#Lagos reporters

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

For a time, Anna de Rothschild boasted of her family roots to the European banking dynasty, donning designer clothes, a Rolex watch, and driving a $170,000 black Mercedes-Benz SUV.

She talked about developing a sprawling luxury housing project on Emerald Bay in the Bahamas, a high-rise hotel in Monaco, and a Formula One race track in Miami, say people who knew her.

A pivotal moment for the woman who was fluent in several languages took place last year when she was invited to Mar-a-Lago, where she mingled with former President Donald Trump’s supporters and showed up the next day for a golf outing with Mr. Trump and Sen. Lindsey Graham among other political luminaries.

Inna Yashchyshyn poses with former President Donald Trump and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., at Mr. Trump’s private golf course just miles from Mar-a-Lago in May 2021.

But the 33-year-old woman was not a member of the famous banking family, and is now a subject of a widening FBI investigation that has delved into her past financial activities and the events that led her to the former President’s home.

“It was the near-perfect ruse and she played the part,” said John LeFevre, a former investment banker who met her with other guests around a club pool.

In addition to the FBI, law enforcement agents in Canada have confirmed that she has been the subject of a major crimes unit investigation in Quebec since February.

A year before the FBI’s spectacular raid of the former president’s seaside home, the woman whose real name is Inna Yashchyshyn, a Russian-speaking immigrant from Ukraine, made several trips into the estate posing as a member of the famous family while making inroads with some of the former President’s key supporters.

The ability of Ms. Yashchyshyn — the daughter of an Illinois truck driver — to bypass the security at Mr. Trump’s club demonstrates the ease with which someone with a fake identity and shadowy background can get into a facility that’s one of America’s power centers and the epicenter of Republican Party politics.

Those issues have become even more critical after FBI agents seized boxes of classified and top-secret materials two weeks ago from Mar-a-Lago after executing a search warrant on Mr. Trump’s home.

Her entry — multiple trips in and out of the club grounds — lays bare the vulnerabilities of a facility that serves as both the former president's residence and a private club, and highlights the gaps in security that can take place.

“That’s his residence,” said Ed Martin, a former U.S. Treasury special agent who spent more than two decades in criminal intelligence. “She shouldn’t have been in there.”

FBI BEARS DOWN

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project learned that numerous records have been turned over to the FBI as part of the inquiry, including copies of two fake passports from the U.S. and Canada — bearing her photo and the name Anna de Rothschild — and a Florida driver’s license with the same name that shows the address of an opulent $13 million mansion in Miami Beach where she has never lived.

Ms. Yashchyshyn said in sworn statements in a legal dispute that she has never used another name and has not broken any laws. In an interview with the Post-Gazette, she said she didn’t know Anna de Rothschild.

“I think there is some misunderstanding,” she said.

She said that she was meeting with FBI agents on Aug. 19 and that passports or driver’s licenses generated with the Rothschild name and her photo were fabricated by her former business partner to harm her. “That’s all fake, and nothing happened,” she said.

Mr. LeFevre and three other guests interviewed for this story said Ms. Yashchyshyn repeatedly told people after entering the palatial Mar-a-Lago grounds that she was a Rothschild “and everyone was eating it up,” he said.

LEFT: Passports from Ukraine (Top) and Russia (Bottom), listing her name as Inna Yashchyshyn and Anna Anisimova, respectively. RIGHT: A Canadian passport (Top), a Florida drivers license (Middle), and a United States passport (Bottom), all listing the name Anna De Rothschild. All were turned over to FBI.

The probe into her activities comes three years after two different women from China — one of them toting two passports and a thumb drive with malicious software — were arrested in separate instances after they entered the club grounds while Mr. Trump was president.

Both were sentenced to less than a year in jail and have since been released with at least one being deported to China last year.

The Secret Service said it could not comment on whether the agency is investigating Ms. Yashchyshyn’s visits to the former President’s home in May 2021, or any other subsequent trips.

“To maintain the operational integrity of our work, we are unable to comment specifically concerning the means, methods or resources used to conduct our protective operations,” said Steven Kopek, a special agent and spokesman, in a statement.

The Secret Service more than likely didn’t run background checks to determine Ms. Yashchyshyn’s identity when she visited the former President’s home, partly because the level of protection drops significantly when a President leaves office, said four former agents interviewed for this story.

In most cases, “they are going to do a level of screening — a hand check” for weapons, said Jonathan Wackrow, a former agent who served on President Barack Obama’s detail. “He still has a full detail.”

But experts say her ability to mingle with members of Mr. Trump’s entourage raises concerns about ongoing security at the private club that continues to host some of the most powerful elected leaders in the country and serves as a storage site for some of the country’s closely guarded secrets.

"The question is was it a fraud or an intelligence threat," said Charles Marino, a former Secret Service supervisor. "The fact that we are asking this question is a problem."

'I AM THE VICTIM RIGHT NOW'

Little information is public about Ms. Yashchyshyn, who once worked for a suburban Miami business that specializes in providing pregnant Russian mothers the option to have their babies in the U.S. to gain citizenship, court records show.

But when a bitter court dispute erupted last year between her and a close associate with whom she once lived, the details of her whirlwind trips to Mar-a-Lago and other activities over the past several years began to surface and soon reached the attention of federal agents.

Valeriy Tarasenko, 44, a Florida businessman who was raised in Moscow, said he met Ms. Yashchyshyn in 2014 and allowed her to live in his Miami condo so that she would watch his children when he traveled on business.

They have since parted ways over what he alleged was her abuse of one of his children – accusations that Ms. Yashchyshyn vehemently denies.

