COLD CASE FILES: TRUMP TOWERS OF BABEL (follow up to Park Family Murders April 2022 post)
TRUMP TOWERS OF BABEL: THE LEVIEV-VESSELNITSKAYA TANGLED WEB
A SUSPICION SERIES UPDATE – 2025 EDITION
COLD CASE IN THE SHADOWS OF MANHATTAN: PREVEZON, PUTIN'S DIAMOND KING, AND THE TRUMP FAMILY'S RUSSIAN REAL ESTATE RIDDLE
In out last COLD CASE FILE we looked at a local murder which was followed by a lynchingPARK FAMILY MURDERS. Now we take a international 'cold case' ...the Prevezon money laundering case from 2013 NYC with international players. Take a look with us.
There are murky undercurrents of Trump-world financing—those post-bankruptcy lifelines from shadowy oligarch buyers and the faint whiff of laundered cash in luxury condos— peel back layers on Eric Trump's blunt 2014 confession: "We have all the funding we need out of Russia." Put a spotlight on Don Jr.'s 2008 aside about Russian oligarchs snapping up Trump assets like they were Black Sea bargains. Consider that infamous June 2016 Trump Tower sit-down, where a Russian lawyer with Kremlin strings dangled "dirt" on Hillary like forbidden fruit.
And now we've unearthed a fresh vein of overlap that ties it all tighter than a noose: Lev Leviev, the Israeli-Russian "King of Diamonds" with Putin's ear (he's been dubbed the oligarch's personal rabbi via Chabad Lubavitch networks), his Africa Israel Investments (AFI) empire, and one Natalya Veselnitskaya—the indicted Prevezon defender who crashed that Trump Tower party. It's not just adjacency; it's a constellation of deals, dinners, and dodged justice that begs the question: Coincidence in the canyons of New York real estate, or a blueprint for influence peddling? Let's map it out, fact by fact, and see where the shadows fall.Here's a snippet from a 2008 New York Times land deal archive—AFI's footprint in Manhattan, cheek-by-jowl with Trump-branded towers. You can trace Leviev's canal of cash from Tel Aviv to the Hudson, snaking through Cyprus shells and luxury flips. Zoom in on 20 Pine Street: That's the converted 1932 skyscraper where Prevezon's laundered loot landed, and where Jared Kushner parked his newlywed nest egg. The threads? They pull taut.
Early photo of 20 Pine Street, circa 2011—elegant facade hiding what the feds called a money-washing machine.
THE DEALS: LEVIEV'S TRUMP LIFELINE
Start with the brass tacks, because nothing says "business as usual" like a billionaire's handshake over Moscow high-rises. In 2007, as Trump's Atlantic City empire crumbled under its sixth bankruptcy filing, Lev Leviev's AFI inked a licensing deal for a 70-story Trump Tower knockoff in Ramat Gan, Israel—hundreds of millions on the line, Trump slapping his gold-leaf name on it for a cut. It tanked in '09 amid the crash, Trump griping publicly about Leviev's "funding issues." But the damage? Done.
A year later, May 2008, the two huddled in New York to brainstorm Russian projects—nothing stuck, but the photo op lingers like cigar smoke. Fast-forward to the Kushner lane: Jared snagged Unit 30C at Leviev's 20 Pine Street for $1.8 million in 2011—a distressed fire sale in the Financial District. He and Ivanka Trump honeymooned there, literally, post their 2009 vows. Cozy, right? Except those walls held more than newlywed bliss. Four floors down, Prevezon Holdings—Denis Katsyv's Cyprus shell, accused of rinsing $20 million from a $230 million Russian tax scam (the one Sergei Magnitsky blew the whistle on before dying in a Moscow cell)—snapped up units 1711, 1810, 2009, and 2011.
