FBI Uncovered Russian Bribery Plot Before Obama Approved Uranium One Deal, Netting Clintons Millions

Tyler Durden's picture

As the mainstream media continues to obsess over $100,000 worth Facebook ads allegedly purchased by Russian spies in 2016 seeking to throw the presidential election, we're almost certain they'll ignore the much larger Russian bombshell dropped today in the form of newly released FBI documents that reveal for the very first time that the Obama administration was well aware of illegal bribery, extortion and money laundering schemes being conducted by the Russians to get a foothold in the atomic energy business in the U.S. before approving a deal that handed them 20% of America's uranium reserves...and resulted in a windfall of donations to the Clinton Foundation.

As we pointed out last summer when Peter Schweizer first released his feature documentary Clinton Cash, the Uranium One deal, as approved by the Obama Administration, netted the Clintons and their Clinton Foundation millions of dollars in donations and 'speaking fees' from Uranium One shareholders and other Russian entities.

Russian Purchase of US Uranium Assets in Return for $145mm in Contributions to the Clinton Foundation - Bill and Hillary Clinton assisted a Canadian financier, Frank Giustra, and his company, Uranium One, in the acquisition of uranium mining concessions in Kazakhstan and the United States.  Subsequently, the Russian government sought to purchase Uranium One but required approval from the Obama administration given the strategic importance of the uranium assets.  In the run-up to the approval of the deal by the State Department, nine shareholders of Uranium One just happened to make $145mm in donations to the Clinton Foundation.  Moreover, the New Yorker confirmed that Bill Clinton received $500,000 in speaking fees from a Russian investment bank, with ties to the Kremlin, around the same time.  Needless to say, the State Department approved the deal giving Russia ownership of 20% of U.S. uranium assets 

Now, thanks to newly released affidavits from a case that landed one of the Russian co-conspirators, Vadim Mikerin, in jail, we learn that not only was the Obama administration aware the Russians' illegal acts in the U.S. but it may have also been fully aware that "Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow."  Per The Hill:

Before the Obama administration approved a controversial deal in 2010 giving Moscow control of a large swath of American uranium, the FBI had gathered substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering designed to grow Vladimir Putin’s atomic energy business inside the United States, according to government documents and interviews.

 

Federal agents used a confidential U.S. witness working inside the Russian nuclear industry to gather extensive financial records, make secret recordings and intercept emails as early as 2009 that showed Moscow had compromised an American uranium trucking firm with bribes and kickbacks in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, FBI and court documents show.

 

They also obtained an eyewitness account — backed by documents — indicating Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow, sources told The Hill.

Clinton Cash

Of course, when Schweizer's book first made Uranium One a political hot topic in 2015, both the Obama administration and the Clintons defended their actions and insisted there was no evidence that any Russians or donors engaged in wrongdoing and there was no national security reason for anyone to oppose the deal.  That said, we now know that the FBI was aware of wrongdoing going back to at least April 2009 even though the deal wasn't approved until October 2010.

But FBI, Energy Department and court documents reviewed by The Hill show the FBI in fact had gathered substantial evidence well before the committee’s decision that Vadim Mikerin — the main Russian overseeing Putin’s nuclear expansion inside the United States — was engaged in wrongdoing starting in 2009.

 

The first decision occurred in October 2010, when the State Department and government agencies on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States unanimously approved the partial sale of Canadian mining company Uranium One to the Russian nuclear giant Rosatom, giving Moscow control of more than 20 percent of America’s uranium supply.

 

In 2011, the administration gave approval for Rosatom’s Tenex subsidiary to sell commercial uranium to U.S. nuclear power plants in a partnership with the United States Enrichment Corp. Before then, Tenex had been limited to selling U.S. nuclear power plants reprocessed uranium recovered from dismantled Soviet nuclear weapons under the 1990s Megatons to Megawatts peace program.

And guess who ran the FBI's investigation into this particular Russian plot?  As The Hill notes, the Mikerin probe began in 2009 under Robert Mueller, now the special counsel in charge of the Trump case, and ended in late 2015 under the controversial, former FBI Director James Comey who was relieved of his duties by President Trump.