He said he has met twice with FBI agents and spoke to them about multiple trips she made to Mar-a-Lago and what he claims were her efforts to make inroads in the Trump family and look for new streams of money.

She used “her fake identity as Anna de Rothschild to gain access to and build relationships with U.S. politician[s], including but not limited to Donald Trump, Lindsey Graham, and Eric Greitens,” he said in a court affidavit in Miami.

Mr. Greitens is a former Missouri Governor who resigned in 2018 after allegations of sexual misconduct. He held a fundraiser at a Palm Beach mansion last year where Ms. Yashchyshyn was invited.

Ms. Yashchyshyn, an officer in two Florida companies founded by Mr. Tarasenko — both devoid of any assets — claimed that whatever steps she took to gain money were directed by him.

“[E]very single move that I did, I’ve been told by Valeriy to do so,” she said in a deposition. “[A]fter a few incidents like that, I realized that he’s using me for his lifestyle and for his needs.”

Ms. Yashchyshyn said that at one point when she tried to break from him, he repeatedly struck her. “Over time, Tarasenko became more controlling and aggressive over me,” she said in an affidavit.

“I am the victim right now, that’s all I can tell you,” she said in an interview.

Mr. Tarasenko, who was once detained in Moscow for carrying a police-style baton at a metro station in 1998, denied that he physically harmed her.

TOP LEFT: In 2015, Ms. Yashchyshyn became president of United Hearts of Mercy charity (logo pictured), which was dropped by two payment processors because they detected fraud. TOP RIGHT: Tatiana Verzilina, left, the former accountant for United Hearts of Mercy, promoted the charity with Ms. Yashchyshyn, but later filed a statement saying it was rife with fraud. BOTTOM: A $19,100 “donation” to United Hearts of Mercy, flagged as fraud.

In 2015, Ms. Yashchyshyn became president of a Miami charity, United Hearts of Mercy — the same name of a charity founded by Mr. Tarasenko in Canada five years earlier.

The Miami entity was promoted on social media as a vehicle to help impoverished children but was actually a source of illicit funds for organized crime, according to a statement by a certified public accountant for the charity that was provided to the FBI.

After hundreds of thousands of dollars poured into the charity’s coffers two years ago, a payment processor, Stripe Inc., suspected fraud and stopped taking in money for a campaign that was supposed to help families ravaged by the pandemic.

The Post-Gazette emailed more than two dozen of the “donors” from Hong Kong, and every email bounced back, suggesting they were fake email addresses used to trick the payment processor.

At the end of the charity drive, the accountant, Tatiana Verzilina, said she began to get calls from people who she suspected were from criminal groups, threatening violence and demanding the money.

The callers left “voice messages from unknown numbers with accents that if I do not return money, I and my family will be harmed or killed,” she wrote in her statement.

Though the charity was supposed to disclose its revenues to the public because of the amount of funds it took in, it failed to do so. Ms. Verzilina, who is now living in her native Russia, declined to talk about the case.

So far, it’s not clear where the funds went.

The FBI in Miami said it would not comment, but at least three people who live in South Florida said they have been interviewed by FBI agents in the past seven months about Ms. Yashchyshyn’s activities.

One of them, Sergey Golubev, a Russian-born U.S. citizen who was once married to Ms. Yashchyshyn, said they wed in 2011 so she could obtain U.S. residency and stay in the country, but the marriage was only on paper.

“At some point, she needed a permanent green card,” said Mr. Golubev, 48.

He said the FBl told him that agents were looking for her in connection with allegations about something "illegal- cheating people and stealing money" but he said he didn't know any details, and was unaware of her activities. He said he lost touch with her after their divorce in 2016.

PHOTOS OF TRUMP TURNED OVER TO FBI

Another person who spoke to the Post-Gazette on the condition of anonymity said a host of records, photos and videos had been turned over to the FBI of Ms. Yashchyshyn, including pictures of her posing with Mr. Trump, Mr. Graham, Donald Trump Jr.'s fiancee, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Trump campaign donor Richard Kofoed, along with other supporters of the former president.

Trump donor Richard Kofoed, second from right, samples bourbon with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., third from right, and others. He was among the guests who met Anna de Rothschild at Mar-a-Lago and later attended a small dinner with her and others, including Kimberly Guilfoyle and Trump fundraiser Caroline Wren.

Mr. Kofoed, 60, who donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the former president’s campaign and had been a frequent visitor to Mar-a-Lago, declined to comment.

Ms. Guilfoyle, 53, whose name emerged in the Jan. 6 hearings after it was revealed she received $60,000 for delivering a speech to protesters on the day of the attack, didn’t respond to interview requests.

So far, the FBI’s questioning appears to hint at a widening criminal probe into a network of people that includes Ms. Yashchyshyn, who traveled under various aliases while mingling with politicians and wealthy businessmen.

She showed up at the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., last year and the Austrian World Summit in 2019, where her picture was taken with the likes of celebrity rapper Ray J and Italian car designer Horacio Pagani.

“We always thought her grandfather had the money and that he was an oligarch,” said developer Paul Barton, who said his family company paid for her to fly at least three times on private jets to their resort project in the Bahamas.

She was offered a deal to sell their sprawling residential development for $55 million and receive a commission, records show, but no such sale was made.

During their discussions, he said she talked about her involvement in putting up a high-rise hotel in Monaco, a speed track in Miami and a condo project in Canada. “She talked a good game,” he said.

Though law enforcement agents in Quebec acknowledged their own inquiry of Ms. Yashchyshyn, they would not provide any details.