Feds froze 'em in 2013, calling it textbook laundering: fraud bucks flipped into Manhattan marble. Kushner's pad? Untouched, no red flags. But Leviev's AFI? It owned the building, developed the condos, and held a 30% stake in Prevezon's Cyprus real estate puppets. Small world? Or a revolving door? By 2015, Kushner Companies doubled down, grabbing 51% of the old New York Times building (620 Eighth Avenue) from AFI for $295 million. Partners in that flip? Later probed for Russian cash funnels. And Chabad? The glue. Leviev's its global sugar daddy; Trump hosted AFI exec weddings at Mar-a-Lago in '07, crashed a Leviev-hosted bris in '08. Ivanka's rocked Leviev diamonds on the red carpet. Jared? Deep in the Ohel prayers. It's not blood, but it's thicker than ink on a contract.
THE MEETING: VESSELNITSKAYA'S TRUMP TOWER CURTAIN CALL
Enter Natalya Veselnitskaya, the Moscow lawyer with a prosecutor's Rolodex and a flair for fibs. She's Prevezon's hired gun in the 2013 DOJ forfeiture suit—allegedly lying to a U.S. judge about Kremlin-sourced docs to shield Katsyv's loot. Indicted in 2019 for obstruction, she holes up in Russia, untouchable.
(Getty images)
But rewind to June 9, 2016: She's upstairs in Trump Tower, pitching Don Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort on "Russian government support" for Daddy's campaign. The bait? Clinton dirt, wrapped in a bow of adoption policy gripes (code for gutting Magnitsky sanctions, which hit her clients hard). No charges stuck from Mueller or Senate Intel, but the email chain? Gold: "Highly appreciated help." Veselnitskaya's firm, Kamerton? It lobbies for Russian interests, including in occupied Kherson as of July 2024—irony's a bitch when you're "consulting" on prosecutions for theft in stolen lands.
Link her to Leviev? Through Prevezon: Her defense kept the Cyprus-AFI stakes afloat, the same web snaring Kushner's buys. And Trump? His DOJ inherits the case in January 2017—Bharara's ousted in March—and settles it four months later for $5.9 million. Triple the traceable taint ($1.97 million), sure, but peanuts next to the $250 million+ exposure the feds demanded in '13. No admission of guilt, assets thawed, Veselnitskaya walks free in Moscow. House Dems probed for interference in '17—Conyers demanding files, tying it to the Tower meet. DOJ? "Merit-based," they swear. No White House whispers. But as you sift the redacted replies, the silence screams: Why the rush? Why the discount?
EVIDENCE: FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND(CASTLE)
Poke the archives, and the mismatches pile up like unpaid liens. Census '70s show Leviev's AFI circling NYC like a hawk—20 Pine as ground zero. DOJ filings (S.D.N.Y. 2013) nail Prevezon's units as fraud-flipped, but Kushner's? Clean as a whistle, per public records. Senate Finance '17 flags the NYT deal as a Russian entry ramp, yet no deeper digs. And the settlement? Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim (Bharara holdover) calls it a "win," but Magnitsky's widow crys foul: Capitulation to cover tracks? Matthew Clegg echoes here—not the 1870s lawyer-farmer with sticky fingers on client cash (Indiana Supreme Court roasted him in 1887 for pocketing a mortgage), but a modern ghost: Leviev, with his blood diamond whispers (that 2017 Dutch docuseries fingered African conflicts funding his empire) and Putin pipelines. Clegg opposed vigilante justice in Henryville; Leviev? Funds Chabad arms for West Bank settlements, rubs elbows with Netanyahu (Kushner's buddy). Coerced confessions in 1871? Try Veselnitskaya's backdated Russian letters to dodge U.S. scrutiny. Planted coat in a Black man's shack? Swap for "vaguely identified" overcoats tying innocents to the Park ax—here, it's vague ID on Prevezon's loot, waved by Marion Park's modern heirs in boardrooms.
