Fusion GPS did some research on the nasty guy and compiled a dossier (I don’t have a good summary at the moment). The leaders of the effort were Glenn Simpson a former journalist, and Christopher Steele, a (former?) British spy. The two were hauled before the Senate Intelligence Committee,, where the GOP members did all they could to obstruct. The House Intelligence Committee took a turn. This time Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) took charge and brought into the open lots of breadcrumb trails for investigators to follow.
A person with the Twitter handle The Hoarse Whisperer read through the transcript of the testimony (so we don’t have to) and created a Twitter thread of what he found. Here are a few items.
There was a bit of GOP nonsense as Trey Gowdy opened with the question: “What did you mean when you used the word ‘facts’?”
But onward. It seems Russian mobsters were laundering money through condos and golf courses owned by the nasty guy. This is quite important because those golf courses don’t actually make money.
It also seems the nasty guy isn’t rich. His basic source of income is a trust set up by his father. Not a surprise he didn’t release tax forms.
His business skill is so bad that by the mid 1990s no American finance company would lend to him. So he would get pre-sales, commitments to buy units in the new buildings. Many of these were from Russians with money to launder. With a good percentage of a building already sold, financing was easier to get. But once the financing was in hand many of those pre-sales disappeared. And the deal went into bankruptcy.
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