After the May 2, 2021, golf tournament at Mar-a-Lago, a group of Trump supporters went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant. Standing, from left: John LeFevre, Gary DeMel, Richard Kofoed and Ms. Yashchyshyn presenting herself as “Anna de Rothschild.” Seated, from left: Linh DeMel, wife of Gary DeMel; Stacy Kofoed, wife of Richard Kofoed, and their daughter Cassidy; Kimberly Guilfoyle, fiancee of Donald Trump Jr.; Caroline Wren, former Trump fundraiser; unidentified girlfriend of Isaac Bawany; Isaac Bawany; and Elchanan Adamker.

At some point, she met Trump supporter Elchanan Adamker, a New York financial services company founder who travels often to Miami. Mr. Adamker, who declined to comment, invited her to join him for a gathering at Mar-a-Lago, where she arrived in her Mercedes-Benz SUV on May 1.

There’s no indication she met that first day with the former President, who, along with Mr. Graham, was about to launch a $25,000-per-person golf fundraiser to raise money for the midterm elections.

But when the event was held the next day at Trump International Golf Club just a few miles from Mar-a-Lago, she gathered with the former president, who posed with her for several photos. In another frame, she stood alongside Mr. Trump and the South Carolina Senator, the three smiling and gesturing with their thumbs up.

Later, a guest joked with her that he would pass the photos onto her for a hefty price. “Anna, you're a Rothschild — you can afford $1 million for a picture with you and Trump,” he said in a video.

'THE ROTHSCHILD MYSTIQUE'

Ms. Yashchyshyn then drove some of the guests back to Mar-a-Lago.

Mr. LeFevre, who authored a bestselling book about his years as a Wall Street banker, said several guests at the private club “fawned all over her and because of the Rothschild mystique, they never probed and instead tiptoed around her with kid gloves.”

For her part, she went beyond just dropping the family name, he said. “She talked about vineyards and family estates and growing up in Monaco.”

One frequent Mar-a-Lago guest who spoke on the condition of anonymity said an invitation was sent to Ms. Yashchyshyn to attend a fund-raiser days later for Mr. Greitens in another mansion near Mar-a-Lago and owned by the former President.

Weeks earlier, Mr. Greitens, a former Navy SEAL, had announced his bid for the U.S. Senate with Ms. Guilfoyle as his national campaign chair.

Four books by former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens appear to bear his signature and are signed to "Anna"- Ms. Yashchyshyn, who attended a fundraiser for him in a mansion near Mar-a- Lago in May 2021. In the flyleaf of the book "The Heart and the Fist" are the words: "For Anna, stay strong!"

Not until this March did the Trump entourage say they discovered her real identity.

Dean Lawrence, a Florida music creative director, said he met with Trump insiders at Mar-a-Lago, where he said he surprised them with the news.

“It’s just crazy,” said Mr. Lawrence. “Who would have ever thought it would get to this level?”

Mr. Lawrence said the evening started with a dinner that included the former President, Ray J and rapper Kodak Black, who was granted clemency by Mr. Trump on a charge of giving false statements to acquire a gun. Also attending the dinner: Rudy Giuiliani and former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik.

As the evening progressed, Mr. Lawrence said he struck up conversations with Mr. Kofoed and Caroline Wren, a former national adviser for the Trump campaign, and their talks turned to Anna de Rothschild.

Mr. Lawrence said he became acquainted with her because he was involved in a music company — Rothschild Media Label, where she was the president — to promote singers, including Mr. Tarasenko’s teenage daughter.

Mr. Lawrence told the Trump insiders that she was not the person they thought she was and warned them: “I want to clear something up with you. I want you to know that she has nothing to do with the Rothschilds. Don’t get involved in any kind of business with her.”

As he divulged the information to Mr. Kofoed, who lived in Palm Beach, “his eyes were wide open,” said Mr. Lawrence. “He said to me, ‘That’s exactly who I met. She came to my house.’”

LEFT: Ms. Yashchyshyn posing with rapper Ray J at the Austrian World Summit. RIGHT: Dean Lawrence (pictured) revealed to guests at Mar-a-Lago in March that Anna de Rothschild was imposter.

Mr. Lawrence said he then spoke to Ms. Wren, who he said recognized Ms. Yashchyshyn from a photo that he showed her.

Ms. Wren asked to take a phone picture and then “she created a group chat” to warn others, he said.

Ms. Wren, 34, who helped organize the 'Stop the Steal' rally that took place prior to the Capitol insurrection and was subpoenaed by the House Committee probing the attack, declined to comment for this story.

NO BACKGROUND CHECKS

It’s not clear how many trips Ms. Yashchyshyn made to the former President’s home, but Mr. Lawrence said she made enough of a splash that members of the Trump entourage recognized her photo immediately.

“She had been there more than once,” he said.

Ron T. Williams, a former Secret Service agent who is now a corporate security consultant, said there are many reasons that Ms. Yashchyshyn may have avoided detection, including the possibility that agents didn’t conduct a background check.

"Should she have been run for a background check yes," he said, but that "doesn't mean it happened."

A basic check would have shown that no such person exists with the Rothschild name and her 1988 birthdate.

In fact, an online resource devoted to the Rothschild family lists descendants dating back hundreds of years, but the name Anna de Rothschild does not appear anywhere.

Gary McDaniel, a longtime Florida security consultant, said because Mar-a-Lago is not just a private club but Mr. Trump's home, the level of protection should be elevated beyond the security protocols typically afforded former presidents and also extend to the entire premises.

