In July, Buma sent the Senate Judiciary Committee a 22-page statement full of eye-popping allegations, and the document leaked and was first reported last month by Insider (after a conservative blogger had posted it online). According to Bumaā€™s account, Giuliani was used as an asset by a Ukrainian oligarch tied to Russian intelligence and other Russian operatives for a disinformation operation that aimed to discredit Joe Biden and boost Trump in the 2020 presidential race. Moreover, Buma says he was the target of retaliation within the bureau for digging into this.

Bumaā€™s statement highlights Giulianiā€™s relationship with Pavel Fuks, a wealthy Ukrainian developer, who in 2017 hired Giuliani and paid him $300,000. Fuks once told the New York Times that he had retained Giuliani to lobby in the United States for the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, where Fuks then lived. Giuliani has denied that he was paid to lobby for Kharkiv, insisting he only provided advice regarding security to the city. And Fuks has changed his tune. Through a spokesperson, he told Mother Jones that Giulianiā€™s work was limited to advising the city.

In his statement, Buma says that the FBI assessed Fuks to be a ā€œco-opted assetā€ of Russian intelligence services, meaning a person who Russian intelligence used to advance its goals. Bumaā€™s complaint does not name a specific Russian intelligence agency, but a person who spoke to agents involved in this investigation says that the FBI believes Fuks worked for the FSB, the successor to KGB. All this raises the possibility that Giuliani, a former Republican presidential candidate who became a close adviser to Trump, received a large payment directly from a Russian asset.

Buma alleges that Fuks has carried out various tasks for Russian spies, including laundering money for them. Fuks also reportedly paid locals to spray-paint swastikas around Kharkiv in the weeks before Russiaā€™s invasion. Buma says Fuks did so to bolster Vladmir Putinā€™s claim that the invasion aimed to achieve the ā€œde-Nazification of Ukraine.ā€

  • nilloc
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    Ā·
    10 months ago

    Are we sure about this. We have a whole investment industry set up to steal from everybody.

    As long as the rich people youā€™re Sterling from arenā€™t more rich than you, youā€™ll be fine.