Ironically, when the DOJ finally arrested Mikerin in 2014, following 5 years of investigations in a massive international bribery and money-laundering scheme, rather than publicly celebrate, they seemingly swept it under the rug.  In fact, there was no public release concerning the case at all until a full year later when the DOJ announced a plea deal with Mikerin right before labor day.

Bringing down a major Russian nuclear corruption scheme that had both compromised a sensitive uranium transportation asset inside the U.S. and facilitated international money laundering would seem a major feather in any law enforcement agency’s cap.

 

But the Justice Department and FBI took little credit in 2014 when Mikerin, the Russian financier and the trucking firm executives were arrested and charged.

 

The only public statement occurred an entire year later when the Justice Department put out a little-noticed press release in August 2015, just days before Labor Day. The release noted that the various defendants had reached plea deals.

 

By that time, the criminal cases against Mikerin had been narrowed to a single charge of money laundering for a scheme that officials admitted stretched from 2004 to 2014. And though agents had evidence of criminal wrongdoing they collected since at least 2009, federal prosecutors only cited in the plea agreement a handful of transactions that occurred in 2011 and 2012, well after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States’s approval.

 

The final court case also made no mention of any connection to the influence peddling conversations the FBI undercover informant witnessed about the Russian nuclear officials trying to ingratiate themselves with the Clintons even though agents had gathered documents showing the transmission of millions of dollars from Russia’s nuclear industry to an American entity that had provided assistance to Bill Clinton’s foundation, sources confirmed to The Hill.

Perhaps this is what the "most transparent" President in history meant when he told Medvedev that he would have "more flexibility" after his 2012 election.

 

Below are the affidavits released today:

 

 

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lester1's picture

Obama and Hillary should both be in jail.

Mercury's picture

As the mainstream media continues to obsess over $100,000 worth Facebook ads allegedly purchased by Russian spies in 2016...

 

So fucking what? 

What, George Soros' much greater "meddling in our democracy" is OK?

HenryKissingerZuckerberg's picture

at this point, what difference does it make  Hillary Rodham Clinton

this is so 2016

Ghost of Porky's picture

But..but..Russia hacked Pokemon Go!

Au_Ag_CuPbCu's picture

Our politicians are for sale...who knew?

IH8OBAMA's picture

Sessions, please prosecute Obama, Hillary, Lynch, Holder, et al immediately for their corruption against America!!!  And grab those millions in bribes Bill Clinton got from the Russians.

This is just unconscionable!

 

macholatte's picture

 

Think about it for just one minute......
Trump was an unknown.
Clinton’s were for sale.

Who would you support for POTUS?

 

LOCK HIM UP!

    LOCK HER UP!

        LOCK THEM UP!

 

Ghost of PartysOver's picture

Will Meuller be investigating himself along with all the others.  Just axin the quesion.

Manthong's picture

 

If you shit all over everything everywhere, sooner or later somebody is going to smell it and say it is time to get the industrial cleaners in to hose out the joint.

.. with lots of disinfectant .

WTFRLY's picture

JOOMINATI OPERATORS IN THE OPEN. FIRE!

Muddy1's picture

So what else did the FBI uncover that they did nothing about?  9 11?

Bastiat's picture

The did plenty about 9-11 - they sent plenty of evidence down the memory hole.

Shemp 4 Victory's picture

Note the clever use of anti-Putin propaganda used in the article from The Hill:

bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering designed to grow Vladimir Putin’s atomic energy business inside the United States

and

overseeing Putin’s nuclear expansion inside the United States

Attributing personal ownership of the state-owned corporation Rosatom to the Russian president is rather cheap propaganda. What makes it even cheaper is not bothering to check who the Russian president was during 2009 and 2010, the years during which the events in question happened.

Hint: it was not Vladimir Putin.