"I want to know everybody who comes into that facility, their name, date, date of birth," he said. "And I want them somewhere on a roster because we never know when he is going to walk into that crowd. She should have been on a list" at the "pre-screening level."

The idea that a person with a fake identity can get into the former President's estate — even if they're looking to find investors — "is not OK," he said. "Who else can get in there? Who is behind that person? It's just wrong on so many [levels]."

Mr. Marino, the former Secret Service supervisor, said the revelations of her visits to the sprawling estate underscores the challenges that his former agency faces in protecting Mar-a-Lago.

“It highlights the complexities of having a former president living within a larger club, and it’s accessible to [outside members],” said Mr. Marino, who once served on the details of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Mr. Lawrence said he was perplexed over why he was the one who was telling Trump insiders about a potential breach, and not the people guarding the former President and his family.

“What I’m trying to understand is how did they allow this?” said Mr. Lawrence. “How could someone keep coming back — at that level? This is Mar-a-Lago.”

#us politics #news #Pittsburgh Post-Gazette #Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project #2022 #mar a lago #donald trump #Anna de Rothschild #Inna Yashchyshyn #fbi #fbi investigation #us secret service #Valeriy Tarasenko #sen. lindsey graham #Eric Greitens #Tatiana Verzilina #United Hearts of Mercy #donald trump jr. #Kimberly Guilfoyle #Richard Kofoed #Caroline Wren #trump supporters #Republicans #conservatives #gop #Trump International Golf Club #ray j #Dean Lawrence #rudy giuliani #Bernard Kerik

[sognareleggiesogna]

RECENSIONE: Come il Lago di Maria Elisa Gualandris

Cari Sognatori, Lyli   ha letto il secondo volume della serie L’apprendista reporter scritta da Maria Luisa  Gualandris  e pubblicato dalla More Stories!!! SERIE:L’ apprendista reporter” vol. 2 GENERE: Giallo DATA D’USCITA: 27 Giugno 2022 LINK D’ACQUISTO Ebook / Cartaceo TRAMA Non è facile farsi strada nel mondo del giornalismo se sei nata in una provincia sonnacchiosa in cui sembra non accada…

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#BOOK BLOGER #BOOK BLOGGER #BOOK BLOGGING #BOOK CLUB #BOOK REVIEWS #BOOK THRILLER #BOOK TUMBLR #BOOKBLOG #BOOKBLOGGER #BOOKBLR #Come il lago #consigliato #giallo #L&039;apprendista Reporter #Maria Elisa Gualandris #more stories #recensione #serie #vol.2

[buckaroosboogara]

Hi! Just wanna raise some awareness here because South America is on fucking fire and I need to see more people talking about this.

Source: RSOE EDIS x

Im just going to talk about the ones i'm closest to, but if you know about these fires, feel free to add in the reblogs!

Chile

In Chile there's (up to Feb 5) 160 wild fires, of which 40 are still trying to be controlled by authorities. The president, Gabriel Boric, has declared State of Emergency in the whole country, and theres a Red Alert Code in most part of the country.

Isla de Chiloé, Southern Chile (900 km away from Santiago de Chile)

This is a (recently controlled) fire that lasted a week, but many neighborhoods were burnt to the ground.

The whole South is in red alert for constant sudden fires that spread quickly due to the lack of rain and the elevated temperatues in the zone. Just today, two fires had to be controlled in the main land next to this island, and more are being reported in the Los Lagos region. This is added to the "controlled" intentional fires that farmers make to clean their fields of old crops along the Central-South parts of the country, mostly surrunding the main route, Ruta 5, that connects the whole country, thus making it hard to see and breathe because of the smoke. (flashnews, most of them get out of control quickly.)

Valparaiso/Viña del Mar, Central Chile (100 km away from Santiago de Chile)

A fire that started on Friday 2nd and grew exponentially because of the wind and the dry, hot climate. More than 100 people are dead, with 70 unrecognized bodies and other 400 that have dissapeared. At least 30000 people that have lost everything to the fire.

There's massive evacuations from this and the neighboring city, Viña Del Mar.

This is said to be the second most deadly fire in the century, surpased by Australia in 2009.

45000+ hectares that include land and neighborhoods have been burnt down.

I could go on about this one, so more info here and here

Argentina

Parque Los Alerces (Esquel), Chubut

The fire strarted on the 25th January, and the climate has made it hard to contain. 3000 hectares of native forest have been burnt to teh ground. It is now growing in the direction of the nearest city, Esquel. Theres been evacuations between yesterday and today (4 and 5th Febuary)

Parque Nahuel Huapi (Bariloche), Río Negro

The reason why im writing this. The city woke up today covered in smoke after a wildfire developed yesterday during the night. The reason? A fireplace that was not turned off in a place where people cannot disembark and can only be reached via boats.

As of now, there's not much information about the fire but hopefully the firefighters will be able to contain it before it reaches Tronador Mountain, where an ancient glaciar is.

...which leads me to the other point i wanted to talk about.

Firefighters

They volunteer to do this job.

In Argentina and Chile, firefighting is not rewarded with a salary, and most of the times they dont even have full firehouses to stay in. These people are at their houses, ready to jump into action and run to the station the second the alarm goes off.

They are neighbors, people that risk their lives and run into danger willingly, just because they want to help the community.

I felt the need to give a shout-out to these people and say:

Don't be a fucking dick, don't start fires in the woods unless it's an approved place, and if you do, TURN IT OFF.

Pour abundant water on it, and do not stop when you don't see any more flames.

Keep pouring water until the ashes don't burn/feel like room temperature in your hand if you put it 10 cm away from it, and even then, pour some more just to be sure.