TWO SEARCHES, ONE WHIFF OF SUSPICIONThe feds twice scoured Prevezon's shells pre-arrest: Zilch. Post-settlement? Assets flow free, $5.9 mil a slap. Footprints? Large, mysterious tracks from Prevezon's potato-patch proxies (Cyprus dirt) to the stream (Hudson laundries). Kirk's white strangers in '71? Scraggly suits in Trump Tower '16, footprints matching oligarch deals. The Grand Jury in Jeffersonville balked at indicting the Blacks; here, Mueller's team demurs on collusion. But the mob? It lynched anyway. Trump's base? They cheered the "deep state" drain.
In "Mob and Murder," the pamphlet skewered the Klan as Vigilance gone rogue. Today's sequel? A pamphlet might call it "Oligarch and Obstruction"—Leviev's diamonds glinting in Kushner windows, Veselnitskaya's lies echoing in Tower halls, Trump's DOJ turning a blind eye. Clegg the attorney-thief championed the lynched; Veselnitskaya, indicted for deceit, now "consults" on Russian theft cases in Kherson. Hero or hatchet man? Hesitancy creeps in.
MARY PARK'S LEGACY: SURVIVORS IN THE SHADOWSMary Park clawed to 88, her scars auctioned on photo cards for care—married a railroad widower whose first wife fell to a window intruder's bullet. Murder shadowed her like a curse. Veselnitskaya? Divorced twice, kids scattered, lawyering in Moscow's gray zones. Leviev? Still wheeling diamonds, daughter scooping a $1.42 million Trump Tower condo in 2022—from a Russian seller, natch. Trump's family? They thrive, Russian funding a "disproportionate cross-section" of assets, per Don Jr. The curse? It skips the powerful, sticks to the Parks.Poking Ancestry or Getty, Mary's grave in Walnut Ridge whispers endurance. But in this web, who survives the real ax? The inquiry shut down Kirk's threats in 1871; here, probes fizzle post-2017. Why the white men's footprints ignored? Why the settlement's hush? A larger conspiracy emerges—or is it just Manhattan's eternal fog? Your thoughts? Drop a line if you've got a Clegg in the family tree or a Pine Street key. This series rolls on—because some cold cases thaw in the light.
A SUSPICION SERIES UPDATE – 2025 EDITION
COLD CASE IN THE SHADOWS OF MANHATTAN: PREVEZON, PUTIN'S DIAMOND KING, AND THE TRUMP FAMILY'S RUSSIAN REAL ESTATE RIDDLE
In out last COLD CASE FILE we looked at a local murder which was followed by a lynchingPARK FAMILY MURDERS. Now we take a international 'cold case' ...the Prevezon money laundering case from 2013 NYC with international players. Take a look with us.
There are murky undercurrents of Trump-world financing—those post-bankruptcy lifelines from shadowy oligarch buyers and the faint whiff of laundered cash in luxury condos— peel back layers on Eric Trump's blunt 2014 confession: "We have all the funding we need out of Russia." Put a spotlight on Don Jr.'s 2008 aside about Russian oligarchs snapping up Trump assets like they were Black Sea bargains. Consider that infamous June 2016 Trump Tower sit-down, where a Russian lawyer with Kremlin strings dangled "dirt" on Hillary like forbidden fruit.
And now we've unearthed a fresh vein of overlap that ties it all tighter than a noose: Lev Leviev, the Israeli-Russian "King of Diamonds" with Putin's ear (he's been dubbed the oligarch's personal rabbi via Chabad Lubavitch networks), his Africa Israel Investments (AFI) empire, and one Natalya Veselnitskaya—the indicted Prevezon defender who crashed that Trump Tower party. It's not just adjacency; it's a constellation of deals, dinners, and dodged justice that begs the question: Coincidence in the canyons of New York real estate, or a blueprint for influence peddling? Let's map it out, fact by fact, and see where the shadows fall.Here's a snippet from a 2008 New York Times land deal archive—AFI's footprint in Manhattan, cheek-by-jowl with Trump-branded towers. You can trace Leviev's canal of cash from Tel Aviv to the Hudson, snaking through Cyprus shells and luxury flips. Zoom in on 20 Pine Street: That's the converted 1932 skyscraper where Prevezon's laundered loot landed, and where Jared Kushner parked his newlywed nest egg. The threads? They pull taut.
