Ron Burkle and the Catholic Church (Holy See) properties
Ron Burkle bought and sold Catholic church property through the Holy See (Vatican). This led to what later became known as the Raffaello Follieri Scandal.
Going back a few posts in this thread, remember that Ron Burkle’s Relativity Media company was partly funded by Elliot Investment Management and The Yucaipa Companies.
The Yucaipa Companies is an equities fund owned by Ron Burkle, along with a joint venture with Follieri Group (founded by Raffaello Follieri), that he used to buy and sell Catholic owned properties through. His good friend Bill Clinton (Remember, an endorser of Ripple…), is an “Advisor” for The Yucaipa Companies as well.
Both Raffaelllo Follieri (close to the Vatican) and Jeffrey Epstein/ Ghislaine Maxwell had each met at least once with Pope John Paul.
The scandal involved accusations that Italian real estate developer Raffaello Follieri misappropriated an investment from Bill Clinton and Ron Burkle meant to buy Roman Catholic churches in the United States.[1] Follieri ultimately pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges in the U.S. and was sentenced to prison. He was released after 4.5 years and deported to Italy. He and Ron are on good terms.
Raffaello Follieri is friends with both Ron Burkle and Bill Clinton, as well as Clinton’s former top aid, Douglas Band, CEO of Teneo.
Side note*: Teneo, founded by Hilary and Bill Clinton, with Douglas Band as CEO, also hired Ken Kurston, Jared Kushner’s best friend who was pardoned by President Trump in 2021, and also sat on the board of Ripple. Teneo has at least one employee (Jim Feltman) who worked closely with Perdue while Mary Jo White (Ripple defending attorney and Leslie Wexner attorney) was defending the Sackler family of Perdue Pharma for the opioid crisis.
Steve Mortensen is also an advisor for Burkle’s Yucaipa Companies, as well as Swiftly, an e-commerce company funded by Ron Burkle and Ruttenberg Gordon Investments.
Ruttenberg Gordon Investments is a Series A seed funder of Ripple and Series C funder of Uphold, the exchange with deep ties to Ripple from board members to investors..