. You may unsubscribe or adjust your preferences at any time. According to Rices New York piece, Sater laundered fraud proceeds through a labyrinthine network of Caribbean shell companies, Israeli and Swiss bank accounts, and contacts in New Yorks Diamond District. In the mid-1990s, New York reports, Sater spent a great deal of time in Moscow, where, according to a friend and business partner, Sal Lauriawho later wrote a book about all of thisWe were dealing with ex-KGB generals and with the elite of Russian society.. [2][27] For this, Sater was convicted of first-degree assault in 1993;[28] spent 15 months in prison,[29] and was barred by the National Association of Securities Dealers from acting as a broker or otherwise associating with a broker-dealer firm. Tim OBrien, author of a biography of Trump, wrote about Sater in an article titled Lean, Mean Trump-Russia Machine. He was born in 1966 in the Soviet Union, and he and his family moved to Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, New York, when he was just 8. Notice this is Maxim Temnikov, as well as his name backwards, and his wife (a guess) Elena Temnikov, as well as Felix Sater listed as the key people. "[54] Trump has been photographed several times with Sater, including while speaking privately with him. I walked in his door and told him, Im gonna be the biggest developer in New York, and you want to be my partner., How did I get to Donald? Sater asked New York magazine, with typical braggadocio. Sater has a decades-long record as a larger-than-life, outside-the-law, spy agency-linked wheeler-dealer from the pages of a John le Carr novel. Saters links to Trump in recent years are obscure. [31][32], Sater joined Bayrock Group LLC as a senior advisor in 2003 at the behest of the company's owner and founder, Tevfik Arif. Felix Sater has been cast as a Russian mafioso, a career criminal, and a key business associate of President Donald Trump's but he spent more than two decades as an intelligence asset who helped the US government track terrorists and mobsters. Arif hired Sater in 2003, making him the firms chief operating officer. However, Trump has distanced himself from Sater, stating that he barely knew him. if( inline_cta_url_258356 !='' ){ He famously plotted with Michael Cohen to broker a deal to build Trump Tower Moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign. (YouTube: Felix Sater). Felix Sater waits in the hall outside his divorce hearing. [11], During Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, Sater worked with Michael Cohen, former attorney for The Trump Organization, to broker a deal to build a Trump Tower Moscow, asserting to Cohen that he could boost Trump's election prospects through his Russian contacts. It was Felix Sater, the loyal old family friend and occasional business partner, who had convinced him that luxury real estate was the way to go, top-end stuff. tn_articleid: [258356], } During the next several years, Mr. Ray met with federal agents on numerous occasions and provided much information about their activities, including matters relating to this case, his attorney later wrote in 2004. Now Saters wife, Viktoria, 51, a striking blonde with whom he lived on Long Island and shares three daughters, has had enough, according to a source, and filed for divorce March 19. Later he worked with the SembolConstruction in Turkey. magazine_text_258356 = '
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'; Rays accused accomplice Isabella Pollok, the only charged co-defendant in the case, allegedly taped the encounter. } Born on 2 March 1966, Felix Satar is 52-year of age in 2018. Felix Sater speaks at the Chabad of Port Washington in Port Washington, New York, in 2014. This article is converted from Wikipedia: Felix Sater. Years before he became a key figure in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into links between Donald Trump and Russia, former Trump business associate Felix Sater really was a globetrotting secret agent who risked his life to help the U.S. government "combat terrorists and rogue states," according to a newly unsealed court document. tn_ptype: 'article', jQuery("#inline_cta_2_btn_258356 a").attr("href",inline_cta_2_url_258356); 24,229, 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved Sater a Russian-born American and convicted felon for his role in a 1998 Mafia-linked stock fraud scheme turned FBI and CIA informant met Donald Trump in 2000, when his company took office space in Trump Tower. targeting:{ }else{ Stay tuned with us. Why Trumps Attacks on Mueller Are Getting Some Surprising PushbackFrom Republicans Felix Sater - Wikipedia Sater possibly did this because of Menez finding out about his past convictions and links to organized crime. Felix Sater a channel to Russia, convicted felon, and associate of Donald Trump provides the perfect window into Trump's suspect business practices and network. } Clair insists that whatever happens in the hearings, Sater cant obfuscate in family court, saying, Unlike the politics in Washington, the divorce court is the crucible of truth., Sater confirmed the divorce to Page Six and said, Viki was a fantastic wife, the most amazing mother and we raised three beautiful daughters together.. } Trump Russia pal served with divorce papers as he testifies to congress cta_1_check_258356 = true; Nearly two months after the $25 million hit the granola company's accounts, the bank wrote in a SAR, Sater's wife went to a branch on Long Island and tried to deposit a $20 million check into an account belonging to Moses & Singer, a Manhattan law firm. The scheme operated through a Gambino soldier Edward