Jesus, he couldn't even set up separate accounts? Sounds an awful lot like a slush fund for pretty much everything they didn't want public.The Times’s review of financial records confirmed much of what was in Mr. Avenatti’s report.
[...]
A shell company that Michael D. Cohen used to pay hush money to a pornographic film actress received payments totaling more than $1 million from an American company linked to a Russian oligarch and several corporations with business before the Trump administration, according to documents and interviews.
[...]
Transactions adding up to at least $4.4 million flowed through Essential Consultants starting shortly before Mr. Trump was elected president and continuing to this January, the records show.
Among the previously unreported transactions were payments last year of about $500,000 from Columbus Nova, an investment firm in New York whose biggest client is a company controlled by Viktor Vekselberg, the Russian oligarch.
[...]
The payments by Columbus Nova occurred between January and August of last year. Andrew Intrater, the company’s American chief executive and Mr. Vekselberg’s cousin, donated $250,000 to Mr. Trump’s inaugruation, campaign finance records show. He and Mr. Vekselberg attended the event together and met with Mr. Cohen there, according to a person briefed on the matter. Columbus Nova retained him as a consultant soon afterward.
[...]
A lawyer for Columbus Nova, in a statement on Tuesday, described the money as a consulting fee that had nothing to do with Mr. Vekselberg.
Other transactions described in the financial records include hundreds of thousands of dollars he received from Fortune 500 firms with business before the Trump administration, as well as smaller amounts he paid for luxury expenses like a Mercedes-Benz and private club dues.
NYT
P.S. The Daily Beast also confirmed.The financial records indicate that at least some of the money that passed through the company was from sources and in amounts that were inconsistent with its stated purpose.
[...]
Most of the transactions involved two banks: First Republic Bank and City National Bank.
[...]
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating Mr. Cohen for possible bank fraud and election-law violations, among other matters, according to people briefed on the investigation.
UPDATE 5/11:
Doesn't change the fact that Cohen was taking money from AT&T on the expectation that it would make its way to a favorable deal.
He's new. He'll get his facts straight.
UPDATE:
UPDATE 5/12:
Ford Motor Co. was smart enough to turn down Cohen's "offer" of "consulting work".
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