Blog/ Moscow on Fifth Avenue: Stripping the Teflon off the Don

Remember the Teflon Don, John Gotti?

Moscow on the Hudson was fiction and today Moscow on Fifth Avenue (Trump Tower) is ”fake news.”

Selling to Russians or worse -selling out to Russia?

Moscow on the Hudson is about a Russian who defects by taking refuge in Bloomingdales. He was able to defect when the police and the F.B.I. arrived on the scene.

Donald Trump created his Moscow on Fifth Avenue by purchasing the Bonwit Teller building (another iconic department store) and instead of defecting he turned his building into the home of Russians that the F.B.I. has been investigating for years (with the help of international intelligence agencies). I will not share some details about what was going on at the time of the construction, but John Baron A.K.A. Donald Trump was making phone calls and promises were not kept.

I wish that Robin Williams could be here to tell you how much poo-ski and pee-ski the F.B.I. must clean up to get to the bottom of the Trump made swamp. But it looks like Robert Mueller is getting there and it takes time. Trump Tower and Brighton Beach were very connected and had an impact on other places as well.

Before we go further it is important to note that the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City had a poor record in keeping out money that was laundered. The laundering went on and on and on.

We should consider the Trump marketing plan for his Florida property as detailed by Seth Hettena in his book TRUMP/RUSSIA: A Definitive History. Donald Trump’s son said that Russian money was pouring in and the Trump retail campaign sounded like the old Come on Down commercials for Florida with one exception. People who brought vast sums of money to Trump would not be asked any questions. Trump’s because of the failure of the Taj Majal and the bankruptcy was pretty much broke, his experience with Russians in the Atlantic City Casino led to new relationships that you should read about.

And Trump was bragging about the expensive apartments that were being bought and we had no idea who was buying. Trump’s children would later have some legal trouble for telling prospective buyers of a New York property that sales were twice as much as they really were.

Now we can travel back in time to Pennsylvania where there was a bicycle business in Newtown, PA. Do not get confused with IBM as I reveal to you that a Russian Company called YBM Magnex set up the business. Thanks to British detectives, information came in about a company that boasted spacious office and warehouse space with amazing sales and net income all of which was fake. The F.B.I. got involved and there were indictments.

YBM Magnex was owned by a Russian with a criminal history (known as the “Brainy Don” by the F.B.I.) that included prostitution, drugs, weapons trafficking (including possible smuggling of arms to Al Qaeda), smuggling of nuclear materials, and money laundering. There was one thing that was not fake and it was the spacious storage space, but there were neither magnets nor bicycles. A Russian in England was granted asylum there after providing information about the owner of YBM Magnex and his ties to Putin.

The Russian who arranged the money to start that business gave it to the brother of the first of a long line of Russian gangsters who bought a condo in Trump Tower and who happened to be serving time in Attica at the time of the money transfer of over 2 million dollars. The Trump Tower residence of the Trump Corporation had been discovered in Brighton Beach as early as 1995. How? In a raid by the F.B.I. Among the other things found was a passport making kit that the KGB issued to its spies.

It wasn’t long before that informant had radioactive polonium dumped in his tea by Russians and the informant died after drinking the tea at a “business meeting” at a London bar.

Then we get to Michael Cohen, who was nicknamed “Tom” referring to the consigliere in the Godfather. And Felix Sater who was able to arrange Ivanka Trump sitting in Putin’s chair in the Kremlin. Sater and “Tom” were setting up a plan with Michael Flynn that called for the lifting of sanctions against Russia. Sater also wrote to Trump’s attorney that he could get Putin to buy in on bringing the presidency of the United States to Trump.
Former Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, says that more of the Steele Dossier has been confirmed by intelligence sources. Donald Trump says that the Russian thing is a “witch hunt” that is destroying lives. Donald Trump has been famous and infamous at the same time in his history in New York and around the world. He appears to be more “infamous” now than ever. So much that we have seen in the Godfather has given the United States a bigger scandal than Watergate and the scope of the work of many of those Russians who helped Trump get to where he is now and the laundering of money into Trump properties is the real scandal not being told enough. Trump Tower really could have been called Moscow Tower due to the large group of Russian gangsters that had bought there. It was huge, to say the least.

“Sonny” Trump may not be taken out at a toll booth, but he seems headed “upstate” to cool off. There is no Michael Corleone in this story, but “Michelle” Trump would have been much better off in business than tagging along with her father. Trump fed those Mafiya from various regions of the former Soviet Union and they fed him. Seth Hettena calls him the “Comeback Kid” and adds chapters about Building Trump Towers, Blood Money, the Dossier, and more in his book.

Then there is Trump and Manafort. This is an example of Trump turning the other cheek. Oh, there is a lot about Manafort in the book. At the time of the Trump-Manafort meeting, Manafort owed millions to Russians, was caught having an affair with a mistress, and had entered a clinic in Arizona. Trump was very forgiving as you can see. He was talking to a man who must have had bad credit, family problems, and perhaps some kind of addiction. I had the wrong impression of Trump. Wait a minute. My thought process just cleared up and I now see that Trump was turning the other cheek for Putin, not for Jesus.

This quote is in the book, but the source is from Let Trump Be Trump. Corey R. Lewandowski’s book tells us that Trump said, “I’ve got a crook running my campaign.” The New York Times story showed evidence in a secret cash ledger of the party headquarters of President Yanukovych of $12.7 million in cash payments for Manafort. An amazing fireside dinner with Manafort resulted in his selection and promotion of Paul Manafort who had worked with Russians to cause Ukraine to side with the Russians instead of the West. That amazing relationship continued through Trump’s administration. There were Russians who would be assured access to Trump. An integral part of Manafort’s work over the years was to change the image of hoodlums or gangsters to respected politicians. Based on all these details we can assess more accurately what is called Make America Great Again?

I say to “Don” Corleone, arrivederci. And arrivederci to the voters or Russian dons. The story isn’t over because we do not know what crimes, if any, have been committed by Donald Trump and it certainly is premature for Hettena, in his book, to write about that. Nor have I done that here, but things do not look good for the dons at all.