Adam Klasfeld of Law and Crime News reports that a federal judge on Monday partially advanced a lawsuit accusing Felix Sater of laundering millions stolen from Kazakhstan's BTA Bank through Trump Organization properties.
Donald Trump is not personally accused of wrongdoing by the plaintiffs.
Here's his story, and Klasfeld adds:
"The ruling itself does not mention Trump properties, but the lawsuit that it advances does. Those details have been added to the story. Attorneys for neither of the parties immediately responded to emails. I will add their comments if and when they respond."
"In this case, Kazakhstan's largest city and a Kazakhstani bank seek to recover millions of dollars in stolen funds from those who allegedly helped the culprits launder them," U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan summarized in a 25-page opinion dismissing only two counts of a six-count complaint. "Felix Sater—the alleged ringleader of the money-laundering operation—along with his associate Daniel Ridloff and several business entities they control, move to dismiss."
Like Sater, Ridloff was also formerly associated with the Trump Organization. The lawsuit stems from allegations of the systematic looting of Kazakhstan's largest city Almaty and its bank in 2009.
"The Court emphasizes that the Kazakh entities will need to adduce evidence showing the Sater defendants' deceptive conduct and their justifiable reliance on that conduct in significantly greater detail to meet their burdens of production and of proof as the case progresses," Nathan wrote. "However, at this stage, the Court concludes that it is not clear on the face of the complaint that their claims are untimely, and so declines to dismiss any claims on that basis."
(…) The ruling itself does not mention Trump or his properties, but the lawsuit that it advances accuses Sater of helping the Almaty mayor's son Ilyas Khrapunov launder stolen funds in at least five schemes throughout the United States, including through Trump Soho.
Read the full story here.
