Originally Midnight Riders #306 >>68975

Trader gets painted stones instead of $36m of copper

A commodities trader was given painted stones instead of $36m (£26m) of copper from a Turkish supplier in a fraudulent deal last summer.

Geneva-based Mercuria Energy Group says it's been the victim of cargo fraud following its purchase of 10,000 tons of copper blister. When the cargoes started arriving in China, it found containers full of painted stones instead. The bizarre case happened despite security and inspection controls.

Last year, Mercuria agreed to buy the copper blister, an impure form of the metal, for delivery to China. About 6,000 tonnes was loaded for shipment in more than 300 containers on eight vessels. But before its journey from a port near Istanbul, the copper was switched with paving stones, spray-painted to resemble the semi-refined metal. Mercuria, one of the five-biggest oil traders in the world, is seeking redress in Turkish and UK courts against the copper supplier Bietsan Bakir.

Turkish police have taken a number people into custody in relation to the faux-copper scheme. "Suspects have been taken under custody who are thought to be involved in the various parts of this organised crime against Mercuria," the company said in a statement while thanking the Istanbul Financial Crimes Department. It appears the copper was initially loaded into the first shipment of containers, before being surveyed by an inspection company. Seals used to prevent fraud were fixed to the containers.

But the containers were opened and the copper replaced with paving stones, Istanbul law firm KYB told media. The fraudsters switched between fake and real container seals to avoid detection.

With the vessels at sea, Mercuria paid $36m over five installments. The fraud wasn't discovered until the ships began arriving in the Chinese port of Lianyungang later that month.

"There has been a criminal investigation petition by the buyer against the seller and two intermediaries," Turkish police said in a statement. "It's been determined that the incident is the outcome of fraud perpetrated in an organised manner." In cases of non-delivery a trader could make a claim against a cargo's insurance policy. But Mercuria found that just one out of seven contracts used by the Turkish company to insure the cargo was real. The rest had been forged.

Bietsan Bakir, the Turkish firm which sold Mercuria the copper, did not respond to requests for comment when contacted by Reuters. More hearings on the case are expected this week.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56330378

Don't recall his name coming up for London before.

Originally Midnight Riders #306 >>69012

https://mobile.twitter.com/GeorgePapa19/status/1369505300248662017

There is reporting now that the inner circle of the Comey-McCabe cabal is cooperating with Durham. Keep a look out for Bill Priestap as the key figure in this mess who will turn on both of them. He was in London when a lot of the framing began against the campaign.

>>13177375 (me)

Part 1

Meet Bill Priestap: The Testimony that DOOMS the Democrats

By Kevin Jackson - April 19, 2019

You may not have heard this name much. But as it turns out, E. W. Priestap played a critical role in this spy novel.

The E. W. are initials for Edward William Priestap, aka Bill Priestap. His background is in law. However, the role that matters to America centers around his work with the FBI as an intelligence officer.

In fact, Priestap worked as the assistant director of the FBI Counterintelligence Division from 2015 to 2018.

His testimony before Congress hangs the Democrats out to dry. While the government redacted some of his testimony, somebody tied the strings together creating enough rope to hang the Democrats.

As noted by Real Clear Investigations, we know the timeline of when the FBI began its plans to entrap President Trump.

Priestap’s testimony took place on June 5, 2018, in Room 2226 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The questioning, by congressmen and House committee staff, focused on whether the FBI had applied the same rigor to the Clinton investigation that it had to the Trump probe.

The transcript the public can read today contains not only those questions and Priestap’s responses, but also the tell-tale redactions of anxious bureaucrats. One thing that is very clear is that the Sharpie brigades at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice really, really didn’t want anyone to know where Bill Priestap was a week into May 2016.

Not long into the questioning that Tuesday morning last summer, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) asked, “Do you ever travel oversees?”

“Yes,” said Priestap.

“How often?”

“As little as possible.”

The apparent comedy routine notwithstanding, Jordan later asked how many times in his 2½ years running the counterintelligence shop Priestap had traveled abroad.

“I want to say three times,” he said.

“And can you tell me where you went?” Jordan asked.

“The ones I’m remembering are the [REDACTED].”

Jordan drilled in: “All three times to [REDACTED]?

Priestap said the trips he remembered “off the top of my head were all [REDACTED].”

Jordan asked whether Priestap remembered when he went to this place. Priestap said, “No.”

Jordan would stop his testimony there. However, he later returned during another round of questioning.

>>13177417

Part 2

In that interrogation, Jordan asked whether Priestap had traveled to a given location at a particular time in 2016.

Understand that time and again, censors from the FBI and DOJ redacted the location and the time. Surely a location of even the assistant director of the FBI Counterintelligence Division is not top secret? I mean, FBI agents visit places often, even though the agency supposedly deals with domestic issues.

And what of the timing?

Would the timing of travel need to be kept such a secret? Perhaps, if you don’t want the American people to connect the dots on the where and when. Because with those two unknowns, we might figure out the why?

The article continues,

Turns out the Sharpie brigades weren’t nearly as thorough as they thought. A long-available transcript of text messages between FBI agent Peter Strzok and lawyer Lisa Page – the paramours who worked on both the Clinton and Trump investigations – provide the answer. It’s right there on the page detailing texts between Strzok and Page on May 4, 2016. At around 9:31 that Wednesday evening, Strzok writes to say he is worried about getting a memo into shape that is expected that night or the next morning. He feels pressured even though “I don’t know that Bill will read it before he gets back from London next week.” Go to a text from the next Monday morning, May 9, and Strzok is wondering who will be receiving the daily report on the Clinton investigation, what “with Bill out.”

So there we have it. Bill Priestap was in London on or around May 9. Which strongly suggests that all three of the international trips taken by him during his tenure as FBI counterintelligence chief were to London.

Still, there is a reason the censors had out their Sharpies. It has to do with another question Jordan asked Priestap: “Okay. So what were you doing in [REDACTED] in the [REDACTED] of 2016?”

“So,” Priestap replied, “I went to meet with a foreign partner, foreign government partner.” In other words, almost certainly British intelligence. Not exposing our British partners has been the Justice Department’s justification for locking up secrets about the beginnings of the Trump investigation. The redactions try and fail to hide that Priestap met repeatedly with his British counterparts in 2016.

Clearly, Priestap went on mission regarding the Steele Dossier. Understand that the FBI sent an envoy to London over a fake dossier.

We have the testimony from Christopher Steele where he admitted that his information was speculative at best. So when the new, real investigation begins, Democrats have absolutely no cover.

Consider Priestap the first of many dominoes soon to fall. These people are almost all on record for their activities. Keep in mind they had no idea they would get caught. For much of their testimony these Deep State swamp rats still held on to the notion that the concocted narrative would get Trump. All they needed to do was hang on, continue to lie, until the inevitable happens and Trump is impeached or worse.

So they lied through their teeth. Repeatedly.

Many Americans believe these conspirators won’t get justice. But they are wrong. You are watching multiple fuses being lit. Soon the explosions will happen in DC, and Democrats will seek cover. I suspect some weigh the calculus now on whether it’s time to start spilling the beans.

https://theblacksphere.net/2019/04/meet-bill-priestap-the-testimony-that-dooms-the-democrats/