Posted on 11/20/2019 8:16:10 AM PST by COUNTrecount
KYIV. Nov 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian members of parliament have demanded the presidents of Ukraine and the United States, Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump, investigate suspicions of the legalization of $7.4 billion by the "family" of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych through the American investment fund Franklin Templeton Investments, which they said has ties to the U.S. Democratic Party.
At a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Wednesday, MP Andriy Derkach announced that deputies have received new materials from investigative journalists about international corruption and the participation of Ukrainian officials in it.
"Last week, November 14, the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO), unnoticed by the media, announced a new suspicion to the notorious owner of Burisma, ex-Ecology Minister Zlochevsky. According to the suspicion, the Yanukovych family is suspected, in particular, with legalizing (laundering) of criminally obtained income through Franklin Templeton Investments, an investment fund carrying out purchases of external government loan bonds totaling $7.4 billion," Derkach said.
With reference to the investigation, he emphasized: it was money criminally obtained by the "family" of Yanukovych and invested in the purchase of Ukrainian debt in 2013-2014.
For his part, MP Oleksandr Dubinsky from the Servant of the People faction said that according to investigators, "the Yanukovych 'family' illegally obtained $7.4 billion and laundered the funds through an investment fund close to some representatives of the U.S. Democratic Party in the form of external government loan bonds."
Meanwhile, Derkach said that several facts indicate Franklin Templeton Investments' relationship with the U.S. Democratic Party.
"The son of Templeton's founder, John Templeton Jr., was one of President Obama's major campaign donors. Another fund-related character is Thomas Donilon. Managing Director of BlackRock Investment Institute, shareholder Franklin Templeton Investments, which has the largest share in the fund. It is noteworthy that he previously was Obama's national security advisor," Derkach said.
The MP said that the presidents of Ukraine and the United States should combine the efforts of the two countries to establish facts of corruption and money laundering with the participation of citizens of both countries.
"President Zelensky must pick up the phone, dial Trump, ask for help and cooperation in the fight against corruption and fly to Washington. The issue of combating international corruption in Ukraine with the participation of citizens, businessmen and U.S. officials should become a key during the meeting of the two presidents," he said.
Derkach said as a result of the meeting, it is necessary to build interaction between the Ukrainian investigating authorities and the U.S. Department of Justice to obtain information about the organizers of the bond issue, clients and beneficiaries of investment funds for each purchase, interrogate fund officials, etc.
As reported, on October 9, 2019, Derkach published official correspondence between NABU and the U.S. Embassy, according to which the first deputy of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), Gizo Uglava, through his assistant Polina Chyzh, for a long time provided the U.S. Embassy with information that negatively affected the course of events in Ukraine and the United States.
Derkach said Chyzh received instructions from the representative of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine Hanna Emelyanova to provide information on the case involving Zlochevsky.
Derkach also announced the amount of money transferred to representatives of the Burisma Group, including Hunter Biden. According to documents, in general, in favor of Hunter Biden, Alexander Kwasniewski, Alan Apter and Devon Archer, Burisma paid about $16.5 million.
According to Derkach, ex-Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin repeatedly appealed to the NABU Director Artem Sytnyk in the framework of criminal proceedings for Burisma, but constantly received formal responses. The activities of Shokin, according to the MP, irritated then U.S. Vice President Joe Biden during his fifth visit to Kyiv in two years. The visit on December 7-8, 2015, was devoted to solving the issue of Shokin's resignation for the affairs of Zlochevsky and Burisma, he said.
"The subject of pressure was the $1 billion credit guarantee that the United States should have provided to Ukraine: Biden himself acknowledged the pressure in his speech to the U.S. Foreign Relations Council in January 2018," Derkach said.
They sure aren’t asking Clinton, Biden, Kerry, Mueller, or Obama to investigate this are they?
Something tells me this will be a topic in today’s hearing. Systemic corruption in Ukraine involving Democrats including Biden and his son.
Time to fill that bucket of popcorn.
This is why Sondland contradicted himself today and Ken Starr suggested the GOP Senators make a visit to the White House. They’re directly over the target now and the Swamp Critters are in full panic.
Dems truly have opened an international can of worms in their attempt to take down Trump
RE:which they said has ties to the U.S. Democratic Party -
Everything dirty has ties to the Democrat party.
Uh Oh... me thinks Pelousy will now move to shut “Inquiry” down...things getting too hot and close to truth
There ya go, Mr. President. Have at it. Announce an investigation. Then we’ll see whose fingers are in the cookie jar. Or whatever Ukranians call the container that holds their sweet snacks.
It is simple we give you a few billion and you kick back a hundred million..
and help us dig up dirt on Trump
It is the GOP we have to worry about..the Senate would love to get rid of Trump...
But the Democrats have not moved Trump poll numbers ..or have anything against him yet
If he doesn’t announce an investigation he is toast.
Now we know what hunter was doing - managing the payments to his commie buddies in the US.
I don’t know about that but it will certainly create some interest in the hearings. Isn’t that what they want? Call it a Schiff Storm.
Exactly. It was a money laundering operation.
I will state it again, Trump is ruining the illegal money kickbacks from the Ukraine. We send them billions and they give the Democrats back millions.
If I never hear another word about the Ukraine, I’ll be one happy Deplorable.
Nothing personal, if you or your family come from that area. I have known a few Ukrainians.
Similar culture to Russians. Not very similar to most Chechens, who continue to fight for their independence from Mother Russia.
Time to fill that bucket of popcorn.
No joke. Here is the rub. The US mediacrats are totally in the tank for the DNC so it is unlikely there will be any coverage of this or very little. However, per our treaty with Ukraine regarding corruption I believe our law enforcement folks now have to look into it if they are making a formal request?
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