intended to receive charitable funds and taxpayer dollars.”

 

Merlin the Magician and Diamond Joe Gutnick – Magically Insolvent

‘Diamond’ Joe Gutnick’s company insolvent after ‘dishonest’ transactions

The Federal Court has ordered that a company associated with Melbourne business figure “Diamond” Joe Gutnick be wound up and declared insolvent amid allegations of millions of dollars of dishonest related party transactions.

The Federal Court on Wednesday appointed liquidators to the publicly traded mining company Merlin Diamonds Limited after a provisional liquidators’ report showed it had just $1331 in the bank and liabilities of $13 million.

Judge Michael O’Bryan said a liquidator would allow for investigations into a number of inter-company loans, related party transactions and “round robin” payments that “have the appearance of uncommercial and dishonest transactions”.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s had requested a liquidator to be appointed after an investigation into Mr Gutnick, one of Australia’s best-known business figures. The ordained Rabbi was once a regular on the BRW Rich 200 list and a benefactor to many Jewish charities. As president of a stricken Melbourne Football Club during the 1990s, his financial support kept the club alive.

However, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald revealed in a series of stories in 2019 that ASIC was investigating what happened to $18 million in loans that allegedly saw money flow from publicly listed companies controlled by Mr Gutnick to a private company that he was also closely involved with.

In a scathing judgment on Wednesday, Justice O’Bryan said Merlin “does not appear to take its legal obligations seriously,” had expressed “no contrition” for various corporate transgressions and faced a “strong prima facie case” that it had contravened the Corporations Act, particularly when it came to two related companies called Chabad and Axis.

 

To continue reading click here.

 

UK Gov. Press Release – Chabad UK and 7 Charities Laundering Money with Fake Meds.- DO NOT DONATE!

Press release

“Unscrupulous pattern of dishonesty” at 8 charities used to launder proceeds of crime from the sale of counterfeit medication

Individuals disqualified following regulator’s inquiry into Chabad UK and 7 linked charities

Published 16 March 2020

From:

The Charity Commission

Chabad UK is a separate charity to Chabad Lubavitch UK (registered charity 227638); the class inquiry is not connected to it or any other Chabad organisations.

The Charity Commission is considering its options around the recovery of charity funds as it reports on its inquiry into Chabad UK and 7 linked charities. Two trustees have been removed and disqualified from their positions, and the manager of the charities automatically disqualified, after he was convicted of laundering money through the charities from the sale of counterfeit medication, and supplying false information to the Commission.

The regulator worked closely with the Metropolitan Police throughout its investigation into the charities that were registered to advance the Orthodox Jewish faith and relieve poverty. Information supplied by the inquiry allowed the manager to be convicted of an offence under section 60 of the Charities Act for providing false or misleading information to the Commission.

The inquiry found that:

• Over £9 million passed through the charities’ bank accounts between January 2012 and May 2014, however most of the charities’ annual returns to the Commission declared nil income or expenditure.
• Over £60,000 was paid out of the charities’ bank accounts to a trustee between 2007 and 2015.
• The trustees failed to meet their statutory reporting requirements.

These failings were a clear breach of the trustees’ duties and amounted to serious mismanagement and/or misconduct in the administration of the charities.

A number of the charities’ bank accounts are currently restrained by a court order under the Proceeds of Crime Act. The Commission is considering its options in relation to the recovery of funds and will ensure that, where possible, any charitable donations recovered are applied in accordance with the charitable objects to which they were initially given.

Amy Spiller, Head of Investigations Team at the Charity Commission, said:

This case involved an unscrupulous pattern of dishonesty that has no place in charity. Charity represents the best of human characteristics – that’s why the behaviour of those involved in charities matter.

These charities were clearly misused for personal gain, and I am pleased that we have been able to work closely with the police to ensure that those responsible have been brought to justice.

The report of the inquiry is available on GOV.UK.

Ends.

Notes to editors:

1. The charities involved in the inquiry were: Chabad UK (registered charity 1118547), Havenpoint Limited (291213), Pikuach Nefesh Limited (1115619), Worldwide Hatzala Ltd (1115623), Ozer Dalim Limited (1118537), Mamosh Worldwide Limited (1118730), Or Simcha (1119522) and Havenpoint Worldwide (1122120).
2. The charities remain registered as the Commission is still considering its options in relation to the recovery of funds; the Commission will consider their removal once this process has concluded.
3. Chabad UK is a separate charity to Chabad Lubavitch UK (registered charity 227638); the class inquiry is not connected to it or any other Chabad organisations.
4. The Commission is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales. To find out more about our work read the about us page on GOV.UK.

