Ukraine announced sanctions against two businessmen with close ties to Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani. Dmytro Firtash and Pavel Fuks were named. Firtash received his sanctions for diverting titanium to the Russian military. Since posting a $174m bail bond in 2014, Dmytro Firtash has overseen his conglomerate Group DF in exile, living under house arrest in Vienna while he fights extradition to the US. The jewel of his business empire is a subsidiary called Ostchem, which has a monopoly on Ukraine's market for nitrogen fertilizer. Natural gas is the key input in the production of nitrogen fertilizer. Firtash’s push into fertilizers was built on corrupt deals with Putin associates. | Pavel Fuks |
Russian bank Gazprombank, tied to state-owned Russian gas giant Gazprom, extended Firtash a line of credit of $11.15b, which he used to buy fertilizer factories. Gazprom supplied gas at a huge discount. Ostchem companies made an operating profit of $3.7b in two years. At a huge cost to ordinary Russians and the Ukraine fertilizer market, Firtash's company made $2.2b in 2012 and 2013 alone. |
Giuliani associates Victoria Toensing and Joe DiGenova represent Firtash. They met with ex-AG William Barr in July 2020 to argue against Firtash's charges. This at the height of Giuliani’s hunt for dirt on Biden. Despite being a conduit for millions, and accepting $500k, Giuliani claims to know nothing of Firtash. | “It’s none of my business.” |
Trump's political dirt from Ukraine came from Dmytro Firtash. Dmytro Firtash was involved with disgraced Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. He is famous for supporting pro-Russia factions in Ukraine, military and political. Firtash’s close contact with top Russian mob boss Semion Mogilevich was exposed in 2010, when WikiLeaks posted a tranche of State Department cables. Firtash has been staying in Austria in relative freedom thanks to help from Russian billionaire Vasily Anisimov, who helped him post bond. Anisimov is on the Treasury Department’s 2018 “Putin List.” | Documents taken on TV and waved around by Giuliani came from Dmytro Firtash's legal team in Vienna. The debunked documents were presented as 'evidence' for his claims. |
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