Early photo of 20 Pine Street, circa 2011—elegant facade hiding what the feds called a money-washing machine.
THE DEALS: LEVIEV'S TRUMP LIFELINE
Start with the brass tacks, because nothing says "business as usual" like a billionaire's handshake over Moscow high-rises. In 2007, as Trump's Atlantic City empire crumbled under its sixth bankruptcy filing, Lev Leviev's AFI inked a licensing deal for a 70-story Trump Tower knockoff in Ramat Gan, Israel—hundreds of millions on the line, Trump slapping his gold-leaf name on it for a cut. It tanked in '09 amid the crash, Trump griping publicly about Leviev's "funding issues." But the damage? Done.
A year later, May 2008, the two huddled in New York to brainstorm Russian projects—nothing stuck, but the photo op lingers like cigar smoke. Fast-forward to the Kushner lane: Jared snagged Unit 30C at Leviev's 20 Pine Street for $1.8 million in 2011—a distressed fire sale in the Financial District. He and Ivanka Trump honeymooned there, literally, post their 2009 vows. Cozy, right? Except those walls held more than newlywed bliss. Four floors down, Prevezon Holdings—Denis Katsyv's Cyprus shell, accused of rinsing $20 million from a $230 million Russian tax scam (the one Sergei Magnitsky blew the whistle on before dying in a Moscow cell)—snapped up units 1711, 1810, 2009, and 2011.
Feds froze 'em in 2013, calling it textbook laundering: fraud bucks flipped into Manhattan marble. Kushner's pad? Untouched, no red flags. But Leviev's AFI? It owned the building, developed the condos, and held a 30% stake in Prevezon's Cyprus real estate puppets. Small world? Or a revolving door? By 2015, Kushner Companies doubled down, grabbing 51% of the old New York Times building (620 Eighth Avenue) from AFI for $295 million. Partners in that flip? Later probed for Russian cash funnels. And Chabad? The glue. Leviev's its global sugar daddy; Trump hosted AFI exec weddings at Mar-a-Lago in '07, crashed a Leviev-hosted bris in '08. Ivanka's rocked Leviev diamonds on the red carpet. Jared? Deep in the Ohel prayers. It's not blood, but it's thicker than ink on a contract.
THE MEETING: VESSELNITSKAYA'S TRUMP TOWER CURTAIN CALL
Enter Natalya Veselnitskaya, the Moscow lawyer with a prosecutor's Rolodex and a flair for fibs. She's Prevezon's hired gun in the 2013 DOJ forfeiture suit—allegedly lying to a U.S. judge about Kremlin-sourced docs to shield Katsyv's loot. Indicted in 2019 for obstruction, she holes up in Russia, untouchable.
(Getty images)
But rewind to June 9, 2016: She's upstairs in Trump Tower, pitching Don Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort on "Russian government support" for Daddy's campaign. The bait? Clinton dirt, wrapped in a bow of adoption policy gripes (code for gutting Magnitsky sanctions, which hit her clients hard). No charges stuck from Mueller or Senate Intel, but the email chain? Gold: "Highly appreciated help." Veselnitskaya's firm, Kamerton? It lobbies for Russian interests, including in occupied Kherson as of July 2024—irony's a bitch when you're "consulting" on prosecutions for theft in stolen lands.
Link her to Leviev? Through Prevezon: Her defense kept the Cyprus-AFI stakes afloat, the same web snaring Kushner's buys. And Trump? His DOJ inherits the case in January 2017—Bharara's ousted in March—and settles it four months later for $5.9 million. Triple the traceable taint ($1.97 million), sure, but peanuts next to the $250 million+ exposure the feds demanded in '13. No admission of guilt, assets thawed, Veselnitskaya walks free in Moscow. House Dems probed for interference in '17—Conyers demanding files, tying it to the Tower meet. DOJ? "Merit-based," they swear. No White House whispers. But as you sift the redacted replies, the silence screams: Why the rush? Why the discount?
