http://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/404061-...-collusion

"...In 2012, Steele’s private firm, Orbis Business Intelligence, was hired as a subcontractor by a law firm working for Deripaska, who then headed Russia’s largest aluminum company. Steele’s firm was asked to do research to help the law firm defend a lawsuit filed against Deripaska by a business rival.

By 2015, Steele’s work had left him friendly with one of Deripaska’s lawyers, according to my sources. And when Ohr, then the associate deputy attorney general and a longtime acquaintance of Steele, sought help getting to meet Deripaska, Steele obliged.

Deripaska, who frequently has appeared alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin at high-profile meetings, never really dealt with Steele, but he followed his lawyer’s recommendations and met with Ohr, my sources say.

By that time, Deripaska already had proven himself helpful to the FBI. As I’ve written previously, based on numerous U.S. sources, he cooperated with the bureau from 2009 to 2011 and spent more than $25 million of his own money on an FBI-supervised operation to try to rescue retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, who was captured in Iran while working as a CIA contractor.

U.S. officials and Levinson’s family told me that Deripaska’s efforts came close to securing Levinson’s freedom before the State Department scuttled a deal. The former agent has never been heard from again...."

Those bastards

(08-29-2018 10:19 AM)bullet Wrote:  http://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/404061-...-collusion

"...In 2012, Steele’s private firm, Orbis Business Intelligence, was hired as a subcontractor by a law firm working for Deripaska, who then headed Russia’s largest aluminum company. Steele’s firm was asked to do research to help the law firm defend a lawsuit filed against Deripaska by a business rival.

By 2015, Steele’s work had left him friendly with one of Deripaska’s lawyers, according to my sources. And when Ohr, then the associate deputy attorney general and a longtime acquaintance of Steele, sought help getting to meet Deripaska, Steele obliged.

Deripaska, who frequently has appeared alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin at high-profile meetings, never really dealt with Steele, but he followed his lawyer’s recommendations and met with Ohr, my sources say.

By that time, Deripaska already had proven himself helpful to the FBI. As I’ve written previously, based on numerous U.S. sources, he cooperated with the bureau from 2009 to 2011 and spent more than $25 million of his own money on an FBI-supervised operation to try to rescue retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, who was captured in Iran while working as a CIA contractor.

U.S. officials and Levinson’s family told me that Deripaska’s efforts came close to securing Levinson’s freedom before the State Department scuttled a deal. The former agent has never been heard from again...."

That is just chilling.

(08-29-2018 12:50 PM)TigerBlue4Ever Wrote:  

(08-29-2018 10:19 AM)bullet Wrote:  http://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/404061-...-collusion

"...In 2012, Steele’s private firm, Orbis Business Intelligence, was hired as a subcontractor by a law firm working for Deripaska, who then headed Russia’s largest aluminum company. Steele’s firm was asked to do research to help the law firm defend a lawsuit filed against Deripaska by a business rival.

By 2015, Steele’s work had left him friendly with one of Deripaska’s lawyers, according to my sources. And when Ohr, then the associate deputy attorney general and a longtime acquaintance of Steele, sought help getting to meet Deripaska, Steele obliged.

Deripaska, who frequently has appeared alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin at high-profile meetings, never really dealt with Steele, but he followed his lawyer’s recommendations and met with Ohr, my sources say.

By that time, Deripaska already had proven himself helpful to the FBI. As I’ve written previously, based on numerous U.S. sources, he cooperated with the bureau from 2009 to 2011 and spent more than $25 million of his own money on an FBI-supervised operation to try to rescue retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, who was captured in Iran while working as a CIA contractor.

U.S. officials and Levinson’s family told me that Deripaska’s efforts came close to securing Levinson’s freedom before the State Department scuttled a deal. The former agent has never been heard from again...."

That is just chilling.

Quote:In 2009, the then-FBI Director Robert Mueller was kept apprised of the operation to court Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire and chief executive of the Russian state aluminium monopoly Rusal with close business ties in Iran, to help rescue hostage Levinson from Iran. In May 2018 new details emerged about Mueller's 2009 deal with Deripaska. Multiple sources confirmed that Andrew McCabe was one of Deripaska's early FBI contacts. Agents secretly met Deripaska in hotels in Paris, Vienna, Budapest, Hungary, and Washington, convincing him to to spend millions of his own dollars funding the FBI-supervised operation to Levinson. Because of economic sanctions imposed on Iran and other laws, the FBI couldn’t openly spend taxpayer money on the operation.

Deripaska’s lawyer said he spent $25 million on a private search-and-rescue team that worked with Iranian contacts while monitored by the FBI.

Deripaska managed to arrange the release of Levinson, but by several accounts, the U.S. State Department, then under Hillary Clinton, blocked a deal for Levinson's return from going through. Robyn Gritz, the retired agent who supervised the Levinson case in 2009, said: "We tried to turn over every stone we could to rescue Bob, but every time we started to get close, the State Department seemed to always get in the way". “We were told at one point that the terms of Levinson’s release had been agreed to by Iran and the U.S. and included a statement by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pointing a finger away from Iran. At the last minute, Secretary Clinton decided not to make the agreed-on statement.”

The operation was ended in 2011, because FBI officials were concerned that Deripaska’s Iranian contacts couldn’t deliver with all the U.S. infighting. The FBI rewarded Deripaska for his help.[39]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Levinson

I guess the agreed-upon "donation" to the Cankles Foundation failed to appear.