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onlytruthnolie · 3 years

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Trump Pardons Art Dealer Helly Nahmad, Convicted of Running a Gambling Ring Out of Trump Tower, in One of His Final Presidential Acts

Nahmad, who owns an entire floor at Trump Tower, was sentenced to prison in 2014.

In an 11th-hour act, President Donald Trump has pardoned art dealer Helly Nahmad, who was sentenced in 2014 to a year and a day in prison after pleading guilty to a single federal gambling charge.

Nahmad, a member of the Nahmad family dynasty and the son of art collector David Nahmad, was caught co-organizing an illegal gambling ring worth $100 million out of Trump Tower in New York.

He owns the entirety of the building’s 51st floor, which reportedly cost a collective $21 million.

“President Trump granted a full pardon to Hillel Nahmad,” the White House said in a statement. “This pardon is supported by members of his community. Mr. Nahmad was convicted of a sports gambling offense. Since his conviction, he has lived an exemplary life and has been dedicated to the well-being of his community.”

Authorities raided the Helly Nahmad Gallery in the Carlyle Hotel on New York’s Madison Avenue in 2013, accusing the dealer of financing a high-stakes poker game and sports-betting ring with suspected links to Russian organized-crime figures. Those ties were never proven, although several others convicted in the case were Russian. The initial charges included racketeering, money laundering, and conspiracy, but the sole conviction was for operating an illegal gambling business.

After Nahmad’s arrest, he quickly posted $10 million bail using his Trump Tower pad as collateral, and was spotted courtside at a New York Knicks game, reportedly partying harder than ever in the lead up to his time behind bars.

Despite Nahmad’s wealth and connections, the court refused a more lenient sentence of community service after Nahmad offered to give tours of his gallery to underprivileged youth. In addition to jail time, he had to pay a $30,000 fine, forfeit $6.4 million in profits, and be treated for gambling addiction.

In the end, Nahmad served five months of his sentence in a federal correctional facility in Otisville, New York, before being transferred to a halfway house in the Bronx. He was released from house arrest in May 2015, and made his return to the art scene at Art Basel in Switzerland the following month, with a judge’s permission.

“I am grateful for the pardon and I look forward to continuing to give back to the community,” said Nahmad in an email to Artnet News.

The Nahmad family is a high-profile presence in the international art industry, known for its extensive collection of blue-chip Modern and Impressionist art, rumored to be worth $3 billion.

Nahmad is among 143 late-night pardons and sentence reductions issued by Trump in his final hours in office, including former presidential advisor Steve Bannon and rapper Lil Wayne.

Also given a sentence commutation was Michael Pelletier, who was serving 30 years for a nonviolent marijuana conspiracy offense. Pelletier, who uses a wheelchair and been paralyzed from the waist down since the age of 11, has “thrived as an artist working with oil paints on canvas, and has taken several courses to perfect his skill while incarcerated,” according to the White House.

#Helly Nahmad #Art Dealer #News #United States

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onlytruthnolie · 7 years

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Azerbaijani Laundromat includes two Malta firms

Over €440,000 passed through Malta firms for UK shell company employed in Azerbaijani slush fund

Azerbaijani ruler Ilham Aliyev and his wife Merhiban: the family dynasty has held power since the fall of Communism. The Azeri slush fund uses UK shell companies to then pay off bribes to European politicians, like Italian MP Luca Volonte (left)

Malta-registered companies have been featured in the extensive global network through which money from an Azerbaijan slush fund passed.

The data features in revelations published by the OCCRP (Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project) into the so called ‘Azerbaijani Laundromat’, a complex money-laundering operation that handled €2.5 billion over a two-year period through four shell companies registered in the UK.

From 2012 to 2014, the money was used by the country’s ruling elite to pay off European politicians, buy luxury goods, launder money, and otherwise benefit themselves.

During the same time period, the Malta company Vostok Media Exchange Ltd was used to process a total of €438,000 in nine separate payments to an English company, Metastar Invest LLP; while Metastar paid another Maltese company, Wise Holding Ltd, €9,510.

Vostok Media Exchange was set up in Malta in 2009, and its ownership is vested in PGM Group SA, which is registered in the tax haven of the British Virgin Islands. Its directorship is held by the Swiss fiduciary services firm Comatrans.

On its part, Wise Holding’s ownership is vested in a Polish firm while its directorship is held by Polish residents in Malta with similar other directorships in Malta-registered firms.

