Free Republic

The fact that George Soros can live freely in any democratic society including in the United States after purposefully working to undermine and destroy those democracies should tell you how much wealth and influence he really has. With that said, it should also come as no surprise that among his many ‘accomplishments’ was playing a major role in financing the overthrow of Ukraine’s government in 2014 and the installment of its current leader, a former comedic actor named Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is now trying to lead his country through a Russian invasion. As noted by Bill Kloss’ law blog: George...

MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) -- It is almost forty years since those fine falsettos, the Bee Gees, put their pop classic, “Massachusetts”, on the top of the charts. They had no idea that their lyrics might become the alleged plot of a scheme by a trio of Ukrainian metal men to steal hundreds of millions of dollars in proceeds from the processing of manganese ore, and the sale of ferromanganese, ferrosilicon, and silicomanganese to steelmakers around the world. “And the lights all went out in Massachusetts,” sang Robin and Barry Gibb. “They brought me back to see my way with you.” On...

On January 2, Biden called Zelensky at 16:00 Washington time (23:00 Kyiv time). Biden called Zelensky two days after talks with Putin, where Ukraine was the main topic. A symbolic element of the American president's genuine attitude to Zelensky. If such a call had taken place before the conversation with the Russian leader, then one would think that the Americans adhere to the principle "nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine." And so these are empty words. Unfortunately, Ukraine remains an instrument in the confrontation between the great powers. Judging by the statements of Washington and Kyiv, the two presidents approve of...

The U.S. Justice Department has filed a civil forfeiture complaint claiming that a piece of commercial property in Ohio was obtained with funding misappropriated from PrivatBank. Two civil forfeiture complaints were lodged earlier this year regarding properties located in Texas and Kentucky which are also alleged to have been secured with funds misappropriated from the bank in Ukraine, according to a DOJ press release. "The three complaints allege that Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Boholiubov, who owned PrivatBank, one of the largest banks in Ukraine, embezzled and defrauded the bank of billions of dollars," according to the DOJ. "The two obtained...

FBI and IRS agents Tuesday seized boxloads of evidence that could determine whether the Ukrainian oligarch, Igor Kolomoisky, laundered millions of dollars through Cleveland real estate. A long-running investigation into Kolomoisky went public for the first time when agents searched the offices of Optima Management Group in One Cleveland Center at East 9th Street and St. Clair Avenue. Agents in Miami also searched a business there involving the company. Authorities in Cleveland told The Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com last year that authorities have been involved in a wide-ranging investigation involving Kolomoisky, whom one analyst called one of Ukraine’s most controversial...

FBI raids offices at downtown One Cleveland Center building tied to Ukrainian oligarchCLEVELAND, Ohio — The FBI on Tuesday raided the Cleveland offices of a company with ties to a Ukrainian oligarch that owns several downtown buildings. FBI spokeswoman Vicki Anderson said agents searched the offices of Optima Management Group in One Cleveland Center at East 9th Street and St. Clair Avenue. A spokesman for the IRS also said his agency’s investigators were present....Anderson said agents also executed search warrants at an office in Miami.Federal authorities in Cleveland have been conducting a wide-ranging probe involving Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky that...

Two leaked tapes have emerged on the internet where Kiev-appointed governor allegedly threatens an ex-presidential candidate who called for a referendum. The official may also be behind the Odessa massacre and Mariupol shootings, the leak adds. On the first tape, which appeared on May 14, an oligarch and governor of the city of Dnepropetrovsk in southeastern Ukraine, Igor Kolomoisky, allegedly called ex-presidential candidate Oleg Tsarev and started threatening him. He told Tsarev to leave Ukraine immediately, saying it was in connection with the killing of Bogdan Shlemkevich, a soldier from Ukraine’s National Guard on May 9 in Mariupol, southeastern Ukraine....

In an explosive legal complaint filed last month in Delaware, attorneys for a major Ukrainian bank alleged that two oligarchs who founded the bank and controlled it from 2006 to 2016 laundered hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent corporate loans to purchase assets in the United States and unjustly enrich themselves and their associates. Dubbed the "Optima Schemes" in the 104-page document, these "brazen fraudulent schemes" were successful, among other things, in making the oligarchs and their co-defendants the largest commercial real estate holders in Cleveland. With money siphoned from public bonds and 20 million private Ukrainian citizens who'd...

Robert Powell, the husband of Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, D-Fla., reportedly took $700,000 from a Ukrainian oligarch named Igor Kolomoisky. Mucarsel-Powell sits on the House Judiciary Committee, the committee that drafted two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump for his alleged abuse of power with regards to Ukraine. In 2018, the Daily Beast reported that a number of businesses linked to Kolomoisky hired Powell as an attorney. One of those firms paid Powell at least $700,000 over two years, according to public records. The Miami Herald reported Powell was working for companies tied to Kolomoisky for 10 years. Powell made...

Ukraine's arms firms walk tightrope between Kiev and Moscow Thomas Grove 8 MIN READ KRAMATORSK Ukraine (Reuters) - In quiet defiance of a promise by Kiev's pro-European government to cut arms ties with Moscow, a state-owned defense firm in eastern Ukraine has vowed to work around the clock to fill every Russian order it gets. As for many of Ukraine's defense firms, the stakes are high for Yuzhmash, an industrial behemoth that was so jealously guarded by the Soviet Union that the nearby city of Dnipropetrovsk was closed to foreigners until the bloc split apart. Now, in the face of...