Novaya Gazeta, a Moscow-based news organization known for its critical coverage of Russian politics, has reported a business connection between Leonid Teyf of Raleigh [North Carolina] and Yevgeny Prigozhin, one of 13 Russians indicted last February as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
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U.S. investigators say Teyf, 57, stole millions of dollars from the Russian government through a kickback scheme and tried to have his ex-wife’s alleged lover deported and killed, court records show. The FBI raided his North Raleigh mansion Dec. 5.
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Teyf and others developed a kickback scheme involving subcontractors that netted $150 million over a two-year period.
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Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper, noted that the missing $150 million drew interest from authorities in the United States, but not in Russia.
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The Teyf case “brings into focus several issues, related to corruption in Russia,” Mitin said. “First of all, abuse of office is commonplace and afflicts all levels of the government. Unapologetic pilfering of public coffers is a norm built into the institutional code of the regime. Much of the money that is plundered is siphoned out of the country.”
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U.S. intelligence reports say Prigozhin “almost certainly” controlled the Russian mercenaries who attacked U.S. troops in Syria last February, according to media outlets, including The Washington Post.
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Since December 2010, the Teyfs and others have opened dozens of accounts at U.S. banks, according to their federal indictments. Nearly 300 wires from foreign corporations and bank accounts commonly known to be used for money laundering deposited more than $39.4 million in those accounts, the indictments state.
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Four other people face federal charges in the case, including 40-year-old Alexi Polyaklov.
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Court documents show that Leonid Teyf and a business partner, John Cotter of Apex, are accused of trying to bribe a federal agent to have Tatyana Teyf’s [Teyf's wife] alleged ex-lover sent back to Russia, where he would likely be killed.
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A possible connection between Teyf and Prigozhin is “highly significant,” Max Bergmann, director of The Moscow Project, an initiative of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for American Progress Action Fund, told The News & Observer.
“(Teyf) was clearly someone of interest to the FBI and to the U.S. government,” Bergmann said. “I think in investigating him, they are going to try to pull all those threads to find out, what does he know? Who does he know? Does he have any useful information that could be relevant to other investigations, including potentially the Mueller investigation?”
Raleigh News Observer
Nice house. With a wall.
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