JimmyJones's picture

OK Sessions either do something or resign.  I am hoping for resignation at this point.  You are either lazy or incompetent or compromised.

tmosley's picture

The unfortunate fact of the situation is that we don't get to see what is actually going on. Federal investigations can take three years or more to complete, and they aren't going to talk about them, and often they won't even admit to the existance of such investigations until after arrests have been made.

Doing nothing and doing a lot will look the same to any outsider.

TheDude1224's picture

"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in".

On a serious note, does anyone with any power actually care anymore? Is there anyone out there that is going to take all of this evidence and do something with it, or is this just going to remain ZH anti-RHC porn? 

NoDebt's picture

@theDude1224-  Easy, son.  No, nobody's going to do anything with this mountain of evidence.  Sorry.  But it could be worse.  She could be in the WH right now.  Count your blessings.

 

Ghost of Porky's picture

Jeff Sessions daily schedule for 10/17/2017:

11:00am: Wake up

11:30am: Breakfast (oatmeal, orange juice w/metamucil)

12:00pm: Nap time

02:00pm: Watch "The Price is Right"

03:00pm: Skype w/grandkids

04:00pm: Bath time

05:00pm: Dinner (oatmeal, orange juice w/metamucil, jello)

05:30pm: Meds

06:00pm: Bedtime

Mike Masr's picture

That's hysterical Ghost of Porky!!!

TheDude1224's picture

This may be one of the best schedules I have ever seen! I'm not sure how he fits in poop time though for all that metamucil. Hilarious!

Hal n back's picture

you forgot 30 minutes in the AM and in the PM to reply to e mails saying the DOJ will not further pursue (regardless of the issue)

buttmint's picture

Ghost of Porky...good one, but you forgot

4:35pm Metamucil shooters

HRClinton's picture

You got it all wrong. The guy is a CLOSET PERV: a Leather Chair sniffer.

You do NOT rise to that position, w/o having some deep, dark secrets that can and will be held over you.

Otherwise, if you insist on being a permanent Boy/Goy-Scout, you best go back to your La-La Land and have some more kosher, deep-state Kool-aid(K)(DS) and Goy Scout(K)(DS) cookies.

buttmint's picture

Hillary "...we spent the money already" (on HIV vaccines for poor 3rd world women)

DIE ALREADY HILDABEST, YOU LOONEY BITCH WEARING A PORTA-POTTY UNDER HER OLD LADY GARMENTS!

doctor10's picture

Classic Liberal Projection (CLP) -they always accuse the right of exactly that of which they are guilty.

BTW-since when does Fed.Gov continue to pay the salaries and retirements, on We the Peoples behalf, of legal and law "enforcement" "professionals" who have clearly committed professional malpractice and malfeasance?

Killdo's picture

psychopaths everywhere use the same trick as often as possible - itusually works because normal people with conscience find it unbelievable that anyonewoudl try to lie so outrageously. 

Psychopaths are masters of using our biological instincts against us. 

the strategy is becoming more and more obvious the more desparate they get

opport.knocks's picture

Unfortunately Georgie Porgie (Soros) is a US citizen, and according to US law (thanks to SC's Citizens United decision) can spend as much as he wants "meddling" in US elections.

The odd thing is that the alleged "Russian meddlers" supposedly come from a country that, according to widespread media reports and government sources, has advanced expertise in money laundering. Yet they chose not to do so in the case of these non-partisan Facebook ads. 

That is the argument to be made to Mr Zuck and his leftist company.

OverTheHedge's picture

Shameless bit of comment-jumping here: sorry.

The article keeps suggesting that this is Putin's personal involvement, of his personal business interests within the US. Is there actually any evidence of this? Or is" Putin" synonymous with "Russia" which is synonymous with "evil Machiavellian plot"?

Did Putin pay the bribes, or the Russian State, or some Russian companies? I appreciate that it is hard to tell, sometimes, and I freely admit I didn't read all the attached documents, so if the answer is already in there, my apologies.

Mercury's picture

Does it matter?

Why is it OK for George Soros to throw money and resources at US election campaigns but not Putin the private citizen or Putin the head of state?  

Is there any reason to believe that anyone or any entity (including the US) that can exert influence on a foreign election doesn't do so all the time in an effort to benefit themselves?