Garafola, but the indictment lists an assortment of other alleged wiseguys, including Frank Coppa, Sr., a Bonanno family captain; Ernest Montevecchi, a Genovese soldier; Daniel Persico, a Colombo family associate; and Eugene Lombardo, a Bonanno family associate, according to the indictment. inline_cta_button_text_258356 = ''; In so doing, for protection Sater drew on the assistance of his fathers friends in the Genovese crime family. [48] Ablyazov's alleged fraud is one of the biggest cases of financial fraud in history. According to a recent Guardian profile, Saters relationship with Cohenand to organized crimegoes way back: Saters links to Trumps circle can be traced back to not long after he came to the US as a child. (Manafort, of course, is under intense scrutiny in the Russiagate investigation from Mueller and two committees of Congress over his possible role as a go-between in collusion between Russias spy network and the Trump campaign. Felix Sater: the enigmatic businessman at the heart of the Trump-Russia inquiry The Moscow-born former Trump associate's name emerged in leaked emails - and he tells the Guardian to expect. In it, Sater and Cohen worked with Andrii Artemenko, a Ukrainian opposition politician who himself had a questionable past, having spent time in prison in Ukraine for an embezzlement scheme, according to the New York Times story last February that first broke the news of his collaboration with Sater and Cohen (the charges against Artemenko were eventually dropped). slotId: "thenation_article_indent", tips@lawandcrime.com Filed Under: However, Sater has not yet revealed any information about his kids. The plan went nowhere, however. Privacy Notice Rays alleged victim at the heart of the sex-trafficking claim, Claudia Drury, told a jury that he forced her into prostitution and took $2.5 million of her earnings. According to the Times, the Artemenko plandelivered to Sater and Cohen, and then to Michael Flynn, the short-lived White House national security adviser who was forced to resign in Februaryinvolved using unflattering or compromising information (kompromat) to help oust Poroshenko and then winning the support of a new Ukrainian government for a 50- to 100-year lease of Crimea to Russiawhich in 2014 occupied and annexed Crimea, which for many decades had been part of Ukraine. In about the next 30 to 35 days, he told reporter Rice, I will be the most colorful character you have ever talked about. This past February the Times published a blockbuster story by Megan Twohey and Scott Shane recounting an effort by Sater, Cohen, Gen. Mike Flynn, and a Ukrainian politician to put forward a half-cocked Ukrainian peace plan and deliver it, freelance fashion, to the White House. Colorful former Trump business associate Felix Sater who will testify before two congressional panels this week about Trump and Russia is facing more legal woes after his wife of 25. I will manage this process." Photo: Stephen Voss/Redux Felix Sater, real estate developer, former managing director of Bayrock Group, and one-time informant for the FBI, in Washington D.C., on May 5, 2018. By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 andagree to receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nations journalism. After being videotaped attacking Ray in a hotel in on Sept. 17, 2015, DiTommaso was charged with assault but pleaded down to disorderly conduct. His past record includes a conviction for lacerating a mans face with a broken margarita glass in a bar brawl and his involvement in a multimillion-dollar stock fraud and money-laundering scheme. He has not revealed his body measurements. He has been an advisor to corporations such as The Trump Organization,[8] and the Mirax Group. }, Sorting out Saters checkered past leads into a convoluted labyrinth of crime, legal entanglements, shady deals, alleged ties to US and foreign intelligence agencies and, of course, intimate connections to Donald Trump and the Trump Organization. Newly unsealed court records confirm that Felix Sater, a former business associate of President Donald Trump, was an invaluable FBI source who used his ties to the criminal underworld to rat out . Well, he tied the knot with his beautiful wife Viktoria Sater. cb: (new Date()).getTime() What the Mueller Report Didn't Say on Trump Tower in Moscow In December 2017, the Trump SoHo was renamed to The Dominick. }, Sater, who served time in prison for that assault, was barred from financial trading by the National Association of Securities Dealers. id: "beb5f82f-dce3-49e6-a836-cf24eb78a6f6", Also, he spent 15 months in prison. tn_author: ['bob-d'], Former Trump Business Associate Talking To Senate Intelligence Committee", "Felix Sater, Trump Associate, Boasted That Moscow Business Deal 'Will Get Donald Elected', "Former Mafia-linked figure describes association with Trump", "Trump, the Russian Lawyer and the Pop Star: President's Links to Azerbaijan Oligarch Come Under Scrutiny", "Russia-born dealmaker linked to Trump assists laundering probe", "House Intel subpoenas Felix Sater after he fails to appear for testimony", "House Intelligence Committee to subpoena Trump associate Felix Sater", "Felix Sater slammed by House panel as uncooperative", "Trump associate Felix Sater grilled by House Intel", "Trump associate gave US government Osama bin Laden's phone number, judge says", "Judge confirms Trump associate gave feds Osama bin Laden's number", "Active Measures director says Trump's Russian mob ties are his biggest legal vulnerability", "Trump, Russia and a Shadowy Business Partnership", "Joshua Bernstein vs. Bayrock Group LLC: Felix H. Sater", "Memory Lapse?