A Ukrainian oligarch named Dmytro Firtash is fighting extradition to the U.S. He appeared to be link between Donald Trump’s TV attorney Rudy Giuliani digging up on Biden and a Ukrainian gas deal that Giuliani’s thugs Soviet-born Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were hatching.
Giuliani told NBC he had “nothing to do with Firtash,” and he ever spoke to Trump about oligarch. Still, Trump apparently knew the oligarch Firtash’s attorney Victoria Toensing was tied to Parnas. Giuliani said:
‘I’m not even sure the president is aware of him. I think if you asked the president, ‘Who is Dmytro Firtash?’ He would say ‘I don’t know.’ As far as I know, we’ve never discussed him.’
Toensing told NBC that the oligarch had never had business with Parnas and Fruman:
‘That’s a crock’
Former Trump attorney John Dowd, sent a letter October 3 to the House intelligence committee saying his new clients Parnas and Fruman:
‘assisted Mr. Giuliani in connection with his representation of President Trump [and they] have also been represented by Mr. Giuliani in connection with their personal and business affairs.’
Parnos and Fruman’s deal was to get sitting Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolev kicked out and replace him. All the new guy had to do was support the plan to sell American natural gas to Ukraine, which would be no small task. Plus the gas company executive would have to ensure Naftogaz paid Firtash “hundreds of millions of dollars” that he believed was owed to him.
The oligarch owned “upwards of 70 percent of Ukraine’s gas distribution network, and he still runs it from Vienna.”
At the same time, the oligarch was helping Parnas, Fruman, and Giuliani to hunt for dirt on Joe Biden’s family. Hunter Biden used to sit on the board of a Ukrainian utility company. As vice president, Biden fired Viktor Shokin, who ultimately provided an affidavit on the dirt.
Giuliani said on ABC’s The Week with George Stephanopoulos:
‘I have an affidavit here…that nobody bothered to read from the gentleman who was fired, Viktor Shokin, the so-called corrupt prosecutor the Biden people say that he wasn’t investigating Hunter Biden at the time. He says under oath that he was.’
There have been questions about where Giulian’s $500,000 money came from. The oligarch’s company allegedly paid him, but the former New York mayor said he could prove the money came from the U.S.:
‘Court records show Parnas left a trail of debts, including a $500,000 judgment against him involving a failed movie venture. In 2014, Parnas and his wife were evicted from a $15,000-per-month, six-bedroom house in Boca Raton, the Miami Herald reported, citing court records. Separately, his business, Fraud Guarantee, was ordered to pay more than $26,000 to its landlord.’
Management of Naftogaz was against leaving the company and said that:
‘[It] would quickly result in the reestablishment of corrupt schemes in the natural gas sector, redirecting funds out of the company, away from the state budget, and into the pockets of individuals like Dmytro Firtash.’
Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) asked the Justice Department why the oligarch Firtash, who lives in Vienna, had not been extradited from Austria to the U.S:
‘Firtash still controls intermediaries in the Ukrainian gas industry. Firtash accepts the gas and sells to end-users, but he refuses to pay Naftogaz and pockets the revenue. This scheme is estimated to have cost Ukraine $2 billion thus far.’
Kobolev has done much to clean up Ukrainian corruption and demanded the $200 million payments to Firtash be dropped. He has been a major thorn in Firtash’s side.
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