No heat and no smoke mean a safely extinguished fire.

Save lives and forests.

#dont even get me started on the denial of climate change from my president #didnt wanna get political here #argentina #chile #argieposting #argieblr #soff speaks #wildfires

[gabe-sanders]

(via Vista del Lago Market Report June 2023)

Vista del Lago Condos in Stuart FL Market Report for June 2023

#vista del lago #stuart #florida #real estate #condo #market report

[xtruss]

Mar-a-Lago Dinner Guests Wondered Why Menus Contained Missile Sites

— By Andy Borowitz | June 12, 2023

Photography by Patrick McMullan/Getty Images

Palm Beach (The Borowitz Report) — Guests who dined at Mar-a-Lago after January, 2021, wondered why their menus featured missile sites of the United States and its allies, the diners have reported.

Harland Dorrinson, who’d had lunch at Mar-a-Lago, said that he’d found the list of missile installations “Confusing,” but added, “I Just Assumed They Were Specials.”

Carol Foyler, who’d visited the private club for dinner, was similarly baffled. “I Thought Maybe They Were Trying to Turn the Place into Some Kind of Theme Restaurant,” she said.

The hard-to-read menus irritated another dinner guest, Tracy Klugian. “It Was the Last Thing I Needed, Especially After Climbing Over All of Those Boxes to Get to My Table,” he said.

#Satire from The Borowitz Report #Palm Beach #Mar-a-Lago

[reportwire]

Tiffany Trump Charged Full Venue Price For Mar-A-Lago Wedding

Tiffany Trump Charged Full Venue Price For Mar-A-Lago Wedding

PALM BEACH, FL—Shaking her head in anger and disbelief as she scanned the invoice, Tiffany Trump reportedly received a bill from the Mar-a-Lago Club Tuesday charging her the full venue price for her wedding. “$95,000 for catering? Are you fucking kidding me?” said the 29-year-old Trump, who noted that the wedding cake looked nothing like the one she ordered and that the food “hadn’t even been…

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#American people of German descent #Businesspeople #Climate change skepticism and denial #Donald Trump #Mar-a-Lago #melania trump #Mueller Report #Right-wing populism in the United States #The Onion #tiffany trump #united states

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Remember her?

Here's an Update:

An abandoned charity for schoolchildren in the Dominican Republic. A mothballed housing development in small-town Quebec. A litany of companies that seem to exist in name only. An elaborate infiltration of Mar-a-Lago. A long list of lawsuits, counter-lawsuits, restraining orders, and criminal charges.

And now, a mysterious shooting linked to one of the most infamous figures in Montreal’s organized crime world.

At the middle of it all is Valeriy Tarasenko, who first gained notoriety over his links to Inna Yashchyshyn, the fake heiress who waltzed into Donald Trump’s Florida estate last year and posed in a photo with the former U.S. President in Mar-a-Lago. After news of the security breach made headlines around the world, Tarasenko turned against Yashchyshyn, his former business partner and alleged ex-lover, accusing her of being a “con artist” and spy who worked for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Yashchyshyn, in turn, accused Tarasenko of being the abusive, manipulative mastermind behind the bizarre plot.

Now, Tarasenko seems to have fallen into a bewildering scandal of his own. Last Friday, the Russian-born entrepreneur was shot in the parking lot of a luxury resort in the sleepy Quebec town of Estérel, an hour north of Montreal. He survived, but suffered significant injuries. Tarasenko’s lawyer says his client knows the man who was initially charged with the shooting, a notorious figure in Montreal’s underworld.

Two sources who spoke to The Daily Beast say Tarasenko’s business activities have long been a recipe for disaster. According to multiple judgements in the Quebec court system, Tarasenko and his ex-wife, Anna Kovalenko, who remained his business partner after their apparent split, took money from a variety of sources—money that never seemed to go to the business and charitable purposes for which they were intended.

Just what was Valeriy Tarasenko up to?

Tarasenko arrived in Montreal with his only daughter in early 2007. Kovalenko, his ex-wife at the time, had arrived a year earlier and enrolled at Concordia University to study political science. Their resettlement was financed entirely by Kovalenko’s stepparents, Olga and Yury Manakhov.

A retired Soviet Navy captain, Yury Manakhov had gone on to found a Moscow-based fishing company and, according to court filings, “made a fortune.” That wealth helped him enter the bureaucratic fast lane when he began the process of immigrating to Canada around 2007.

In the years that followed, Manakhov sent his stepdaughter more than $1 million. That bought her a condo in Montreal, another in Florida, a house in the Dominican Republic, a luxury car, and an array of other expenses and gifts.

Around that time, Kovalenko remarried Tarasenko while her relationship with her stepfather soured. In court filings, Manakhov declared the newly rejoined couple “lazy.”

While Manakhov largely cut off his stepdaughter and son-in-law, the support didn’t end entirely. In 2010, he purchased six empty lots in Estérel, for around $25,000, and transferred them to Kovalenko.

From their arrival in Canada, Kovalenko and Tarasenko began registering corporations, although they never seemed to carry on much business. In 2007, they founded Bastion-M, a holding company registered to their condo in downtown Montreal. In 2010, they registered another corporation: the United Hearts of Mercy.

While the United Hearts of Mercy advertised itself as a “a registered charitable organization,” it was never registered as a charity in Canada, and 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status wasn’t granted in the United States until 2015.

