Putin comments on Prigozhin plane crash

The Russian president described the Wagner chief as “a talented man”

Evgeny Prigozhin was a man of many talents who made a “significant contribution” to the struggle against neo-Nazis in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, commenting on the plane crash that reportedly killed the Wagner Group head.

Speaking with journalists at the Kremlin, Putin said that he had known Prigozhin since the early 1990s, and described him as “a man of complicated destiny.”

“He’d made serious mistakes in his life, but also got results. For himself as well as our common cause, when I asked it of him in these last months,” Putin added. He described Prigozhin as “a talented businessman” who worked in Russia as well as Africa dealing in oil, gas, precious metals and gems. Putin said Prigozhin had apparently just returned from Africa, and had met with some Russian officials.

Prigozhin was on the passenger manifest of the Embraer private jet that crashed on Wednesday in the Tver Region, en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg. All seven passengers and three crew members perished. Authorities are still working to identify the bodies, but Prigozhin is presumed to be among them, along with six other Wagner leaders.

Putin expressed his sincere condolences to their families and vowed that the investigation into the crash would be thorough.

The incident happened exactly two months after Wagner’s failed mutiny against the Russian military. Prigozhin had accused the Russian Defense Ministry of attacking a Wagner base and sent a convoy of troops toward Moscow, while taking over the military command post in Rostov-on-Don.

Putin condemned the mutiny as tantamount to treason and had a criminal case opened against Prigozhin. The charges were dropped within days, however, as Prigozhin agreed to disband much of Wagner and leave with the rest to Belarus and Africa, as part of a deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

https://www.rt.com/russia/581787-putin-wagner-chief-plane/

14 Newly Revealed Epstein Associates That Never Show Up in His Infamous ‘Little Black Book’

The roll of the rich and famous who were in contact with Jeffrey Epstein is growing as new revelations add to the list of people with whom the convicted pedophile and alleged sex trafficker rubbed elbows.

Epstein’s infamous “little black book” of contacts is known to contain many famous names, including prominent politicians, businessmen and entertainers.

Now, New York magazine has compiled a list of high-profile individuals known to have met with Epstein who do not appear in the black book. Its reporting is based on documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

The names include:

Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black

Bard College president Leon Botstein

Google co-founder Sergey Brin

CIA Director William Burns

Professor Noam Chomsky, whose meetings with Epstein included a dinner with director Woody Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn

Former U.S. Virgin Islands first lady Cecile de Jongh, who is accused of helping Epstein get visas for his alleged victims

Bill Gates, whose ties to Epstein have been well known for years

FedEx board member Joshua Cooper Ramo

Former diplomat Terje Rød-Larsen

Edmond de Rothschild Group chairwoman Ariane de Rothschild

Goldman Sachs general counsel Kathryn Ruemmler

JPMorgan executive Jes Staley

Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers

PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel

New York’s list also includes Prince Andrew and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, whose names do in fact appear in Epstein’s black book.

The Wall Street Journal reported in April that Epstein’s calendar was packed.

On one day alone, Sept. 8, 2014, he had scheduled meetings with Gates, Black, Ruemmler and Botstein, as well as with Hyatt Hotels chairman Thomas Pritzker, media owner Mortimer Zuckerman and adviser Barnaby Marsh.

The previously unreported documents reviewed by the Journal include thousands of pages of emails and schedules dating from 2013 to 2017.

The Times said it had obtained Epstein’s schedules “through a public records request to the attorney general for the U.S. Virgin Islands, which had sued Mr. Epstein’s estate.”

Several of the power players identified in the documents gave statements to the Journal.

The CIA said Burns “did not know anything” about Epstein and that the two had “no relationship.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/08/14-newly-revealed-epstein-associates-never-show-infamous/

Epstein-Linked Apollo Sued Over 'Improper' $570 Million Executive Payments To Cover Tax Bills

Recall that Apollo founder Leon Black was forced out over revelations that he had paid $158 million for tax advice and other professional services from dead sex offender pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. According to the lawsuit reported by the Financial Times, Black is in line to receive roughly $276 million from Apollo coffers.

This is not just any lawsuit. This is a derivative lawsuit filed by the Anguilla Social Security Board on behalf of Apollo itself. Translation: Even shareholders think Apollo’s board is too morally compromised to act in the company's best interests.

Few things are funnier than Apollo founder Leon Black paying Jeffrey Epstein $158 million for "tax work"

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 16, 2023

The lawsuit shines a light on what it claims was an extremely hasty approval process conducted by a "conflicts committee" made up of close friends and business associates of Apollo’s co-founders, Leon Black, Marc Rowan, and Josh Harris. The committee allegedly approved hundreds of pages of complex documents within hours, conveniently without keeping minutes for most of its meetings.

According to the complaint, the three founders allegedly "concocted a series of untenable justifications" for the $570 million payout after realizing they might face hefty tax bills if they followed through with an investor-friendly proposal to nuke the firm's dual-class share structure which gave them control.

But according to a complaint filed in Delaware Chancery Court on Wednesday, “there was no legitimate reason to pay the founders’ personal taxes”, and an aggrieved Apollo shareholder, the Anguilla Social Security Board, has alleged that the Apollo board breached its fiduciary duties and it has demanded that the money be returned to the company.

…

Drawing on emails and internal documents given to the Anguilla board under a court order prompted by earlier litigation, the lawsuit makes claims about the final days of a decades-long compact between three men who built one of the most lucrative groups on Wall Street. -FT

After Black was pushed out in a leadership scuffle which he blamed on Harris, the lawsuit claims that the three billionaires coordinated on a series of proposals which would make them even wealthier.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/apollo-sued-over-improper-570-million-executive-payments-cover-tax-bills