Atlantic Council, A Prominent DC-Based Think Tank, Wooed Russian Bankers, Emails Show

The Atlantic Council pursued a relationship with the owners of one of Russia’s largest private banks, with one official at the think tank saying he would meet with one of the bankers “to ask him what he wants.”

Anders Aslund, the Atlantic Council official, noted in an email that the banker, Mikhail Fridman, had “been extremely stingy” with his wealth after an earlier meeting.

The emails provide a rare glimpse into how one of the premier foreign policy think tanks views its relationship with potential donors.

Think tanks like the Atlantic Council have come under increased scrutiny over their ties to donors, especially those overseas.

After the owners of one of Russia’s largest private banks announced in 2016 that they would give away all of their wealth, a top official at the Atlantic Council saw a chance to fill the Washington-based think tank’s coffers.

“This could open an opportunity,” Anders Aslund, a Swedish economist, wrote in an email on May 20, 2016, to his colleagues at the Atlantic Council, one of the Beltway’s most prominent foreign policy think tanks.

Mikhail Fridman and Peter Aven, the billionaire co-owners of Alfa Bank, had just announced they would both give away their wealth to charity, Aslund wrote, citing a Russian news report.

“To date Fridman has been extremely stingy,” Aslund said, noting that Atlantic Council executives had hosted the banker in Washington, D.C. months earlier “and got nothing.”

“I shall tentatively have dinner with Aven in Moscow Sunday night so I might be able to ask him what he wants,” Aslund wrote in the email, which was revealed in a lawsuit that Fridman, Aven and a third Alfa Bank owner filed over the infamous Steele dossier.

Other Atlantic Council officials wrote of forming a relationship with the bankers, according to emails from the lawsuit.

In one, Atlantic Council CEO Fred Kempe wrote of a potential partnership between the think tank and Letter One, an affiliate of Alfa Bank. “I’m also copying Rick Burt, who is helping us think about our relationship with Letter One, but perhaps there’s also a larger role for you personally to play at the Atlantic Council,” Kempe said in a letter to Aven on July 27, 2015.

Burt, a former U.S. ambassador to Germany, is a director at the Atlantic Council and adviser to the Alfa Bank owners.

https://dailycaller.com/2020/11/15/atlantic-council-alfa-bank-anders-aslund/

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>>11663696

Herbst and Painter attended energy forums alongside Burisma executives. Herbst also invited Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky to a “Ukraine Strategy Session” held at the Atlantic Council on March 19, 2018, according to documents released by Senate committees who investigated Hunter Biden’s work for Burisma.

BuzzFeed News reported in 2018, a consortium of Latvian banks represented by Painter commissioned Aslund, the Atlantic Council senior fellow, to write a policy paper commending bank reforms in Latvia.

According to BuzzFeed, one of the Latvian banks, ABLV, was seeking approval to establish a branch in the U.S. The effort failed after the U.S. Treasury Department identified ABLV as a “primary money laundering concern.”

Aslund’s emails regarding Alfa Bank’s owners were revealed in court filings in a lawsuit that they filed against Fusion GPS regarding its role disseminating an anti-Trump dossier authored by former British spy Christopher Steele in 2016.

Steele alleged in the dossier, which was funded by the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign, that the Trump campaign conspired with the Kremlin to influence the 2016 election.

One of the 17 memos, dated Sept. 14, 2016, alleged that Aven and Fridman — the Alfa Bank owners — had bribed Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Fusion GPS and Steele also investigated the now-debunked claim that Alfa Bank had a covert communications channel with the Trump Organization in 2016.

Steele testified in a lawsuit that Michael Sussmann, a partner for Perkins Coie, the firm that represented the Clinton campaign and the DNC, told him in July 2016 of the alleged connection between Alfa Bank and Trump. Steele said Glenn Simpson, the owner of Fusion GPS, directed him to dig up dirt on the bankers as part of his investigation into the Trump campaign.

A British judge ruled against Steele in July in the lawsuit filed by the bankers, saying that the allegations in the dossier were “inaccurate” and “misleading.”

Lawyers for Fusion GPS cited the Aslund emails in their request to depose Burt, the Alfa Bank adviser and Atlantic Council director.

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Police arrest DC man in firework attack after Million MAGA March

A man was arrested for allegedly hurling fireworks at people in the aftermath of the “MAGA Million March” in Washington DC, police said Sunday.

Javien Michael Dawson, 26, was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon for Saturday’s attack on the 1600 block of K Street, not far from the White House, cops said.