EVIDENCE: FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND(CASTLE)
Poke the archives, and the mismatches pile up like unpaid liens. Census '70s show Leviev's AFI circling NYC like a hawk—20 Pine as ground zero. DOJ filings (S.D.N.Y. 2013) nail Prevezon's units as fraud-flipped, but Kushner's? Clean as a whistle, per public records. Senate Finance '17 flags the NYT deal as a Russian entry ramp, yet no deeper digs. And the settlement? Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim (Bharara holdover) calls it a "win," but Magnitsky's widow crys foul: Capitulation to cover tracks? Matthew Clegg echoes here—not the 1870s lawyer-farmer with sticky fingers on client cash (Indiana Supreme Court roasted him in 1887 for pocketing a mortgage), but a modern ghost: Leviev, with his blood diamond whispers (that 2017 Dutch docuseries fingered African conflicts funding his empire) and Putin pipelines. Clegg opposed vigilante justice in Henryville; Leviev? Funds Chabad arms for West Bank settlements, rubs elbows with Netanyahu (Kushner's buddy). Coerced confessions in 1871? Try Veselnitskaya's backdated Russian letters to dodge U.S. scrutiny. Planted coat in a Black man's shack? Swap for "vaguely identified" overcoats tying innocents to the Park ax—here, it's vague ID on Prevezon's loot, waved by Marion Park's modern heirs in boardrooms.
TWO SEARCHES, ONE WHIFF OF SUSPICIONThe feds twice scoured Prevezon's shells pre-arrest: Zilch. Post-settlement? Assets flow free, $5.9 mil a slap. Footprints? Large, mysterious tracks from Prevezon's potato-patch proxies (Cyprus dirt) to the stream (Hudson laundries). Kirk's white strangers in '71? Scraggly suits in Trump Tower '16, footprints matching oligarch deals. The Grand Jury in Jeffersonville balked at indicting the Blacks; here, Mueller's team demurs on collusion. But the mob? It lynched anyway. Trump's base? They cheered the "deep state" drain.
In "Mob and Murder," the pamphlet skewered the Klan as Vigilance gone rogue. Today's sequel? A pamphlet might call it "Oligarch and Obstruction"—Leviev's diamonds glinting in Kushner windows, Veselnitskaya's lies echoing in Tower halls, Trump's DOJ turning a blind eye. Clegg the attorney-thief championed the lynched; Veselnitskaya, indicted for deceit, now "consults" on Russian theft cases in Kherson. Hero or hatchet man? Hesitancy creeps in.
MARY PARK'S LEGACY: SURVIVORS IN THE SHADOWSMary Park clawed to 88, her scars auctioned on photo cards for care—married a railroad widower whose first wife fell to a window intruder's bullet. Murder shadowed her like a curse. Veselnitskaya? Divorced twice, kids scattered, lawyering in Moscow's gray zones. Leviev? Still wheeling diamonds, daughter scooping a $1.42 million Trump Tower condo in 2022—from a Russian seller, natch. Trump's family? They thrive, Russian funding a "disproportionate cross-section" of assets, per Don Jr. The curse? It skips the powerful, sticks to the Parks.Poking Ancestry or Getty, Mary's grave in Walnut Ridge whispers endurance. But in this web, who survives the real ax? The inquiry shut down Kirk's threats in 1871; here, probes fizzle post-2017. Why the white men's footprints ignored? Why the settlement's hush? A larger conspiracy emerges—or is it just Manhattan's eternal fog? Your thoughts? Drop a line if you've got a Clegg in the family tree or a Pine Street key. This series rolls on—because some cold cases thaw in the light.
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