The organization claimed to have done charitable work in Haiti, Ukraine, and the entire continent of Africa—at one point claiming that it was collecting funds to help rebuild the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, after a devastating fire in 2019—but there is little publicly available evidence of such expansive work. A Facebook page for the charity shows volunteers, wearing United Hearts of Mercy T-shirts, posing with schoolchildren in the Dominican Republic (where Kovalenko owned a home) and handing out takeout containers to street-involved people in Miami.

In 2011, Manakhov drew up a loan agreement with his stepdaughter, formally requesting she repay $370,000. She ignored it. The litigation would be tied up in court for years, with Manakhov moving to seize his stepdaughters’ various properties and Kovalenko going to court to prevent those moves. Manakhov told the court that his stepdaughter committed acts of “theft, signature forgery, bank fraud, automobile fire and threats.” The court would ultimately side with Manakhov, ordering the seizure and sale of two of Kovalenko’s condos and the plot of land in Estérel.

According to court filings, it was around this time that Kovalenko divorced Tarasenko once more—though sources who spoke to The Daily Beast said the pair continued to “work” together through those years.

One of the earliest directors of the United Hearts of Mercy, a fellow Russian émigré who resigned from the organization after approximately a year on the board, filed suit against Kovalenko in 2015. The former director alleged that he lent Kovalenko nearly $350,000, in cash, that was never repaid.

That money, Kovalenko said, would be used to build a housing development on the property she had been gifted by her stepfather, in Estérel. That development, as of last year, had still not broken ground.

According to the IRS, the charity took in no more than $50,000 per year between 2015 and 2020.

For all their years in Canada, it wasn’t clear what business Tarasenko and Kovalenko were actually involved in.

The sources familiar with the couple said that despite their troubled business dealings, the pair always seemed to have money. Court records show Kovalenko took out $75,000 in loans from one friend, an amount she was not asked to repay.

There was, however, one business ambition that seemed to get off the ground: an elaborate plan to kickstart a music career for their daughter, Sofiya, under the stage name “Sofiya Rothschild.” To promote her, the couple registered the company Rothschild Media Label in Florida in 2018.

And who did they name as director of the company? None other than Inna Yashchyshyn, the fake heiress who snuck into Mar-a-Lago.

Yashchyshyn’s role in the Rothschild Media Label was meant to help Sofiya become a pop star by infiltrating high society and creating buzz for Sofiya’s music career. Incredibly, the plan worked: Before long, Yashchyshyn was pictured on the golf course with Donald Trump as “Anna Rothschild.”

While Yashchyshyn’s hobnobbing may have originally been a success, her presence later raised alarms in Trump’s entourage. The infiltration of Mar-a-Lago was so seamless that Senator Mark Warner, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told the Post-Gazette he would raise the alarming lack of security during his briefings with the intelligence community.

As Yashchyshyn’s infiltration made headlines, and drew scrutiny of investigators in two countries on their business relationship with Tarasenko, the pair had a public falling out.

Images of seemingly forged passports, with Yashchyshyn’s pseudonym, were published. The OCCRP reported that the FBI was looking at evidence suggesting the United Hearts of Mercy—to which Yashcyshyn had been appointed a director—was a front for money laundering. Tarasenko accused Yashchyshyn of being a spy, without providing any evidence. The fake heiress, in turn, claimed she was the victim of a jealousy-driven “smearing” campaign by Tarasenko, alleging he was a stalker and abuser who had “forced” her into his business schemes.

When she was contacted by the New York Post, Yashchyshyn bristled at the idea that she was working for Russia. Yashchyshyn was born in Ukraine. Her brother, the Post reported, was called up to defend their country after Russia’s unprovoked invasion earlier this year.

“What boils my blood most is people even thinking I’m Russian or a Russian agent,” she told the Post. “Russian people don’t exist to me since they invaded my country and killed my family and took homes.”

In the fallout, payment processor Stripe kicked the United Hearts of Mercy off their platform for routing donations through stolen Hong Kong credit cards, per the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. She appears in many of the charity’s photos.

The FBI has conducted multiple interviews regarding Yashchyshyn and the United Hearts of Mercy, while the Sûreté du Québec—the provincial police force—confirmed to the OCCRP and Post-Gazette that they are investigating the charity.

In the meantime, Sofiya’s music career hasn’t exactly taken off. While she has racked up tens of thousands of Instagram followers—posing in front of luxury cars, boarding private jets, and with Chris Brown, while never showing her face—only one of her singles has surpassed 100,000 listens on Spotify. In one poorly edited interview, Sofiya boasts, “I have my own record label, Rothschild Media Label.” The only other artist on the Rothschild label is Kualify, a hip-hop artist from Montreal.

The exact nature of Yashchyshyn’s relationship with the family is unclear. According to reporting from the OCCRP and the Post-Gazette, Yashchyshyn was originally hired by Tarasenko as a nanny, before becoming a business associate. In a messy legal dispute that played out in a Miami court, Yashchyshyn would claim that she and Tarasenko were lovers. Tarasenko denies it.

Last year, Yashchyshyn filed to obtain a restraining order against Tarasenko, alleging he had threatened her and held her hostage. Tarasenko filed to obtain his own restraining order in return, alleging that Yashchyshyn had abused his daughter.

Florida-based lawyer Steven Veinger told The Daily Beast that both Tarasenko and Kovalenko hired him last spring to litigate the case—they wanted to tell the court that Yashchyshyn was a fraudster, a scam artist, and possibly tied to organized crime. The case was ultimately settled last year.

While Yashchyshyn and Sofiya were based in Miami, one source told The Daily Beast that Kovalenko was still in Montreal, “in contact with some young guy,” who had been part of a “gang.”

On Oct. 6, a man in a black T-shirt emblazoned with a large white skull and the number 81 rang Yury Manakhov’s doorbell.