You want to see what real, big time, foreign influence pay-for-play and collusion looks like in a major US election?...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_United_States_campaign_finance_contro...

consider me gone's picture

"Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow."  Per The Hill

Russian nuclear officials? Does that answer your question? Also, Putin personally called Bill Clinton and thanked him. I forget where I read that but it was probably here. Could y'all "America Sucks = Russia Good" crowd give it rest. Unless you're Russian, then I understand  your doing what you feel you have to do. Russia is every bit as slimy as the US and vise versa. Yes there is a struggle for world domination and influence. But neither side is particularly angelic. So the whole poor old Russia/St. Putin thing is just fucking nauseating and complete bullshit. So assign the guilt to the US that it deserves, fine. But Russia plays just as damn ugly or uglier.

 This is in no way an endorsement of HC or of our government in general. I think that last administration was comprised of traitors from top to bottom. And Congress is too busy feeding at the trough to care. And Trump? Well, I voted for him because I had no choice but least he's trying to make a difference before this thing collapses under the weight of it's own corruption and incompetence. 

opport.knocks's picture

Short story: Uranium One was a Canadian Company controlled by Canadian Frank Guistra. He and other entities related to Uranium One made huge donations to the Clinton Foundation. Uranium One was sold to the Russian, majority State owned company. Because the company is State owned, Putin must be blamed. And State ownership of natural resources must be defamed, because, well... it is harder for the usual suspects to profit from that. (This is the real reason for defaming Putin/Russia for the past 10 or so years)

Watch the Clinton Cash video,

And then the South Park "blame Canada" bit https://youtu.be/bOR38552MJA

junction's picture

"It's the money, stupid!"  As all these stories about the Clintons swirl, nothing is done.  The new Tom Cruise movie about CIA drug smuggler Barry Seal had to have its title changed from "Mena" to "American Made" to avoid stating the obvious: Arkansas Governor Clinton and his cokehead wife Hillary facilitated the CIA's smuggling of tons of cocaine into the CIA-funded Mena, Arkansas airport. Just like the press cover-up of predator Harvey Weinstein, reporters knew exactly what was going on in Mena and chickened out, refusing to report the truth.  This uranium deal was a sell-out to the highest bidder.  Who knows what other crooked deals the Clinton Crime Family profited from.  Don't expect the New York Times to look into anything that damages Hillary's reputation.

Hugh_Jorgan's picture

"Don't expect the New York Times to look into anything that damages Hillary's reputation."

Or the DOJ!!!

BennyBoy's picture

 

 If Hillary was president there would at least be real evidence connecting her flabby ass to Russia.

Send Bill and Hillary to Siberia.

chubbar's picture

Doesn't anyone wonder where the fuck is the outrage that the CIA  IS/WAS smuggling tons of cocaine INTO the US? What the fuck does this organization have to do before we decide they are our enemy?

It's just business as usual for the average american that wanders into a movie theater and watches a movie that confirms the US's top secret spy organization is bringing drugs into the US while the FBI and other LEO groups arrest and imprison for life, those that are caught trafficing these same drugs. To say nothing about the death and family destruction those drugs have caused in our towns and cities.

Why the fuck hasn't Trump stood up and called for the disbanding of the CIA (don't worry, I know the answer)? I mean, this shit is just inexcusable yet no one is talking around the water cooler about this shit. Our population is completely brain dead.

you_are_cleared_hot's picture

$145M??!! that is insane! how in the hell is she NOT wearing silver bracelets and an orange jumpsuit right now. Please Hillary...Please run again - you will make us so happy!!

Lumberjack's picture

Too bad...She gave that to a certain ‘Womans Charity’ and now it’s gone!

Nice shoes Hill, break a leg...

Kidbuck's picture

Jeff Sessions should be in jail with'em. Aiding and abbetting treason is still a crime, Jeffie.

2banana's picture

AG Sessions - DO SOMETHING!

onewayticket2's picture

"AG Sessions' voicemail is full.  Try again later."