Press office

Emailpressenquiries@charitycommission.gov.uk

Press enquiries – office hours0300 065 2123

Press enquiries – out of hours07785 748787

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Published 16 March 2020

The Allegedly Problematic Benefactors and Lubavitch Educational Center, Florida, Kiev, Crown Heights, Russia…

Chabad’s Strange Bedfellows and the Web of Interrelated Connections and People – A Gem of a Way to Coin Money…

The following are two interrelated and interconnected articles; and a link to a 2007 Wall Street Journal article which planted the seeds for the latest news. Suffice it to say, Chabad’s ties to money, power and a litany of high-powered donors is frightening in its scope. It shows the broadness of their reach.

The dots are easy to connect and are inextricably linked to the news earlier this year of ties to Chabad, the Ukraine, Guiliani and his associates. This is not to say that Guiliani has done anything wrong. That is not a statement which is being made or implied. We leave any assessments of that to far higher powers than the fingers behind this keyboard.

There are a few notable points, however, that we bring to your attention and that The Forward missed. They are important as follows:

1. Rabbi Berel Lazar (of Putin’s Soviet Chabad “mishpacha” [family]) is the brother of Mindy Zalmanov – mentioned in The Forward article below. Mindy is said to be Lazar’s liaison in the United States. 
2. The Link to Kiev and the Ukraine and Chabad came out months ago on numerous media sources; but the inextricable connections were published as early as 2007 by The Wall Street Journal in an article entitled: In Russia, a Top Rabbi Uses Kremlin Ties to Gain Power [https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB117858672536595256]:

MOSCOW — Of all the strange relationships that define today’s Russia, few are stranger than the alliance between President Vladimir Putin and an ultra-Orthodox rabbi named Berel Lazar.

Rabbi Lazar is a follower of Chabad-Lubavitch, a Hasidic sect based in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, that is on the fringes of mainstream Judaism. Its devotees are known for their love of the Rebbe, their late spiritual leader. Some even think he’s the Messiah.

3. Rabbi Lezar is industrious, not thing else, and he has strong ties to other notable figures including, but not limited to Diamond Magnate Lev Leviev, who also has ties to the US government through a variety  of diamond business. His alleged arch enemy, Dan Gertler seems to have ties to Guiliani who has registered to lobby on his behalf to have the Magnitsky Sanctions lifted. It is conceivable, albeit unusual, that Leviev and Gertler might have ties cloaked in long-standing business animosity.  

4. Don’t overlook the importance of Cleveland, the prominent families there, the Chabad connections or the efforts and crusade of one man to uncover financial improprieties in Cleveland. He has been largely bullied and harrassed for his scrutiny of financial records of major Jewish organizations in Cleveland, Ohio. But, his claims should not be understated. They are not being mentioned specifically here, but can be made available for law enforcement, that so far will not touch the Cleveland story.

4. There are no coincidences. 

Law enforcement really should be taking a look…

The Not-Uncommon Tale of a Benefactor Becoming a Problem

February 21, 2020; Forward

When a nonprofit’s financial status turns a glowing red, its board is faced with an existential moment. Should the nonprofit cut its losses, wind down operations, and go out of business as gracefully as possible? Or should it continue to search for sources of funding large enough to wipe out the debts and find a way to sustainability? Turns out that even if supporters do step forward, the worries may not be over. That’s the story of the Lubavitch Educational Center (LEC) in Florida.

Forward’s Molly Boigon writes that in 2013 the LEC was seriously past due on an $8 million loan and facing multiple foreclosures. The organization’s leadership, not ready to give up on its commitment to its students and close its schools, successfully found new philanthropic support to cover its operating losses. A generous group of benefactors banded together and purchased the LEC’s property at a foreclosure sale. They then provided the organization with an affordable long-term lease and sufficient funds to satisfy other debts so the LEC could continue serving its students.

Seven years later, that generosity seems ready to bite them. The Center is facing a problem that plagues nonprofit organizations of all sizes: what to do when a source of critical funding turns out to be tainted.

Two of the donors who saved the LEC, Mordechai Korf and Uriel Tzvi Laber, have been implicated as participants in a major international money-laundering scandal. The current owners of the Ukraine-based PrivatBank are suing the bank’s former owners, alleging they absconded with $470 billion—yes, with a “b”—through a complex set of fraudulent transactions. Korf and Laber, who were part of that ownership group, have been accused of illegally profiting from those financial manipulations. According to Forward