A video of the exchange, recorded by the Manakhovs’ home security system and obtained by La Press, captures the exchange.

“My name is Richard,” the man tells Manakhov, who was celebrating his 76th birthday that afternoon. “I’d just like to speak to you for a minute—by the way, happy birthday. I want to talk to you about Anna.” Met with confusion, he adds: “Anna, your stepdaughter.”

“Who are you?” Manakhov asks.

“Honestly, I’m a very good friend of hers,” he adds. The whole exchange lasts less than two minutes, with the mystery man insisting that “I’m trying to make all the charges drop.”

While it’s not quite clear what he’s referring to, La Presse revealed that the man in the skull T-shirt was, in fact, Richard Goodridge—an infamous affiliate of multiple Montreal street gangs, including the Hell’s Angels motorcycle club. The 81 on his T-shirt corresponds to the gang’s initials: H and A.

Just a day after he arrived on Manakhov’s doorstep, Tarasenko was shot. Police arrested Goodridge the following day—only to release him shortly thereafter. “The analysis of his version [of events] did not allow us to make accusations for the moment,” a spokesperson for the provincial police told The Daily Beast.

Tarasenko knew Goodridge, according to Veinger, his lawyer, and was likely at the Estérel resort to meet him that night. “He indicated he recognized the individual,” Veinger says. “He feels like he was set up.”

When Tarasenko arrived at the resort, a black car pulled up with three men inside—one opened fire and struck Tarasenko multiple times. “This was planned, this wasn’t a random thing,” Veigner says.

According to news station TVA, Tarasenko had been threatened in the past. A note scrawled in red across his SUV warned: “CLOSE MOUTH OR I KILL SOFIYA + ANA [sic].”

The Sûreté du Québec told The Daily Beast that while Goodridge has been released from custody, they have referred the record of his interrogation to prosecutors and are continuing to investigate the shooting.

Tarasenko, meanwhile, is in the process of fleeing Quebec—but not, his lawyer stresses, because he is trying to evade justice.

“He doesn’t feel safe there,” Veigner says.

But, the lawyer adds, if the cops call: “He’s willing to cooperate.”

#us politics #news #donald trump #Valeriy Tarasenko #Inna Yashchyshyn #valdimir putin #russia #Anna Kovalenko #the daily beast #2022 #United Hearts of Mercy #Rothschild Media Label #Anna Rothschild #mar a lago #Pittsburgh post gazette #organized crime and corruption reporting project #sen. mark warner #senate Intelligence committee #money laundering #fbi #department of justice #Richard Goodridge #Sûreté du Québec #La Presse #Steven Veinger #hell's angels #canada #Ukraine

[newshubnaija]

Lagos NBA Files Report Against Area Commanders Over Alleged Disobedience To Rule Of Law

Lagos NBA Files Report Against Area Commanders Over Alleged Disobedience To Rule Of Law

The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Lagos State, has expressed its unhappiness before the state’s Commissioner of Police (CP), Abiodun Alabi, over their alleged involvement in misconduct and abuse of powers. The lawyer’s Association made their displeasure known when it paid a visit to the Lagos Police boss, to complain about the Area “N” Commander, Ijede, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP)…

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#Area Commanders #Disobedience #Lagos #NBA #Report #Rule Of Law

[donald-trump-official]

In the past 48 hours:

- the trump org was convicted on 17 counts of fraud and tax evasion

- Special counsel Jack smith subpoenaed multiple state officials for their communications with Donald trump

- Trump’s lawsuit requesting a special master has been rejected. He will not appeal, meaning the DOJ now has access to all of the material it seized from Mar A Lago as of Dec. 9th

- the January 6th committe is preparing to release it’s final report on Dec. 21st. It is expected to include a referral for criminal charges against Donald trump, and they will also turn over all of their evidence to the DOJ

- the DOJ has asked a judge to hold the trump legal team be in contempt for refusing to affirm to the court that all classified material has been returned

- a company hired by Donald Trump’s lawyers did a sweep of all of his properties, finding additional classified material in a storage unit

- a congressional investigation has been opened into Jared Kushner for alleged tax violations in regards to his property in New York

#trump speaks again #satire #donald trump #parody

[odinsblog]

Any journalist or media outlet that does not explicitly make clear that Elon Musk is a white nationalist, is complicit in spreading his hate speech, racism, misogyny and bigotry. I don’t care if it’s a tech outlet doing a piece on SpaceX or Tesla, the job of a responsible media outlet is to report facts and give a complete picture of what they are reporting on. Doing anything less is journalistic malpractice. It would be like reporting on how Trump owns a place called Mar-a-Lago, but somehow omitting that he was the occupant of the White House and all of the crimes he has been charged with. (more)

#politics #elon musk #twitter #antisemitism #anti blackness #hate speech #racism #misogyny #homophobia #transphobia #bigotry #islamophobia #holocaust deniers #white supremacy #white nationalism #lgbt #lgbtq #the media is complicit

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

Loose lips sink ships, Donny boy.

#fuck trump #republican assholes #traitor trump #republican hypocrisy #republican values #national security risk

[reasonsforhope]

"A New York grand jury has indicted Donald Trump on allegations linked to a business records investigation related to a "hush money" payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Trump is the first former president in U.S. history to face criminal charges. His attorney Susan Necheles confirmed the indictment. No other details have been released yet.

The specific charge or charges have not yet been made public, and one Trump attorney told CBS News his legal team is "still waiting to learn" details of the indictment.

Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg's office said in a statement that it had contacted Trump's attorney "to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan D.A.'s office for arraignment on a Supreme Court indictment, which remains under seal," and more guidance would be provided "when the arraignment date is selected." ...

The case stems from a payment made just days before Trump was elected president in 2016. His former attorney, Michael Cohen, arranged a $130,000 wire transfer to Daniels to buy her silence about an alleged affair...

The indictment comes as Trump faces other potential criminal cases. In Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis is mulling charges in an investigation into alleged efforts by Trump and more than a dozen of his allies to undermine [Georgia]'s results in the 2020 election, which he lost to President Joe Biden. A special purpose grand jury conducted a six-month probe last year and delivered a report with its findings to Willis in January. The majority of that report was ordered sealed, at least until charging decisions are made.

In Washington, D.C., special counsel Jack Smith is overseeing two Justice Department investigations into alleged efforts to interfere with the lawful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election, and Trump's handling of sensitive government documents [note: specifically top secret, classified documents] found at his Mar-a-Lago home and possible obstruction of efforts to retrieve them."

-via CBS News, 3/30/23

TRUMP'S BEEN INDICTED

And by the way he is going to have to surrender himself to the Manhattan DA's office...

Where he will be arrested, fingerprinted, and have his mug shot taken.

(Obviously/sadly he's going to be released instead of held in jail until trial, but STILL)

-via BBC News, 3/30/23

#donald trump #trump #us politics #united states #indictment #trump indictment #trump insurrection #georgia #new york #manhattan #district attorney #alvin bragg #stormy daniels #corruption #2020 election #us president #good news #hope

[amanda13parker]

I’m taking a leap of faith here and my anxiety is flaring like crazy, so if you just want to spread hate, please refrain.   IMG 1: Takes place after Nat returned from the mission in Lagos. Anya saw the new’s report but was relieved that Nat was back in one piece. IMG 2: Takes place in Iron Man 2 when Nat makes her first appearance. Stumbling through the rooms she finds the blonde training and asks for directions for Tony’s location. Seeing the girl’s reddened knuckles she “kisses them better” which ensues a fit of gay panic from Anya. IMG 3:  Translation: Nat: “We did it, baby...” Anya: “Yes, we did, Natty.” Takes place after the battle of New York in 2012. IMG 4: Translation: Anyushka?  Takes place in Winter Soldier. After the fight with Bucky when everyone gets taken by S.H.I.E.L.D. a.k.a. HYDRA at the time, Nat, Sam and Steve are rescued by a disguised Maria. Anya wasn’t in the same van as them and gets taken back to Hydra with Bucky. She’s is sedated and brainwashed to be used in the following fight. While Bucky deals with Steve, Anya is sent after Nat. Long story short, she doesn’t kill the Widow but she returns with Bucky back to Hydra. ________________________________________________________________ So to cut to the chase, I’ve read a lot of Nat x R or Nat x Y/N stories recently but I could never insert myself in that. It didn’t feel right for me. But to be able to read those really wonderful pieces where very talented and hard working people put a lot of effort into making, I tried to somehow shape a different character that would fit the MCU and said stories.  And that’s how the sunshine blonde by the name of Anastasia (Anya) Morozoff was born.  Long story short, Anya is another widow but with quite a different story and somehow the total opposite of Nat. She was part of different program in the Red Room which regarded the individuals with great genetic potential.  If you want to know her full story, do let me know. I really don’t want to bore you to death XD   As always, leave a comment or tags. They help tremendously with my anxiety and self doubt when it comes to my art and especially with creating a new character. ^^

#MCU #Marvel #Black Widow #natasha romanoff #natasha fanart #natasha romanoff fanart #MCU fanrt #marvel fanart #OC #original character #Anya Morozoff #my art #artwork #art #artisic #drawing #sketch #sketchbook #digital #digital art #digital drawing #digital illustration #illustration #black and white #Iron Man 2 #Avengers #The Avengers #russian spy #Winter Soldier #Capitan America The Winter Soldier

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

A follow-up to this post, where I remind people that Americans are not just voting for President, we're also voting for Veep.

This is an NPR report from four years ago, when Biden chose Harris as his running mate the first time 'round. I may have posted it then, too. I don't remember. But it bears repeating:

An extended quote that's been stuck in my head, and made me think she was probably a good choice, back in 2020 (bold text is my addition):

LAGOS: Harris knew firsthand how that felt. In 2004, some San Francisco officials pushed the then-state attorney general to take a murder case away from her office after she declined to seek the death penalty. Loftus, Harris' his longtime deputy, says that experience cut deeply. LOFTUS: But I think she fundamentally always believed it's a local prosecutor's job to do the right thing and not to punt. SHAFER: Now that she's in the Senate and on the presidential campaign trail, Harris has been outspoken on policing issues, introducing legislation to ban chokeholds, racial profiling and no-knock warrants.

Is Kamala Harris ideologically pure? Hell no. Is she as far left as anti-policing activists in San Fransisco wanted her to be? Disappointingly, no. Was it wise of her to think she had a even a whisper of a chance to change the System from the Inside? Maybe not.

But at least she's been trying to do more than pander to the Christofascists and the CEOs of mega-corps. That's more than I can say for any of the people hoping Trump will pick them.

When I say: "If you really can't imagine voting for Biden, remember you're voting for Harris, too," it's not just an appeal to "identity politics."

(Also, if you Internet Search "kamala harris district attorney record" you'll get a bunch of articles from Pro-Cop publications with headlines about how terrible she is. So there's that)

#american politics #2024 elections #Both men at the top of the ticket are so old #(and equally mortal) #it's worth considering their running mates too