Video had shown counter-protesters throwing debris — and then fireworks — at a small group of Trump supporters sitting outside a P.J. Clarke’s restaurant in that area after the rally.

Police said that at around 5:40 p.m. on Saturday, Dawson “discharged a commercial grade firework at several victims at the listed location.”

He then fled, but was nabbed by responding officers.

Dawson was one of at least 21 people arrested during the unrest.

Six people were hit with weapons charges, including four for carrying guns without a permit or license, and two were charged with assaulting a police officer. Several others were charged with assault, theft, or disorderly conduct.

https://nypost.com/2020/11/15/police-arrest-dc-man-in-firework-attack-after-million-maga-march/

NSW Government bought land for three times its value for light rail project

A major land deal is under scrutiny after the New South Wales Government paid three times its value in an urgent "out of session" meeting.

Key points:

A property developer bought land in Camellia, Sydney, shortly before the Parramatta Light Rail project was announced

The NSW Government failed to negotiate a good price, buying the land from the developer for three times its value to use as a tram depot

Former NSW auditor-general Tony Harris said the property deal should be referred to ICAC

The cost of the land and remediation of the contaminated site is estimated to cost taxpayers more than $100 million.

A NSW property developer, Billbergia, bought the land at 6 Grand Avenue, Camellia, 13 days before the government announced its multi-billion-dollar Parramatta Light Rail project on December 8, 2015.

The polluted site would become critical to the new project as the main depot and stabling yard for the trams.

Billbergia bought the land for $38 million then flipped it months later to Transport for NSW for $53.5 million, with a proviso that the department paid for the remediation of the toxic site. At the time the land, excluding the cost of remediation, was valued by the NSW Valuer General at $15.5 million.

It would give Billbergia, which is owned by brothers John and Bill Kinsella, a $15.5 million windfall gain, excluding stamp duty and other costs.

A joint investigation by 7.30 and The Sydney Morning Herald into the government's purchase of the highly contaminated land can reveal it came after an urgent "out of session" meeting of senior government officials, which resulted in the reversal of earlier plans to get the landowner to pay to remediate the site or seek compulsory acquisition of the property.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-16/nsw-government-bought-land-for-three-times-its-value-light-rail/12881058

Federal Government settles $1.2b Robodebt class action over unlawful debt scheme

The Commonwealth has agreed to a settlement worth $1.2 billion over its unlawful Robodebt recovery program, which raised automated debts against welfare recipients.

Key points:

The Commonwealth had already agreed to repay $721 million in wrongfully collected debts

Hundreds of millions of dollars in debts the Government was still pursuing will be dropped as part of the settlement

Labor says it will continue to pursue a royal commission into the debt recovery program

The Robodebt scheme has been widely criticised for using computer algorithms to raise debts against hundreds of thousands of welfare recipients, with little to no human oversight.

In May, the Federal Government agreed to pay back $721 million to more than 370,000 people who were wrongly pursued.

Today's settlement includes that amount, plus $112 million in compensation and a decision to drop a further $398 million in debts wrongly raised.

The matter was meant to go to trial today.

Lawyers for people affected by Robodebt said if the settlement was approved by the Federal Court, a scheme would be established to assess compensation claims by those who believe they are owed money.

Those amounts would be paid in 2021.

Gordon Legal partner Andrew Grech said the lead applicants had shown courage in pursuing the class action.

"We want to acknowledge the courage of the lead applicants, Katherine, Elyane, Steven, Felicity, Shannon and Devon, who led these proceedings on behalf of all Robodebt victims in pursuit of this class action, which has allowed this outcome to be achieved today," Mr Grech said.

Opposition keeps up calls for royal commission

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Scott Morrison apologised in Parliament for "hurt or harm" caused by the process.

The class action, launched on behalf of people who received notices through the automated debt recovery process, was launched last year.

Shadow minister for government services Bill Shorten said Labor would continue to push for a royal commission into Robodebt.

"Today it means that 400,000 victims of the Government's illegal protection racket … these people have got some justice," he said

"This is a good day for them, but I think the rest of Australia, and the people who were damaged by this process can say: 'who was responsible?'"

Mr Shorten said it should not have taken four years for the Government to recognise the program was flawed.

"I wish they had done their homework. It shouldn't have taken until the day of the court hearing for the Commonwealth to come good."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-16/government-response-robodebt-class-action/12886784

Numbers on a screen no accountability

>>11663808 Baker this is kind important, all the rats connected

>>11663696, >>11663721 Atlantic Council, A Prominent DC-Based Think Tank, Wooed Russian Bankers, Emails Show