There is so far no information as to what the payments were for.USDPAYER BENEFICIARY DATE 113,447VOSTOK MEDIA EXCHANGE LTDMTMETASTAR INVEST LLPGB2014-05-27105,720VOSTOK MEDIA ECHANGE LTDMTMETASTAR INVEST LLPGB2014-02-0672,848VOSTOK MEDIA EXCHANGE LTDMTMETASTAR INVEST LLPGB2013-09-1069,457VOSTOK MEDIA EXCHANGE LTDMTMETASTAR INVEST LLPGB2013-11-1457,726VOSTOK MEDIA EXCHANGE LTDMTMETASTAR INVEST LLPGB2013-07-0531,613VOSTOK MEDIA ECHANGE LTDMTMETASTAR INVEST LLPGB2013-01-2527,540VOSTOK MEDIA ECHANGE LTDMTMETASTAR INVEST LLPGB2013-01-2325,846VOSTOK MEDIA EXCHANGE LTDMTMETASTAR INVEST LLPGB2013-05-3121,233VOSTOK MEDIA ECHANGE LTDMTMETASTAR INVEST LLPGB2012-10-1511,391METASTAR INVEST LLPGBWISE HOLDING LIMITEDMT2013-08-23

MaltaToday understands that a company in Malta called Wise holding limited was incorporated with the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) in May 2014, suggesting that in 2013 no monies could have been paid to this company. After a protest by its owner Artur Lukasiewicz, this newspaper could find no indiciation that any money was received from Metastar Invest.

According to the investigation by the OCCRP and newspapers such as The Guardian, the money laundering network used four UK shell companies, one of which was Metastar Invest. Its HQ was registered at a service address in Birmingham but ultimately controlled by a company in a tax haven.

Records show that the now dissolved Metastar was run by two “members”: Advance Developments Ltd and Corporate Solutions Ltd, also dissolved and based in Belize.

In turn Metastar controlled other companies, such as Armut, which is alleged to have siphoned €192 million of funds paid by the hedge fund Hermitage Capital Management to the Russian treasury. This particular scandal involved an organised Russian criminal syndicate, the Klyuev Group, which, it is claimed, has stolen at least $800m from the Russian people with the aid of the Russian government.

Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer working for Hermitage, blew the whistle on the scandal – only to be imprisoned in Russia, and allegedly tortured in a bid to withdraw his testimony. While in prison he developed gallstones, pancreatitis and a blocked gall bladder. A human rights council set up by the Kremlin found that he was physically assaulted shortly before his death, which was the direct result of being denied urgent medical care needed to treat his conditions.

The scandal has only reinforced the perception of corruption at the heart of gas-rich Baku, where the Aliyev dynasty has held sway since the fall of communism.

In a more recent case, an Italian MP was found to have taken bribes to issue favourable reports on Azerbaijan at the Council of Europe. Italian prosecutors accused Luca Volontè, the former chair of the centre-right group in the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly, of accepting millions of euros in cash from Azerbaijan in exchange for supporting its government, which has been heavily criticised for subverting elections and jailing journalists and opponents.

Azerbaijan is often accused of “caviar diplomacy”, using cash and gifts to buy influence – charges first detailed by the European Stability Initiative think-tank in 2012. The council notably voted down a critical report on Azerbaijan’s political prisoners in 2013.

Former Labour MP Joe Debono Grech, a member of the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly who was a rapporteur on various reports on Azerbaijan, had denied ever receiving gifts from Baku.

He also had told this newspaper that a speech at a 2015 CoE assembly was misinterpreted. “I do not condone dictatorships,” Debono Grech had told MaltaToday, adding that Azerbaijan is “not a democracy”.

But he was adamant that Azerbaijan could not be turned into another Libya.

While admitting that “nobody approves of unwarranted arrests,” Debono Grech described the situation as “complex” and echoed Azerbaijan’s arguments that there is no clear definition of what constitutes a political prisoner.

Way back in 2012, a report by the South East Europe think-tank, European Stability Initiative (ESI), had already included Debono Grech among the list of Azerbaijani apologists, for failing to flag irregularities in the 2010 and 2013 elections in which Ilham Aliyev consolidated his grip on power.

Debono Grech, who served as co-rapporteur for six years, during which he visited Azerbaijan some 30 times, denied ever receiving gifts from the Caucasian dictatorship.

“I can only vouch for myself, but I never received any gifts,” Debono Grech said, who even as consultant to the Gozo minister had refused any remuneration for his role.

#news #Malta firms #UK shell companies news

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